Night Pages
Writers come to me
To write more.
Or write better.
Or write more authentically.
But sometimes
Simply to write.
At all.
And that’s because
If you are a writer.
Writing can be painful.
But not as painful as not writing.
Plus at the end of writing
You have the writing.
At the end of not writing?
Guilt, pain, fear, dread.
And so many more of the hauntings.
Plus packages to return to Amazon.
One exception.
Not writing
Because you are in the midst of Big Life.
At the end of which you are replenished
Or done with an ordeal
And have a story to tell.
But besides that.
The persistent not-writing.
The not-writing that happens while you scroll.
I’ve noticed that this not-writing
Often has the soundtrack of the question.
What should I write?
On a loop.
I have many techniques
For divining the answer
But all of my help won’t help
If you keep avoiding writing.
The best way to know what to write
Is by writing more.
One way to write more is what I call Night Pages.
Sometimes people try to write more -
Especially when they don’t know what to write
Or the juices aren’t flowing -
By doing the practice known as morning pages.
The idea of morning pages
Is to write without regard to product.
Follow your thoughts.
Write them down.
And then throw this writing away.
Once, long ago, for a month or so
I tried this.
I am a big fan of stream of consciousness.
But this practice made me angry.
Frustrated.
Following my undirected thoughts
Left me feeling panicky.
And though I couldn’t articulate it then
I see now that it was the lack of boundaries.
Because it’s boundaries that create freedom.
Plus it felt wasteful.
Writing and throwing it away.
#upcycle #recyle #wastenotwantnot
The only way that works for me
Is if I’m spinning.
Upset about something
In that way that you literally can’t stop thinking about it.
He said you said why didn’t she etc.
Heartbreak, disappointment, mistakes.
In those cases picking up a pen and writing it out
Just following those troubled waters
Is super helpful.
Because you can’t write as fast as you can think.
So the writing slows the thinking down.
And once it’s externalized
Sometimes it is possible to let go of.
I know morning pages work for some people.
If that’s you - yay.
Anything that works.
But if that’s not you
May I suggest a practice
I call Night Pages.
Though they work at any end of day.
Afternoon, evening.
Whatever.
Night Pages.
Is a practice of noticing.
As a way of finding your voice.
Your subject.
Your story.
As a way of seeing your life.
It’s this simple.
At the end of the day
Write down some things you noticed.
Not just whatever comes to mind.
Something that stood out.
Was of interest.
Upset you.
You thought was hysterical.
Or beautiful.
Something that in your heart of hearts
You know you noticed because you are you.
If you aren’t sure start with something you noticed
That has some energy around it for you.
For example.
I have a lovely client.
He’s an actor and a writer.
He is an actor first.
And understands how to navigate making that happen.
He is also a writer.
But he needs to write more.
In order to find himself as a writer.
And this week in our group he told a story
About something that happened on set.
It was a good story.
When I suggested it was something he could write
He said the hadn't thought of that.
And he told another story.
Write that I said.
He hadn’t considered that one either.
But as a storyteller
He knew enough to want to tell us.
Those are the things to start with.
Things you want to tell
But there isn’t room for in normal conversation.
Night Pages mean
Every night you face the page
And have to write about something you noticed.
A thought you had.
A conversation overheard in line at Whole Foods.
An opinion about something you watched
A feeling that drifted through while you were gardening.
A new recipe you tried.
You start to see what you are interested in.
And what it sounds like.
And what tiny thing turns out to be big.
And what painful thing turns out to be funny.
You find out these things
By actually writing them.
Writing is like turning the fog of thinking
Into rain.
And if you do Night Pages persistently
You will go from having a writing practice
To having a writing project.
From having a writing project
To having a writing product.
And it will be authentically you.
Because two people can live through the same day
Side by side
And their Night Pages
Will be different.
One last thing.
Don’t think of it as a diary.
Or a journal.
Thing of it as doing studies.
Miniatures.
Sketches.
Experiments.
It’s not for keeping track of your life.
Though there is the benefit that you do.
It’s for finding your voice.
Developing your radar.
And for figuring out
What to do with it.
Night Pages mean you will be touching your writing daily.
And writing is the thing
That writers do
To become better writers.
To become the writers
That only they can be.
Try it and lmk how it goes for you.
And reach out it you’d like to hop into one pf my Infinite Creator programs.
Infinitely Yours,
Beth