For many years now I’ve been a proponent of morning pages – three pages of pen and paper stream of consciousness writing done as soon as you step out of bed. In fact, as part of Julia Cameron’s recipe for re-discovering your creative self (The Artist’s Way) which I undertook about a decade ago, I’d go so far as to say that morning pages have been instrumental in my development not only as a writer but as an individual. But for some time now morning pages have been at the bottom of my priority list and in fact have rarely been done at all. Along with regular exercise, playing the piano, eating healthily and a myriad of other things I know I should be doing, morning pages have been put in the Scarlett O’Hara “I’ll think about it tomorrow” category.

Pondering my plans for the year – writing and other – over the holiday break got me thinking about them again. In fact over the last week I’ve actually managed a few mornings where I did scribble down my messy thoughts and I have to say it’s a great way to start the day. So last night I revisited Julia Cameron’s famous tome to remind myself of what these pages actually are and why we should be doing them.

• One of the main functions of the pages is to drain your brain, a kind of mental de-cluttering that allows you to start the day with new space for creative thought to develop. Cameron says of her own experience: They are the broom that clears my consciousness and readies it for the day’s inflow of fresh thought.

• As all writers know one of our biggest enemies is the internal critic, the voice in our head that tells us “this isn’t good enough, don’t bother wasting your time”. Morning pages are allowed to be rubbish. You don’t have to worry about the quality just the quantity. You can write anything you want as badly as you like.
• Since most of our time is spent using the logical side of our brains, which includes the Censor, morning pages allow free, associative thoughts to arise without judgement which in turn encourages our artistic minds to play.
• Morning pages are a form of meditation, a way of connecting with our inner consciousness.
• By writing our thoughts down on the page we can find answers – our wise inner self will provide the answers.
• Rising that little bit earlier each day and committing to writing three pages helps develop discipline – something I for one can certainly use a dose of.

In my own experience of morning pages – even though I’ve lapsed – I have to say that all of the above is true. When I do the pages the day starts better, I get more done, I feel calmer and can focus more on my writing. One thing I’ve struggled with (apart from dragging myself out of bed at the crack of dawn) is the seemingly pointless nature of the exercise. My rational brain wants to know how writing out pages of garbage, line after line of what often can only be described as whingeing, can help my writing or any other aspect of my life? But for some strange reason it helps with both so as an experiment I’m going to put morning pages to the test.

I recently read somewhere that it takes 56 days to cement a habit (I’ve also read 21 and 36 – take your pick), the same number of days that Julia Cameron says you should write your morning pages for without looking back over them. So starting tomorrow, I’m putting them – and me – to the test. I’ll be getting up half an hour earlier to scribble my three pages into my notebook and I’ll report in here from time to time to let you know how it’s going.

If anyone would like to join me here are the “rules” for the morning pages:

• three pages of long hand written continuously without stopping
• don’t judge, censor or edit
• do not re-read what you write at least for 8 weeks
• don’t allow anybody else to read you pages
• put anything on the page – thoughts, feeling , descriptions, questions - whatever wants to come out
• if you can’t think of anything to write, write I can’t think of anything to write over and over until the three pages are filled up or another thought comes out
• first thing in the morning is the best time to do the pages, when your mind is still in that half sleep-half waking state

So, are you up for the challenge?

Let me know if you’d like to join me and please post any comments about your own experience with morning pages.

(To find out more about Julia Cameron and The Artists’s Way go to http://juliacameronlive.com/)

The mother in me felt so proud of them, happy that they were fulfilling a dream so early in their lives – it was my eldest’s 19th birthday and this had been how she wanted to celebrate. That was after the other mother in me, the worrier, stopped clenching her fists and quivering inside, asking myself the gnawing  what-if’s: what if the horses are frightened and rear, what if one of them falls off and hurts themselves, what if, what if, what if?

Another part of me, whatever is left when the mother is removed, felt envious and jealous. I have a horse and I love to ride but generally in an enclosed, familiar arena where the chances of anything going wrong are minimised. Each time I saddle up the worry wart inside me asks what if? My horse Morocco is quiet and reliable, happy to plod like his owner and rarely gives me any cause for concern. And yet the concern lingers. Riding is something I have only taken up in adult life. It’s something I love and have overcome an enormous amount of fear in order to do. It’s a pastime where things can and do go wrong – there are plenty of horror stories out there about people being injured or even killed by horses and for some completely irrational reason it’s these stories that seem to have more influence over my thinking than the joy and freedom that come with riding.

It’s the same with writing, at least for me. Writing is something I love to do with a passion. It’s a way of escaping the world and diving into one of my own creation. A way of making sense of the world around me and where I belong in it. And yet it’s also something I often avoid. I come up with the usual excuses: I don’t have time right now; after the house is cleaned/ the kids are out/ the dog is walked ( and that doesn’t happen often either). You know the drill.

When I do put pen to paper I get that same zing I get when I have a great horse-ride. The pleasure of losing yourself in the moment, of truly letting go, of being free. Writing something that flows and transports you to that other place is, I imagine, like galloping along that beach. Both involve being completely present and both require letting go of fear.

When it all comes down to it the thing that stops me writing, whenever I do stop or avoid it,  is fear. Fear of not knowing what to say, fear of making a mistake, the fear of not being good enough. It’s an irrational reaction that I’m sure many writers experience and one many women have on a daily basis in diverse areas of their lives. Giving in to that fear means we miss the joy, the exhilaration that writing can give us, just as I’m missing out on the exhilaration of flying along the beach on my horse, of allowing myself to let go and be. Of living in the present without being afraid of what might – or might not – happen.

So high on my list of resolutions for 2012 is going to be letting go of fear. In writing, in riding and in as many areas of my life as I can manage.

What do you dream of doing that you’re too afraid to try? What fears will you let go of in 2012?

The first is The Writers’ Dozen. I’ve written about this amazing bunch of writers before http://wp.me/pVnoP-33. We started out six years ago as a group of thirteen wanna be writers with no idea about what it takes to write a book from beginning to end. Sharing the buzz of creating a story out of words on a page has kept us meeting fortnightly at the NSW Writers Centre. In that time we’ve seen each other through the joys of publication and the despair of rejection, learning all the while about the writing process and the publishing industry. We’ve self-published an anthology and raised enough money to build a library in Nepal. While our numbers may have dwindled and our busy lives have sometimes prevented us from meeting as often as we would have liked over the last twelve months, I know that I probably wouldn’t be writing today if it wasn’t for their support and encouragement. We’re all very different individuals writing in a range of styles and genres but the one thing we have in common is our love of writing. We have become more than writing buddies - we have become friends and that connection is one that will last a life time and one that I feel very blessed to have made.

The other group I feel grateful to have been a part of this year is the class I facilitated for the Write Your Book in 2011 course. Once again writing brought a very diverse group of people together all with a common aim – to complete a book by the end of this year. While life got in the way for some, six very determined ladies stuck it out until the end and managed to complete their first drafts – a couple of them even finished two books! Through discussion, workshopping and studying the craft these women realised a dream and now have a complete manuscript to revise and polish in 2012. The improvement in their work and the development in their confidence in critiquing each other’s work and their own was a pleasure to witness. I hope many more people get the opportunity to read their work in the years to come. Once again strong friendships were forged.

The Write Your Book in 2011 Graduates

For many of us publication is the holy grail we seek, myself included, but it’s important to stop along the way and recognise the other gifts that writing bestows on us: connection with ourselves and connection with others. By sharing our ideas and stories, our hopes and dreams, our fears and frustrations with our fellow writers we help each other learn and grow. That’s one of the most valuable things we can do in life. I’d like to say thank you to all my writing buddies, past and present and I look forward to nurturing new writing friendships in the years to come.

I’d love to hear about your writing friendships and how you nurture them.

 There were so many highlights over the five days it’s hard to know where to start. The friendly and supportive staff from QWC (thanks Aimee, Kate and Sara) organised a welcome dinner where the 9 participants were able to meet each other in a relaxed environment before the “real” stuff began. The meetings and workshops were held in the Writers’ Centre itself, a calm space in the beautiful Library where we could go to recover, research or write when the formalities of each day were over. The short walk from our accommodation to the Centre over the river and the Kurilpa bridge was a great start to each day, passing the blooming poinsettia trees while pondering what the day would bring. It was a great walk home too, either after the day’s sessions or our group dinners, when we had the opportunity to share our writing experiences, thoughts on the program and life in general.

Connecting with other writers is always so important and even though all of us were writing in different styles and came from a variety of backgrounds our common writing experience drew us together and allowed us to really gel over the weekend. Hearing excerpts from each other’s work helped us get a grip on everyone’s writing and allowed us to get a much better idea of the range of writing the program covers.

Left to Right Back Row: Nicole Cody, Pamela Cook, Nicola Alter, Carolyn Daniels. Front row: Ross Davies, Fiona Balint, Alethea Kinsela, Susan Johnson, Inga Simpson

Debriefing at The Three Monkeys

 Of course the one-on-one session with the publisher was both nail biting and exciting. Our manuscripts had been divided between the publishers – Vanessa Radnidge, Bernadette Foley and Jon Appleton – according to the genre they generally work in. It was a relief to discover that publishers aren’t the scary monsters we writers sometimes perceive them to be. They are very human and keenly interested in publishing quality manuscripts from emerging writers. Like us they have to work within the constraints of the publishing industry and are feeling the impact of shrinking fiction sales and bookshop closures. It was wonderful to actually find out what’s working in my manuscript and what’s not rather than receiving the standard rejection letter with zero information. We now all have the opportunity to work on our manuscripts guided by  feedback from an industry professional.

 There were a number of really useful sessions: Digital Publishing, by Simon Groth from if:Book (www.futureofthebook.org.au), a think take on the future of the book; Inside the Publishing Industry which included the role of the agent by Sophie Hamley from Cameron Cresswell Agency – another great demystifying session (thanks Sophie); Writing Workshops from Sci Fi writer Trent Jamieson (www.trentjamieson.com). Trent has had three books published by Hachette over the last year and had plenty of useful tips. The QWC staff filled in the gaps and were able to answer any questions we had about the industry, the writing life and where to go from here.

 Overall it was an immensely valuable experience, one which I would recommend to any writer aiming to improve their manuscript and who wants to find out more about how the publishing industry operates. It’s a time of enormous change in the industry but people still want good stories and still want to read great books so for me it’s back to the manuscript, pen in hand, for further revision.

For more information on the program go to:

Queensland Writers Centre http://www.qwc.asn.au/

Hachette Australia http://www.hachette.com.au/

First stop on my schedule was a visit to Kambala where I was doing a presentation for Room to Read, a fantastic not-for-profit organisation which I volunteer for and which I’ve mentioned in this blog before. I had been invited to the assembly to tell the primary students more about Room to Read (www.roomtoread.org) and why education is the key to ending the cycle of poverty. 5R were also on the agenda for the assembly and began their “show” with a presentation called Dare to Dream in which each girl stood and told the audience what she “dared” to be when she was older. Hearing the girls talk about being actors, architects, doctors, writers and a whole array of other wonderful occupations gave me goose-bumps. These 11 year olds are being taught – and rightly so – that they can do and be anything, an opportunity that was denied to women only a couple of generations ago, and is still impossible for many women around the world. How fortunate we are to live in a society where gender equality is openly promoted. Of course the glass ceiling still exists in many areas of the business world but for these young women the sky is the limit so kudos to the teachers who are encouraging such determination and optimism about the future. The girls have so far raised almost $1500 to help girls in Zambia have an education that will allow them to fulfil their own dreams.

Stella, a third grader in the Room to Read Program in Balmoral,Zambia

Second on my list was a performance I Am Jack by Monkey Baa Theatre at the Seymour Centre. This one man show explores the issue of bullying and how it can be overcome by enlisting the help of family and friends and with the support of the school. The play is an adaptation of the wonderful novel of the same name by Susanne Gervay (www.sgervay.com) who based the story on the experiences of her son. By daring to be honest and tell a story very close to her heart Susanne has provided a vehicle for kids to open up about their own experiences and find the courage to initiate change.

Bullying is an insidious behaviour that almost all of us have experienced at some stage of our lives – and not necessarily just in child hood. Monkey Baa’s production, having one actor play 11 different parts was an act of daring in itself and one that worked surprisingly well. It was a charity performance to benefit the Alannah and Madeleine Foundation  a national charity aimed at keeping children safe from the impact of violence. (http://www.amf.org.au/)

 At the end of the play a young girl by the name of Julia Weber addressed the audience. This teenager, herself a victim of bullying, has written a self-help book to help adolescents going through similar experiences. She spoke so eloquently and passionately that it was hard to believe she is only 14 years old. Julia has also organised a petition to have an anti-bullying clause included in UNICEF Rights of the Child document.

You can sign the petition by following this link:

 Stop the mistreatment of children caused by other children (bullying). – The Petition Site www.thepetitionsite.com

And find out more about Julia and her book at www.facebook.com/juliaweberily

So all in all, a very inspiring day.

Watching and listening to others who are doing courageous and daring things or speaking out against violence and injustice gives us the courage to be brave enough to follow our own dreams and to stand up for what we believe in. Seeing and reading the work of artists and writers who share their passions and give us a glimpse of an imagined world allows us to imagine a better world for ourselves, and as writers, it inspires us to create our own visions and share them with our readers.

What have you been inspired by this week?

 What dreams are you daring to pursue?

For the uninitiated Nanowrimo is short for National Novel Writing Month, a challenge to write a 50,000 word novel which takes place every November. In reality it is an international phenomenon founded by Chris Baty in San Francisco in 1999 that has since spread by word of mouth and through the internet. (You can read all about it in No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty, Chronicle Books, 2004)

I was first introduced to Nano a couple of years ago when a few of my writing buddies encouraged me to join them. At that point I’d spent 3 or 4 years on my first novel so the idea of churning one out in a month was both completely ridiculous and strangely inviting. I needed to do something different and I’d had an image in my head for a while of a woman standing in front of a locked gate outside the family farm where she grew up.

And that was all I started with, apart from a few rough notes I pencilled out the week before and a feeling that the task ahead of me was impossible. But it wasn’t and I have to say it’s one of the best writing experiences I’ve had and one I highly recommend.

Here’s why you should give it a try:

1. 50,000 words in a month is do-able. It breaks down to 1700 words a day, roughly 4 pages – one to one and a half hour’s writing.
2. It shows you that writing every day IS possible. Nano forces you to arrange your life around getting your pages written. Whether you do it first thing in the morning or stay at the computer every night until the words are done the writing becomes your priority and you see how easy it really is to make it a part of your daily routine.
3. Writing daily keeps you in the dream of your story. You live and breathe your novel for the month, not just while you’re tapping away at the computer but while you’re driving, showering, shopping, eating – the ideas bubble away 24/7. Consequently the writing flows and the voice is consistent.
4. Nano teaches you to block out your internal editor/censor, that voice that says “You can’t write that” or “Stop kidding yourself” or the myriad of other criticisms it spews out as you write. There’s no time to stop and rewrite, no time to correct mistakes. You just have to push on and worry about all that later. You learn to discipline yourself not to listen to the nagging.
5. Writing at a fast pace with no concrete plan allows you to tap into your subconscious where all those wonderful ideas are stored. You’ll be amazed at the ideas, descriptions and plot lines that appear. By asking yourself “What happens next?” every time you sit down to write you’ll be pushing your plot forward and opening up a whole range of possibilities you might not have thought of under “normal” writing conditions.

And to top it off, nano is fun! You can log into the website (www.nanowrimo.org) and keep track of your  progress, chat to other nanwrimo-ers, join up with friends for nano sessions or meet new people at your local writing centre, many of which run weekly nano sessions like the NSW Writers’ centre (www.nswwc.org.au).

At the end of the month you’ll have a brand new 50,000 word draft that could be your next novel. It certainly won’t be perfect – you might have given the same character three different names and repeated the same conversation five times but you will have something on the page to work with in the new year.

Of course it could also be a pile of garbage that you relegate to the bottom drawer never to be looked at again but even if it is you’ll know that you can write every day, that it is possible to come up with new ideas and that your internal editor can be ignored – at least temporarily.

I’d love to hear your nano stories or comments. Please share.

An official renaming ceremony was held in which girls with names like Nakusa or Nakushi (unwanted in Hindi) changed their names to things like Ashmita, meaning “very tough” or Savitri, a Hindu goddess.

The girls were originally named by family members like their grandfathers or parents who were disappointed at having a girl. The enormous expense of marrying off girls (which involves a dowry, often quite sizeable) means that culturally giving birth to a boy is a much better option. This has resulted in a high ratio of abortion of female foetuses and poor treatment of daughters in many cases, including higher death rates.

The girls who were renamed in Mumbai now have a new sense of identity and self-worth. Education is the key to preventing such discrimination. When I visited India last year with Room to Read (www.roomtoread.org) and saw the wonderful work being done there to educate girls – and boys – about gender equality, it gave me hope that the world can one day truly become a place where all people are given an equal chance to realise their potential.

Hopefully the renaming of the girls in Mumbai will be another step in breaking the cycle of poverty and discrimination still experienced by women in so many parts of the world.

For those of you who don’t know Naomi she is an inspirational businesswoman and founder of leading online gift retailer Red Ballon (www.redballoon.com.au). You can follow her on her blog at http://naomisimson.com/.

Maya Angelou is a “remarkable Renaissance woman who is hailed as one of the great voices of contemporary literature. As a poet, educator, historian, best-selling author, actress, playwright, civil-rights activist, producer and director, she continues to travel the world, spreading her legendary wisdom.” (www.mayaangelou.com)

I hope her words resonate with you as they did with me.

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE …
enough money within her control to move out
and rent a place of her own,
even if she never wants to or needs to…
something perfect to wear if the employer,
or date of her dreams wants to see her in an hour…

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ..
a youth she’s content to leave behind….
a past juicy enough that she’s looking forward to
retelling it in her old age….
a set of screwdrivers, a cordless drill, and a black lace bra…
one friend who always makes her laugh… and one who lets her cry…

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE …….
a good piece of furniture not previously owned by anyone else in her family…
eight matching plates, wine glasses with stems,
and a recipe for a meal,
that will make her guests feel honored…

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ..
a feeling of control over her destiny…..
how to fall in love without losing herself..

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…
how to quit a job,
break up with a lover,
and confront a friend without;
ruining the friendship….

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW….
when to try harder… and WHEN TO WALK AWAY…

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…
that she can’t change the length of her calves,
the width of her hips, or the nature of her parents..
that her childhood may not have been perfect…but it’s over…

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…
what she would and wouldn’t do for love or more…..
how to live alone… even if she doesn’t like it…

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW.. .
whom she can trust,
whom she can’t,
and why she shouldn’t take it personally…

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…
where to go…
be it to her best friend’s kitchen table..
or a charming Inn in the woods…
when her soul needs soothing…

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…
What she can and can’t accomplish in a day…
a month…and a year…

I especially love the lines about having ”control over her destiny…..” and “how to fall in love without losing herself…”. Both are central themes in my novels and issues that many women struggle with at various stages of their lives. In  our relationships with our partners and children finding the balance between achieving our own goals and being there for the people we love is often difficult.  How do you maintain a sense of self as a lover, a wife, a mother?

For me, being blessed with a partner who is supportive of my choices and eager for me to fulfil my dreams is a huge help. But so often (as Dr Phil says) we teach people how to treat us. If we don’t make our own needs and wants as much a priority as the needs and wants of our family members we will always come last. And what happens then? We feel unhappy, dissatasfied and resentful.

If we have the courage to assert ourselves, as Maya Angelou suggests in her poem, we will not only be happier and more contented ourselves, our families will be happier and our daughters will grow up knowing that women are powerful, wise, independent beings who have much to contribute to the world.

Would love to read your comments.

Even if you’re not there yet, visualising the ending of your book and actually writing it can give you a target to aim for and help you get across the finish line. In her chapter on sentences in Reading Like a Writer, Francine Prose discusses the use of rhythm and cadence to signal to a reader that the story is ending:

Again, it’s helpful to consider the parallels to music, the way that, at the end of a symphony, the tempo slows down and the chords become more sustained or dramatic, with overtones that reverberate and echo after the musicians have stopped playing. Try opening your favourite books and reading the endings aloud. Chances are you’ll find yourself reading more slowly and more softly, as the sentences themselves telegraph the arrival of a grand or muted finale.

Here are three of my favourite endings:

He woke lying on his side. Above the window blind was a line of daylight, the colour of smoke. He could feel her warmth against him and then she stirred and he felt her breath on the skin between his shoulderblades and then her lips moved against his
spine, and then she pressed them to him and she kissed. The world opened, the day began, he felt that he was alive again, forgiven. (Peter Temple, The Broken Shore)

At last the three companions turned away, and never looking back again they rode slowly homewards; and they spoke no word to one another until they came back to the Shire, but each had great comfort in his friends on the long grey road.

     At last they rode over the downs and took the East road, and then Merry and Pippin rode on to Buckland; and already they
were singing again as they went. But Sam turned to Bywater, and so came back up the Hill, as day was ending once more. And he went on, and there was yellow light, and fire within; and the evening meal was ready, and he was expected. And Rose drew him in, and set him in his chair, and put little Eleanor upon his lap.

     He drew a deep breath. “Well, I’m back,” he said.  (Tolkien, Lord of The Rings)

He put the telescope down with a hollow feeling. Too late, too late. Every day he sat here, watching, waiting, while dusk gathered in the valley, scanning the trees and silent rocks. Until it was fully dark he could not make himself put the glass
down and turn away.

     He could not say why he had to go on sitting here. Only he knew that the one thing that brought him a measure of
peace was to peer through the telescope. Even after the cliffs had reached the moment at sunset where they blazed gold, even after the dusk left them glowing secretively with an after light that seemed to come from inside the rocks themselves: even then he sat on, watching, into the dark. (Kate Grenville, The Secret River)

In The Writer’s Journey, Christopher Vogeler suggests that a story should end in one of four ways – a full stop, an exclamation mark, a question mark or an ellipsis. He goes on to say … a good story, like a good journey, leaves us with an Elixir that changes us, makes us more aware, more alive, more human, more whole, more a part of everything that is.

An ending with a strong image is one that will stay with the reader forever.

What’s your favourite story ending?

* Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks. It’s been around for a while now but I finally got around to reading it. Loved all her previous books (The Year of Wonders, March and People of the Book. This one is just as good if not better. Meticulously researched, well drawn characters and divine language. Highly recommended.

* The Help, movie version. I laughed, I cried. And cried some more. Brilliant characters and a wonderful story of the racial divide in 1960′s Jacksonville. A must see for ages teen to adult. I went straight out and bought the book by Kathryn Stockett so I can enjoy it all over again.

* My wonderful Write Your Book class who have developed a camaraderie that I am proud to be a part of. Proof that when like-minded people connect magical things can happen.

* My Writers’ Dozen writing buddies who are always there to support the lows and highs of my writing. Having had a true high today it was wonderful to be able to share it with them. We’ve been going stong for six-plus years now and I look forward to sharing the rest of our writing journey together.

*** What has inspired you this week?