Edit 21/08/19 – After 3 days of writing 1000 words of stream of consciousness, creative non-fiction or fiction, I’ve decided it was a huuuuge mistake. I have written 9 pages of negativity! argh The first story (pictured below) was about an elderly woman going to court. Finishing the story I would have fleshed it out to see her going to prison for murdering her abusive husband who she had thought was a god and could read her thoughts. The second piece was creative NF based on the thoughts of the social worker who allowed my foster sister to go back to her abusive mother. I am sure she was just doing her job. And the third, and I tried to keep it positive… the third began as a story about a reluctant mentor and devolved into a rant about writer’s groups on Facebook. le sigh…
Original Post –
Morning Pages – a device, a practice, a godsend. Named but perhaps not created by Julia Cameron back in the early 90s in her seminal workbook The Artist’s Way. It’s the habit of writing 3 pages, stream of consciousness, each morning before doing almost anything else. You can use the bathroom and make a cuppa. Then you pad over to the table, wearing your jim jams and slippers, trailed by a couple of cats… and write…
The practice calms the inner critic, it soothes the inner child, it cleans house before having treasured friends over, or just clears a space to sit at the very least.
I’ve been doing these pages now for over two years and I need the practice as much as I need yoga. It’s yoga for my mind.
Today I decided I needed to change things up a little. When I started writing them I would alternate between vitriolic word vomit and using prompts to keep the flow going. The word vomit was very therapeutic and the prompts were interesting. I haven’t read any of the growing number of journals but I will have to burn them soon in case I die and my family posthumously has me committed to a mental asylum. There’s some unsavoury shit in those journals.
“My mind is a neighborhood I try not to go into alone.”
― Anne Lamott
So, today I started writing stream of consciousness fiction. I am writing over 1000 words each day in those journals so I might as well use that time to do something other than waffle about my cats, my weight and what I’m going to do on my holidays. I may revisit the word vomit if in need of therapy but until then I’ll be able to get some more fiction done.
It doesn’t have to be good, just done.
Feature Photo by frank mckenna on Unsplash
Love the beach pic – can just imagine whoever taking phot lying down level with creeping tide – “vitriolic’ – nice! Vocab 😎. Yes i had to google – love these words i have not come across before – mind you i am sure now i have heard mum use that word towards some of the things i have said 😬.
Sent from my iPhone
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Hahaha yeah mums have a way of making us feel so warm and fuzzy 🤨