One of my favourite books of recent years to help with creativity and moving through emotional blockages has been ‘The Artists way’ by Julia Cameron. First published back in 1992, many writers, painters and poets have found it an incredibly useful book to get them creating again. Nowadays I use some morning journal prompts but this is where it started for me.

I discovered the book a few years back when I had hit a wall with my writing. Whereas at one stage short stories were streaming out of me, when I had more ideas than I knew what to do with, suddenly they dried up. I kept trying to generate new ideas, but it was like pulling teeth. Everything was dull and uninspired and I’d get a few lines down before casting it aside. (I have never binned ideas. I have a folder on google drive full of these stillborn notions.)

So I was ready for this book - I’ve written about it more on my ‘best self discovery books’ list. Along with artists dates, where you take yourself off once a week to an exhibition, play, film, gig - anything that interests you, there are various exercises in the book to get you going again.

What to write in a morning journal?

Anything you want. That’s the beauty of it - let you mind run free, like the morning pages below, or use one of the prompts we’ve included at the bottom of the page. It’s all about bypassing the inner critic and just letting rip.

Morning Pages

But the one that resonated with me, and which I continually return to, are the morning pages. Every morning, whether I felt like or not, I’d get out of bed, reach for my writing pad, and fill three pages. There are no rules - just whatever comes into your head. I’ve often written about not being able to think of anything, or my pen starting to dry up.

I suppose you could do them on a laptop, but there’s something about the connection between a pen and my hand that triggers something in my subconscious. You can never be sure when it will happen, but eventually I find myself watching the words spill out, not having any control of them.

I don’t do morning pages everyday now, only when I feel I need them. I’ve a stack of notebooks filled with morning gibberish, enough for a small bonfire. I never look at them again, and some of them are barely legible. The idea is to write through whatever blockages you have, to clear the decks. There have been times when something has been bothering me but I haven’t know what it was until it appears in the morning pages.

Journal Prompts

I’m not as regimented now. When I do the morning pages, I’ll think of a prompt just to get things started. I think this way is just a little more structured. It helps to point you in a certain direction, but you can just let your pen and hand fly away, taking you wherever you want to go.

Not everyone likes looking at a blank page, pen in hand. It can be intimidating and maybe you’re in a place right now where nothing is coming forth. That’s ok, it happens.

So here’s a few morning journal prompts to get you going. These are just intended as a jumping off point, and some of them have helped me in the past. I hope you find them useful.

What are you grateful for this morning?

Who would you write a letter to that is no longer with us and what would you say?

What scares you most right now?

What recent dream do you remember most and does it tell you anything about yourself?

What was something you did recently that makes you proud?

Look out your window and write a story about the first person you see.

They’re making a movie of your life. Who would you like to play you and what would be the key scenes?

Write a letter to your ten year old self.

Write about your favourite teacher.

What animal would you like to be reincarnated as and why?

Describe your neighbourhood to someone who is blind.

Which period in history would you most like to live and why?

You’re having a dinner party, and can invite anyone alive or dead. Who are your five guests and why?

What do you think is mankind’s worst invention and why?

What is the one thing you would change about your life right now?

What’s the best dream you ever had?

Describe in detail your favourite family holiday.

What is your favourite season and why?

Describe your favourite pet.

If you were to get on a plane right now, where would you go and why?

If you could come back as a ghost, who are you going to haunt and why?

What are the qualities that make someone a best friend?

What’s one thing you are really good at?

You have the gift of invisibility for 24 hours. Where are you going to?

What makes you sad about the world right now?

What makes you optimistic for the future?

You have been granted one superpower. What is it?

You are going to be shipwrecked on an island for one month. What book/album/film are you bringing along?

What makes you laugh?

What makes you cry?

Write about something that you overcame and how it made your stronger.

The government announces that aliens are coming. What’s the first thing you do?

Would you like to live for ever, even if everyone you knew was going to die?

Which famous person, alive or dead, would you most like to be and why?

What are your hopes for this day?

So there you go, some morning journal prompts to get you going. I’ll add more as I think of them.