: Re: Are "morning pages" useful? I've found an interesting private online journaling website: 750words.com From "About" section of the website: I've long been inspired by an idea I first learned

@Vandalay250

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Most definitely.

I actually read the Artist's Way a number of years ago, and wrote morning pages for a while until I got sidetracked by other things. My journal still sits on my coffee table wanting to get written in again.

The idea behind morning pages is more than just freewriting. When the author explains it, and what to do, it's:

First, yes, freewrite at least three pages of what's in your head, but more importantly, don't reread what you write for at least one year after you write it.

When we wake up in the morning, there's enough cruft in our heads (either from dreams, good or bad things that are happening in our lives) and we continue to dwell on that cruft throughout the day. Having that cruft prevents us from performing as well as we should, and as writer's prevents our creativity from being pure as it should. If we reread what we wrote, we simply reinforce the cruft. However, by writing our thoughts down and getting them out, we clear are heads to be able to do the things we really want it to do.

Personally, morning pages seemed more like early morning meditation than freewriting for an idea.

However, and she goes into this in the book as well ... If every morning yo clear your head so you don't have any cruft, you'll wake up one morning, and you'll realize that your mind just feels free, and then when you write, it'll be coming from your imagination.

The author goes on to give an example of a fiction writer who had had writer's block for months, and had been so caught up on personal issues she had been having that she couldn't focus enough on just being creative. After a few months of writing morning pages and removing that cruft, she realized that what she was writing was becoming a new character, and, essentially, a new story.

So, yes, I have definitely found morning pages to be beneficial to my creativity, but more importantly, my life in general.

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