Entrance (a.k.a. Guy Blakeslee) just released the great Promises EP and is gearing up for a full-length early next year via Thrill Jockey. In the meantime, he’ll be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Readers, you’re in for some really good stuff.
Blakeslee: For the past two years, I’ve been doing the Morning Pages, writing three pages (nearly) every morning as Julia Cameron recommends in her book The Artist’s Way as a tool for for all artists and creative people: a transformative technique of unblocking and opening up. I’ve found that this is a helpful practice in many ways. So many ideas that could become something great are squashed by the premature judgment of our “rational” minds. Letting thoughts and ideas flow uncensored may seem like an easy thing to do, but upon taking up the Morning Pages, I was immediately struck by the persistent inner voice of doubt and hesitation that cropped up over and over as my pen kept moving across the page. By keeping up this practice, I have experienced a creative rebirth, and discovered a lot of stories and phrases and imagery in my writing that may have gone to waste or been blocked by my inner critic. The liberating quality of this reframing has implications beyond the act of writing and art-making—it’s a way of reconnecting with the intuition, of reclaiming the purity your first thought from the savage attacks of doubtful insecurity. I highly recommend it!
“Morning Pages are three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing, done first thing in the morning. *There is no wrong way to do Morning Pages*–they are not high art. They are not even ‘writing.’ They are about anything and everything that crosses your mind—and they are for your eyes only. Morning Pages provoke, clarify, comfort, cajole, prioritize and synchronize the day at hand. Do not over-think Morning Pages: just put three pages of anything on the page … and then do three more pages tomorrow.” —Julia Cameron
