Morning pages

This week I am embarking on an experiment with my writing.  I was inspired to try this after a post I read on the Procrastinating Writers blog, in which the author related her findings after two weeks of writing Morning Pages.  The idea behind this exercise is to get your thoughts, ideas, complaints, anything that has you stuck both in life and writing, down on paper and out of the way.  The concept is simple.  You get up in the morning, you grab a notebook and pen, and you write without picking up your pen until you have filled three pages.  Stream of consciousness writing would be another term for this. 

This is not just an exercise to do once in a while, every other day or just on week days.  This is literally an every single day process that you are supposed to go through, no ifs ands or buts.

It makes sense that I would be reading a blog called Procrastinating Writers because I told myself I would start writing my Morning Pages today.....but I didn't.  Truth be told I just plain forgot, which I realize doesn't necessarily serve as the greatest excuse.  But tomorrow morning I am completely committed to knocking out those three pages.  I am also hoping that this little experiment becomes an effortless morning ritual for me and not just a one time experiment.  But I do have my reservations. 

For some reason I have never been that good at stream of consciousness writing and I think it's because I am such a perfectionist.  I am always wanting to insert punctuation, or make complete sentences, or make things flow in an easy to read manner.  This of course interferes with the whole "write without stopping" rule, and then I have to refocus myself to start writing in a steady stream again.  The thing is, this type of writing should not be hard.  You can write anything, even if it's just the same word over and over again.  The main point is to keep writing.  I'm hoping that this exercise will help to unlock some creativity, give me some ideas for future blog posts, and yes, help me to get in the flow of writing without constantly stopping to reread, edit, or get distracted. 

Day 1 of Morning Pages officially kicks off tomorrow and I am very excited to see what lies ahead!