The Miracle of Morning Pages: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the Most Important Artist's Way Tool: A Special from Tarcher/Penguin

Oftentimes, the Censor is a recognizable person—a parent, for example. An unflattering picture helps to downsize the Censor’s power. The point is to stop buying what the Censor is selling. Learn to hear it not as truth, but as a blocking device. Morning Pages teach you to do this.

Many times, students come to me hoping to lose their fear. They believe “real artists” are fearless. Instead, I teach them to have their fears and act anyhow. “Real” artists are people who have learned to create despite their fears.

“What do I need to know?” “What do I need to try?” “What do I need to accept?” “What do I need to do?”

Remind yourself not to read your pages for the first eight weeks or so.

“I’ve come to believe there is a divine plan of goodness for my work,” Daniel says. Gifted as a writer, photographer, actor, and director, he no longer demands of himself that he choose one skill over another. Morning Pages have helped him to inhabit each skill by turn. “I listen for what wants to come next,” Daniel explains.

You may wish to pose many questions in your Morning Pages. A favorite of mine is, “What should I do next?”

“Enjoyment” may be the right word for the transformation that Morning Pages induce. No matter how dreary, sad, or angry we may be when we undertake pages, sooner or later we will realize that our pages contain many choice points. We see that we choose over and over how we will spend our day. Sooner or later, we will begin to make more satisfying ch

Because there is no wrong way to write Morning Pages, we learn to ignore the Censor’s negative judgments. We begin to learn to hear our Censor as a cartoon character who is habitually negative. We learn to hear our Censor’s comments and say, simply, “Thank you for sharing,” while we go right on writing.

“What do I need to know?” “What do I need to try?” “What do I need to accept?” “What do I need to do?”