750 Words

A long time ago, when I was still in theatre school, my voice teacher had us purchase a book called The Artist's Way. As a class, we did the first 9 or so chapters together, but then, when we went into production, we were expected to finish the program on our own.

None of us did.

And yet, if it weren't for the Artist's Way, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have got this whole circus party started. One of the tools it mentions is synchronicity, the experience of two or more events that are causally unrelated occurring together in a meaningful way. It was through a series of seemingly unrelated events that I finally realized I was so angry in life because I wasn't living the life I wanted, and that the life I wanted was that of a circus artist.

And while that is a very interesting component of The Artist's Way, and also a fun snippet of my life story, I'm actually letting myself get side tracked. What I'd really like to talk about are Morning Pages.

Morning Pages would have to be the most powerful tool in the Artist's Way toolbox. Morning Pages consist of three pages, written by hand, first thing in the morning. No coffee, no tea, morning pages. There's no structure and no required elements. Just three pages of whatever comes into your head. They're not supposed to be edited or censored in any way. The idea is that if you can clear your mind at the very start of your day, you will be free of the clutter and baggage associated with it. Moreover, it leaves place for questions. Questions that often get answered over the course of writing out the pages.

I remember finding Morning Pages useful and beneficial. But I also like to sleep. And getting up a half an hour earlier to write something I'm never going to read again (that's part of the process, no revisiting what you wrote)... well... I just couldn't do it. Especially while working 17 hour days in the summer. Plus, the amount of paper I would go through just killed me. So I let Morning Pages slip into my past.

And then, I stumbled upon 750 Words. Basically, this guy Buster took the idea of Morning Pages and put it online. The site counts the words as you type (apparently three written pages is equal to 750 words), and while it is online, it's not a blog. It's not meant to be social, it really is just a dialogue between you and yourself.

Maybe I've just been making excuses to avoid this thing that I know is beneficial to me. Maybe, with all the work I've been doing on myself lately, stumbling upon the online version of Morning Pages is a little bit of synchronicity nudging my shoulder. Whatever the case, Morning Pages have found their way back into my life, and I hope they find their way into yours.