Every morning at 9am, I get this in my inbox:
It's from a site I recently started using, called 750Words. 750words is a wonderful place where you can write daily, and is based on Julie Cameron's suggestion in the Artist's Way of writing three Morning Pages every day to recover and rediscover your inner creative person. Cameron suggests writing three pages of longhand every morning, sort of as a "brain dump" or a way to develop or uncover the ideas that you have hiding deep in there; she suggests the writing practice be a daily one, about anything, and for any type of creativity. Like to paint? Write every morning. Like to play guitar? Write every morning. Like to write stories? You guessed it, write every morning. Cameron maintains that this practice, along with something she calls "artist dates," will free anyone from a variety of creativity blocks, including "limiting beliefs, fear, self-sabotage, jealousy, guilt, addictions, and other inhibiting forces," and will replace them with artistic confidence and productivity. I have read references to the Artist's Way and these morning pages in several books I have read about finishing the thesis, establishing a good writing schedule for scientific publication, removing writing blocks, and creative writing in general. I've tried incorporating it into my schedule before, but it always slips away. I think the reason is that I have usually tried writing for 15 minutes straight. When I do 3 pages instead of 15 minutes, I can see my progress and I am more likely to return to the habit the next day.
750words.com was created to provide a place for people who like to do the morning pages (or whatever-time pages) on a computer rather than longhand, assuming that 750 words is equivalent to 3 handwritten pages. One of the neatest things about this site is the constant encouragement and motivation to write daily. Every morning I get the "nudge" email that I should write 750 words today. Since I am a freak about having my inbox stay at 0 unread messages (it feels like unfinished work), and I won't let myself delete the Daily Nudge until I've written, I have been pretty good about keeping up a daily writing routine. In addition, the site records your streaks (consecutive days writing) and awards colorful (and ADORABLE) badges when you've reached a certain milestone. Everyone starts with an egg badge:
and works their way up from there. There is a series of bird badges awarded for streaks of increasing length (a turkey for 3 days in a row), and other animals are awarded for certain behaviors. (For instance, a cheetah is awarded if you write 750 words in under 20 minutes for 10 days straight.) Additionally, there are monthly challenges, where you can pledge to write daily for every day in the month. If you succeed, your name is posted on a Hall of Fame; if you don't, your name is posted on the Wall of Shame.
Another fun feature of the site is the way it keeps track of statistics, like how long it took you to reach 750 words that day, what your wpm was, and how many times you were distracted (for 3+ minutes). And the author of the site, "Buster Benson," has also set up a way explore your subconscious with what you are spewing onto the blank page: the site tracks what tense you use the most; whether you talk more about I, Us, or Them; which sense you rely on most to describe/experience things; it characterizes your state of mind based on what you've written (certain/uncertain, extroverted/introverted, positive/negative, thinking/feeling); even the weather that day, in case you'd like to explore the weather's effect on your quality or quantity of writing. Buster says to take all of these characterizations with a grain of salt, and that's a good idea, but I've found that most of the time things are right on the mark.
750words.com was created to provide a place for people who like to do the morning pages (or whatever-time pages) on a computer rather than longhand, assuming that 750 words is equivalent to 3 handwritten pages. One of the neatest things about this site is the constant encouragement and motivation to write daily. Every morning I get the "nudge" email that I should write 750 words today. Since I am a freak about having my inbox stay at 0 unread messages (it feels like unfinished work), and I won't let myself delete the Daily Nudge until I've written, I have been pretty good about keeping up a daily writing routine. In addition, the site records your streaks (consecutive days writing) and awards colorful (and ADORABLE) badges when you've reached a certain milestone. Everyone starts with an egg badge:
Another fun feature of the site is the way it keeps track of statistics, like how long it took you to reach 750 words that day, what your wpm was, and how many times you were distracted (for 3+ minutes). And the author of the site, "Buster Benson," has also set up a way explore your subconscious with what you are spewing onto the blank page: the site tracks what tense you use the most; whether you talk more about I, Us, or Them; which sense you rely on most to describe/experience things; it characterizes your state of mind based on what you've written (certain/uncertain, extroverted/introverted, positive/negative, thinking/feeling); even the weather that day, in case you'd like to explore the weather's effect on your quality or quantity of writing. Buster says to take all of these characterizations with a grain of salt, and that's a good idea, but I've found that most of the time things are right on the mark.
Bottom line: writing on 750words is SO FUN. And it really helps me maintain a DAILY writing practice, because as silly as this probably sounds, I want to get those damned badges.
Of course, Artist's Way morning pages is supposed to be longhand, and for a reason. I can type pretty quickly when I have something to get out, and can pretty much put what I'm thinking on the page directly.Handwriting is much, much slower. And I think this is part of the plan for morning pages as recommended by Cameron. I've got to remember to get the actual reference, but a book I read last year about writer's block suggested that longhand is better for boring your inner critic, makes it harder to self-edit, and also gives your mind time to come up with and better develop interesting ideas while your hand slowly tried to keep pace with your brain. Slowly handwritten pages, for me, have more in-depth thoughts than quickly typed pages, which tend to be full of rambling excesses. So I also do 3 morning pages every day at work (so 5 days a week).
All this means that I write the equivalent of six handwritten pages a day on weekdays, and three a day on weekends. Sometimes everything I write is about work. Sometimes something really interesting pops up, jumps out of my brain onto a page. And sometimes I just ramble and try to dump out as much stuff as I can so I can start my day with a head that feels at least slightly less cluttered.
I recommend the practice to anyone. If you're interested in some of the learning materials provided by Julia Cameron, see her Artist's Way website:
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| http://www.theartistsway.com/ |
Have fun!
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