Remember Morning Pages?

In The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron advises budding artists, writers and anyone who wants to be more creative to write three pages, by hand, every morning. She spends at leasts a chapter explaining all the reasons for this, but I think it’s pretty obvious: getting your hand moving with your mind is good exercise for both. And it doesn’t take long before things start happening. Good things.

So I’m going to try morning pages yet again, because my brain needs the exercise. I’m losing it, folks — my brain, that is. Memory, thought processes, alertness — it’s all fading from view, and I don’t like it one bit. Use it or lose it. I choose to use it.

I want to start writing articles and see if I can work up to getting published again. Not that I got very far with it before but I did manage to get into Family Circle that one time, so anything is possible, right? It would be nice to make a few extra bucks, but more important is the subject I want to write about: urban homesteading, Victory gardens, sustainability — whatever you want to call it, there is a movement that is gaining momentum, and it’s thrilling to watch. I want to help spread the word.

But I’m seriously rusty in the writing dept. [not to mention everything else], so it’s practice, practice, practice! And what better way to get back in the habit of daily writing than MP’s and blogging? So, I herefore and henceforth [or is it therewith?] vow to write every morning, first thing, three pages of something. Doesn’t matter what, or how well I write, just that I write. It will get better over time. No more silently bitching about mentally editing the words of others [God, what an irritating compulsion!] — and no editing my own words, for that matter.

Like Cameron says, “Just write. Don’t stop.”