More than one student has tacked up an unflattering picture of the parent responsible for the Censor’s installation in his or her psyche and called that his or her Censor. The point is to stop taking the Censor as the voice of reason and learn to hear it for the blocking device that it is. Morning pages will help you to do this. Morning pages are nonnegotiable. Never skip or skimp on morning pages. Your mood doesn’t matter. The rotten thing your Censor says doesn’t matter. We have this idea that we need to be in the mood to write. We don’t. Morning pages will teach you that your mood doesn’t really matter.

 

Some of the best creative work gets done on the days when you feel that everything you’re doing is just plain junk. The morning pages will teach you to stop judging and just let yourself write. So what if you’re tired, crabby, distracted, stressed? Your artist is a child and it needs to be fed. Morning pages feed your artist child. So write your morning pages. Three pages of whatever crosses your mind-that’s all there is to it. If you can’t think of anything to write, then write, “I can’t think of anything to write. . . .” Do this until you have filled three pages. Do anything until you have filled three pages.

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