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A Little Bit More About My Writing Program

I just can't put a filter on this beauty (Stanley Park, Vancouver)

I wrote a little bit about my own creative writing program the other day, and today I want to flush it out a little bit more; tell you what the discipline looks like on an average day.
I'm generally at my best in the morning, and I like to have at least an hour and a half or two hours to myself before the kids are awake and my free time is gone. If you're a night owl, this type of practice would look very different for you, since you'd want to stay up at all hours after everyone's in bed. I don't get you, but I get you, get me?

Stefan wakes up about 6AM (I might be an early bird, but before 6AM is just obscene) and I generally open my eyes around 6:15-6:20. I begin my day by reading a bit of the bible, doing part of a bible study if I'm involved in one of those at the time, and then I finish up a chapter or an article if I fell asleep in the middle of one the night before. I then take whatever writing book I'm going through at the time, and read a chapter. If the chapter is longer than just a few pages, as is such the book I'm going through right now, The Artist's Way, then I read the chapter at some point in the week. Reading through a short chapter per weekday, is my preference though, since it gives a bit of an encouraging boost before I get to doing the work.

After my little bit of reading, I start my morning pages. Julia Cameron, the writer of The Artist's Way, and creator of the morning pages, tells us to just write, freehand, for 3 pages and don't stop until you're done. She goes on so much about morning pages in her books because it is a tool that has worked for so many people, and she doesn't just recover writing for writers, she recovers creativity for people. Writing these pages helps us deal with writer's (or idea) block, gets us started where we're at, and keeps us going with practice.

I generally do one of two things with my morning pages, either I write randomly; the three pages not quite fluid, more of a brain dump, or I'll spend the entire three pages doing a section of a book I'm working on. Either way, I've spent a bit of time moving forward, whether it looks successful or valuable to anyone else, I'm moving in the right direction with the practice of doing.

After that hour of reading, writing, and study is over (maybe more, maybe less), then I grab the laptop and head into our bonus room, which doubles as my workout room nearly every morning. I get a good 40 minutes of exercise in along with my trusty spotify stations, and that helps clear my head, pick up my mood, and gets me in the mindset to conquer the day with vigor as opposed to sleepiness and irritability. Sure, it's not writing, but it's self-care, and it's clear-headedness and next to getting a solid night's sleep, it's just as necessary for health. That's how I like to start my morning.

Are you an early-bird or a night owl and what do you spend hours researching, doing, or thinking about? It might be time to start paying attention to that...

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