I SLEEP in my early morning hours, thank you very much. I am not a morning person at all, which makes morning pages an even more ridiculous idea for me. I’m only good for coffee, breakfast and some reading material for at least an hour after I get up.

I do sometimes find that some cathartic blather helps me get going–but only if something specific is bugging and distracting me. Just doing it for its own sake isn’t always going to work for me and if I have to force myself, I just feel resentful about the thing I love doing, which is horrible.

Writing books…I enjoyed Bird by Bird, but haven’t re-read it. That’s true of most writing advice books I’ve read–one read and that’s it. The ones I really like are WHAT IT IS by Lynda Barry, ART & FEAR by David Bayles & Ted Orland (not really a writing book but I can’t be without it!), and WRITING DOWN THE BONES by Natalie Goldberg. Something I like about all of these is that they come in shorter segments, so you can just turn to a portion at a time in no particular order.

I do love writing in the morning though–which I try to do 5x a week. But that doesn’t always happen. All too often writing happens when it happens (though I need to put more of a priority on it to get my thesis done!).

My challenge is where to write. I don’t want to write in a coffee-shop or a library. I write best in my own home with no one interrupting me. Feel free to snort.

And yes, the proof is in the doing. You are writing. You are doing what works. I find it refreshing that the published writers in your group are not kvelling to the morning pages. (Morning pages were helpful for me at a particular time in my younger life, but I don’t think they helped with writing specifically– more with general bravery.)

One of my high school English teachers had us do 10 minutes of free writing at the beginning of every class. I loved it–just let it all pour out. No crafting of sentences, no thesis development, just a torrent. This was pre-computers and it was impossible to keep up with thoughts via ink/pen. The class got hooked on this ritual of writing.

I just celebrated my one year of faithfully doing the artist pages. (my blog entry on the outing to La Cote was the day). I am not a writer–so don’t know if these would be useful in conjunction with crafting a story line, but I find that this routine has been a healthy shift in my days.

I can’t make myself do morning pages, though I have a writer friend who does them almost religiously. My agent has recommended Bird by Bird and I plan to read it, but as a general rule I don’t read writing books and I’m not sure why. I suppose I just prefer to muddle through on my own. If I read writing books, I’d probably be way ahead of the game by now…

My ideal way to spend early morning hours is weeding and blogging…it is a nice straight shot from the weeds to the computer, so I can think about what I might want to say and then go say it. But, especially now that school has started and the dark of the morning is closing in, this seems to be happening less frequently.

But all my days begin with a sullen cup of coffee, sitting on the back step and morosly contemplating weeds, chickens, the indisputable remenents of skunk visitations, the paint peeling of the barn, and the odd sock that escaped from the clothes line (all those little touches that make a house a hovel). I do, howver, get to excercise my imagination quite a bit, as I day dream about what it will all look like “next summer” when time and money will both be magically vouchsafed to us….

I am not totally opposed to this idea of free writing every morning, I just don’t think it’d work for me in the intended way, ie unlock my creative thinking. The more likely outcome may be a lot of teeth-gritting teeth and bootstraps-pulling.

On the other hand, the relief of having done something like that may be a nice pat on the back, whether or not it actually fulfills its intended purpose.

Unwanted writing books: I donate to the library.
Just call me angel in the morning: I know that song. It was in one of those disaster movies so popular in the seventies. This one took place on a cruise ship, I believe.
Early morning rituals: be awake enough to get breakfast for my children and get them off to school.

The summer has been endless to me in some ways, flown by in others. Either way, I’m excited for fall, my favorite season.

You sound like a high school senior:>) All last school year, the seniors would talk about their last Homecoming game, last final exam, last field trip to wherever, last orchestra concert. Definitely gives everything a bit of melancholy, but also makes you appreciate it even more.