What are Morning Pages? How This Practice Can Improve Your Writing

An award-winning journalist and author on the mindset practice that helped her achieve success.

By Natasha Khullar Relph

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Achieving success as a writer extends beyond raw skill and sheer effort—it’s about mindset and perspective.

When you’re grinding away without belief and a positive attitude, you’re working at a fraction of your potential. Of course you need to do the work. That’s a given. But when you do it from an elevated mindset, your results are not only greater, but come faster.

One way to achieve this clarity and elevated mental state is with Morning Pages.

Morning Pages refer to a daily writing practice popularized by Julia Cameron, the author of The Artist’s Way. It involves three pages of longhand, stream-of-consciousness writing every morning, ideally as the first task of the day. Morning Pages serve as a tool for creative unblocking, self-discovery, and clearing mental clutter.

If you’re new to Morning Pages, here’s what you need to know to get started and make the most out of this exercise.

How to use Morning Pages

Morning Pages as a practice was introduced by Julia Cameron’s book, The Artist’s Way, which encompasses a structured daily writing practice aimed at fostering creativity and introspection.

What does it mean to do Morning Pages?

To do Morning Pages, simply open up a blank page in a journal each morning and start writing. The goal is to produce three pages of longhand, free-flowing, and unfiltered ramblings every single day. This writing is private and not intended for others to read.

The goal of these Morning Pages is to clear mental clutter, tap into creativity, and stimulate self-expression.

What should be included in Morning Pages?

Morning Pages are freewriting, which means they’re a space for anything that comes to mind—thoughts, worries, plans, dreams, or even mundane details of your life. They serve as a dumping ground for thoughts and emotions with no restrictions or judgements. There’s no need for coherence, spelling, or grammar—just a continuous flow of words.

What is the psychology behind Morning Pages?

The practice draws on principles of free association, allowing thoughts to surface and be released on to the page. It helps in breaking through creative blocks, quieting the inner critic, and fostering self-discovery by delving into subconscious thoughts and patterns.

If you’re having a hard time finishing your novel, for instance, the Morning Pages can help you explore your thoughts about your book or your process in an unfiltered way, allowing your creative self to come out and play without the pressure of producing.

It’s important to note that if this is your first time doing Morning Pages, you may feel some resistance. Old patterns of perfectionism and productivity may show up even here, but the longer you commit to this practice and the more you allow yourself to open up, the easier you’ll find it to be.

How long should Morning Pages be?

Cameron recommends that you write three whole pages in a notebook or a journal, regardless of word count. That said, this is meant to be a guide. If you have more to express, you certainly don’t need to hold back.

Is there a specific time of day that Morning Pages should be done?

As the name suggests, Morning Pages are meant to be done as the first activity of the day. Much like meditation or journaling, it’s preferable that you make this a part of your morning routine or do them with your first cup of coffee. This allows you to capture raw thoughts and sets a creative tone for the day.

However, if you’re not a morning person or prefer a different morning routine, you can certainly adapt the practice to suit your schedule. There is no wrong way to do Morning Pages.

Ultimately, Morning Pages serve as a tool for self-reflection, creative exploration, and mental decluttering, providing a space for you to connect with your thoughts and emotions without inhibition. How you get there is entirely up to you.

What is the difference between Morning Pages and journaling?

Morning Pages and journaling are both forms of writing practices that involve putting thoughts onto paper, but they differ in a few aspects:

• Focus: Morning Pages are, to put it simply, a brain dump. Every morning, you wake up and let your thoughts tumble out onto the page with no thought or consideration to what you’re writing or why. Journal entries, on the other hand, can include various types of writing, including reflecting on events, emotions, goals or specific prompts. To say it another way, Morning Pages are a specific form of journaling.

• Approach: Morning Pages emphasize uncensored, free-flowing writing, where the aim is to capture whatever comes to mind without analyzing or editing. Journaling often involves structured entries, specific prompts, or reflections on events and feelings, allowing for more targeted writing.

• Purpose: While Morning Pages primarily help clear mental clutter, journaling has a broader purpose, including documenting events and emotions, setting goals, personal reflection, or exploring specific topics in more depth.

What are the benefits of Morning Pages?

Incorporating Morning Pages into your daily routine offers a range of benefits that can positively impact creativity, mental clarity, and overall wellness. Here’s why Morning Pages work so well and are recommended by New York Times bestselling authors such as Elizabeth Gilbert and Tim Ferriss.

• Enhanced creativity: The uninhibited writing style of Morning Pages allows for unfiltered expression, sparking creativity that might otherwise remain dormant. The brainstorming that happens in Morning Pages is often unintentional, but fresh ideas and innovative thinking are a common byproduct of this practice.

• Clearer thinking: As any good self-help book will tell you, getting clarity on what you’re feeling and why you’re feeling it can be the first step towards healing and positive change. This daily practice serves as a mental decluttering tool, helping you to start your day with a clearer mind and better focus. Even if all you do in your pages one morning is write out a grocery list, you’re still clearing out space in your head, which can be valuable when done on a daily basis.

• Emotional release: These pages are not meant to be high art, and it’s important that you do not treat them as such, especially when diving into your emotions. This is a place to be truly honest with yourself about the thoughts that are taking up space in your brain. And when you do? The emotional release can not only reduce stress and anxiety, but actively foster a sense of relief and calm.

• Self-discovery: A regular practice of writing Morning Pages facilitates self-exploration and discovery. Oliver Burkeman, author of Four Thousand Weeks, says Morning Pages can be a form of meditation. “You know how it’s often easy to see what someone else needs to do about their problems?” he writes. “Externalizing your thoughts can trigger similar insights on your own behalf. And even when it doesn’t, the shift in perspective is liberating in itself. That’s why I think Morning Pages get to count not just as a form of self-therapy, but a form of meditation—a way of disidentifying from mental content, seeing your thoughts and emotions for the fleeting, insubstantial things they really are.”

• Increased productivity: Clearing mental clutter and enhancing focus through Morning Pages can lead to heightened productivity. With a clearer mind, you’ll often find it easier to tackle tasks and make decisions throughout your day.

How to make the most of your Morning Pages practice

I first started doing Morning Pages in 2005, days into reading The Artist’s Way. Over the next few years, I wrote almost every day, dumping the frustrations of the day into my journal and ending with ten affirmations, which included both things I wanted to believe about myself and goals I aspired to achieve.

Within three years, I had hit many of those goals, including writing for Time magazine and finding true love (my husband and I have been together for sixteen years).

While there is certainly something to the idea of staying connected to your goals and taking action, I know that a large part of why I was able to achieve what I wanted was because I was ridding myself of blocks and limiting beliefs daily. If there was something bothering me, or if I doubted my inability to perform, I wrote about it—sometimes endlessly—until I no longer felt that way.

I was, through my daily writing, changing my own ideas about who I am and what I felt capable of. I reinvented myself on the page, which allowed me to reinvent myself in life.

Over the years, I’ve noticed that when I’ve stopped journaling and connecting to my dreams, my progress has been haltingly slow. And each time I reconnect with my practice, I see actual, tangible changes in my life.

Here’s how I recommend approaching your Morning Pages to get the most out of them.

• Stay consistent: Establishing a new habit takes time, but it’s easier if you commit to making it a part of your morning routine. If you’re not used to writing daily, the first day will certainly be challenging. But write your pages today, then write more pages tomorrow, and if you stay consistent, one day you’ll look back and realize that it’s become an effortless part of your morning writing habit.

• Make it enjoyable: Make the experience enjoyable and comforting. Designate a cozy, peaceful space, and think of it as a form of self-care and mental well-being. Invest in quality supplies like a favorite pen and a dedicated journal to make the practice more inviting.

• Personalize your process: I don’t do my Morning Pages in the morning. I don’t do them in a paper journal (sometimes, I’ll be scribbling down thoughts on Evernote). One day, I’ll do them in silence, the next I might listen to music or podcasts on the side. And I’ll often write out a to-do list or plan the rest of the day before I finish. The point? I’m self-aware enough to know that I don’t respond well to rules and the more I can personalize the process, the more likely I am to stick with it. The point is not to do Morning Pages for the sake of doing them. The point is to get the benefit of growth. By adapting the process in a way that works for you, you’re more likely to stick with it and get better results.

• End with gratitude and affirmations: If I had to pinpoint the one aspect of Morning Pages that made the most difference for me, it’s that I end my journaling with a list of affirmations and aspects of my life that I’m grateful for. Lots of people pooh-pooh the idea of affirmations, but the key to affirmations that work is to write things you can believe in. Writing a list of things you can’t get behind and resist deeply is useless. Writing out your next steps and your next achievable goals helps you weed out the bottlenecks and find potential solutions for areas where you may be stuck in procrastination or fear. Plus, when you add gratitude to the mix, you’re putting yourself in a place of peace about where you are, and positive expectation for what comes next. Btw, gratitude doesn’t have to be about big things. You can be thankful for an audiobook you just discovered or how the visuals for the marketing of your book came out just right. Just in the past week, I’ve had two goals come to fruition using this process, both of which I’d been working toward for months.

• Forget the rules: Listen, while it’s good to aim for three pages, don’t beat yourself up if you go over and write three and a half one day or only two the next. Again, the more you can let the rants out of your head and on to the page the better, but this process is not meant to be prescriptive. The worst thing you can do is make this another chore. Let it be something you enjoy coming back to, not something you dread.

• Make them a part of your Artist Dates: This is one of my favorite things to do. Artist Dates are solo activities that nurture creativity and I love to pair going on Artist Dates with the writing of my Morning Pages. If I find myself at a writing conference or a bookstore or a particularly special cafe, I’ll whip up my notebook or laptop, and do my Morning Pages there. The change of scenery can have several practical benefits, too—I’ve often found this a great way to kick-start a writing project, especially if I’m stuck on a first page or paragraph and need to overcome my resistance.

Alternatives to Morning Pages

If you want the benefits of Morning Pages, but the idea of three pages a day doesn’t appeal to you, don’t fret! There are several alternatives to Morning Pages, each offering a unique approach to reflection and mindfulness. Whether it’s journaling at night, using guided writing prompts, engaging in meditative writing, or employing a structured bullet journaling system, these alternatives cater to different preferences and schedules.

• Night pages: This is my preferred method of journaling and if you, like me, are a night owl, you may find this method to be a better fit. Night pages involve reflecting on the day’s events, emotions, and thoughts before bedtime. It’s a way to unwind, process the day, and prepare for a restful night’s sleep.

• Guided journals: These journals offer structured writing prompts or themes for daily writing, providing direction and inspiration for anyone seeking a more focused approach to journaling.

• Meditative writing: Writing can be a form of meditation in itself. Practicing mindful, intentional writing, such as that described in Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones, with a focus on thoughts, sensations, or specific emotions, can bring a meditative quality to the process.

• Bullet journaling: This method combines planning, organization, and journaling by using bullet points, symbols, and short entries. It’s an adaptable system that allows you to track habits, set goals, and jot down thoughts or reflections in a concise and organized way.

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