So part of the point of doing The Artist's Way is to create new habits. The morning pages are a way to get you writing every day, particularly in that early morning time period when you can easily tap into your subconscious and put it to work for you.
People widely believe that it takes 21 days to establish a new habit, however, that turns out to have been a misquote. Plus new scientific research shows it actually takes 66 days. That shouldn't discourage us! In just over 2 months, we can have new habits.
And writing should be a habit for writers. It's falling out of the habit that makes it so hard to climb back onto the wagon and do it.
My good buddy, writer Holly Jacobs, has been ever faithful to her habit of writing daily, all while raising kids, now helping raise grandchildren. Through sickness and health, in good times and and times, Holly would be writing. Which might explain why she's written and published a gazillion books (okay, that's a slight exaggeration, but only slightly) in the 16 years I've known her now. I've heard Nora Roberts speak, and it's the same thing for her. She's highly disciplined in her approach to writing.
So I'm looking at these morning pages as a way to jumpstart my discipline, to rebuild my own "write every morning" habit. The beauty of the morning pages is there's no pressure. It's not a story. I don't have to have a plot, or well-developed characters. So it's an easy way to get back on the horse and ride.
The early morning time always worked well for me. I could mull on the story while I slept, and then stumble from bed to the keyboard and put down what I'd been seeing and hearing. I've actually even reset my home right now to make this even easier. My computer is now literally one step from my bed. I'm going to try everything to get this process rolling again.
