shortly after waking, the mini-mollohans began abandoning one by one. i decided to follow suit and write my first post on swim. i am excited to be (finally) joining swim. i've thrown the idea around several times but thought, 'what do i have to say,' and 'i'm not a writer.'
i'm learning to swim (picture seeing me in bright colored arm floaties, like we used to have when we were kids) for several reasons.
first, i want to focus on the written word - my written word. i used to journal and then not so much. i am trying to remedy that and journal more. i also want to be more consistent with my morning pages. (question regarding morning pages below)
second, i am more than thrilled to be working in-cahoots with you lovely ladies. you all inspire me everyday. it was you that inspired me swim along. i just wish that i would have joined sooner but things have to happen when we are ready. just like when i started my own blog, it was reading all of your blogs that inspired me to do so. and i've had such a great time with it (even though i realize i have no specific niche but i'm ok with that).
and third, i want a little more creativity in my everyday.
now for my question. i was trying to get a better idea of how you all feel about journaling vs morning pages. do you do them both? are they a separate entity for you? what i mean is, when i do my morning pages it feels like i'm journaling. then when i go to journal, i feel like i'm rehashing what i said earlier in my morning pages. i'd love your advice, suggestions and/or input on this issue. thanks in advance!week 1 goals:
- try to do morning pages every morning (regardless of whether or not i reach 3 pages)
- blog at least 3 times on gussying up the tuttle and at least once on my morgantown musings
- implement a reward system like you ladies have set up
- make my weekly check ins on saturday (or at the very latest sunday)
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Welcome 2 SWIM, Melita!! As for morning pages, I do mine in my journal. Actually these days i don't really do morning pages, per se, BUT when i used to do them religiously, i always did them in my journal. :)
ReplyDeleteANd 3 pages? Is HARD sometimes!! Esp when you're limited on time in the morning.
Three cheers for Melita! I'm so glad you've decided to come swimming with us. I've had GUTT in the special SWIM folder in my feed reader ever since we started SWIM - it just felt like you were part of the group! And now you are! Whatever your writing goals are, we're here for you :-)
ReplyDeleteAs for morning pages, I've started to use them instead of journaling. Between MPs and blogging, that writing takes up a lot of time. But the great thing about MPs is that they are anything you want them to be, from journal entry to brainstorm to stream-of-consciousness verbal doodling.
Three pages is a lot, but Cameron says - and I absolutely agree - that the good stuff only starts happening after at least a page, and more like a page and a half. The second half of my three morning pages is where most of the good stuff happens.
I think the most important part is not to feel like you're rehashing yourself or wasting your own time by doing things twice. If you want to journal and MP because they do good things for you, go for it! If you want to do one or the other, go for it! The choice is entirely up to you.
thank you ladies. i really appreciate your input. i am happy to be a swimmer :)
ReplyDeleteyay! welcome Melita!! So glad you're joining us. :) Like Kiki said, I've always felt you were right here with us, especially since you were one of the first followers of the blog.
ReplyDeleteI like the way we're each using swim in our own way--there's a nice mix of blogging, freelance, novel/story, academic, goals, which is both fun and helpful to see everyone coming from different places to engage in creative writing.
As for your question about morning pages, I think I tend to use them when I'm transitioning. I wrote them pretty consistently in the middle of grad school when I was trying to process my dissertation and the future and then once I graduated and started teaching, I didn't do them as much but journaled when I wanted/needed to instead. And earlier this summer I went back to them as I needed to grow/transition again and ended up typing them some days and writing them in my journal others.
I think if you're in a place where you need to process something or figure out the next step you want to take, just letting go and doing morning pages can be really helpful; you get to see what sorts of thoughts rise up from deep within your subconscious.
But as with any kind of practice (yoga, writing, cooking, etc), I think it's cool to adapt various approaches to fit your own unique life/personality.
Good luck with your goals this week. I'm looking forward to more posts from the tuttle ;)
I am so glad you are now a SWIMmer :)
ReplyDeleteI echo the other ladies in terms of MPs versus journaling - it depends on the phase in your life. For a while I had MPs in a separate notebook which stayed home, and would carry another notebook with me all day where I journaled. At another point I did MPs in my journal. And when I was creating the concept of my current blog, I used MPs as a way to brainstorm niche ideas. So it all depends :)
yay! welcome to swim:) i'm so glad you're here!
ReplyDeletemy MPs mostly feel like journaling, though i've tried to devote half of the pages to creative type writing exercises--descriptive paragraphs, character development, etc. I totally agree with Kiki that the good stuff often happens after page 1.5 (after I've noted the weather, my general mood, my last exciting emotional revelation, etc.), but some days I can only sustain that much, and that's okay with me *some days.* I also like Revisionista's point about why we need MPs to be different things at different moments in our lives. For me, this summer has been a huge exploration of new territory, and the MPs are going to be a pretty amazing chronicle of this special lifechanging time. And, they've been a way to integrate writing into every day in a meaningful way, and for that I'm so so happy.
So, have fun and see what happens...
I know this is really late, but I wanted say Welcome to Swim. I am so looking forward to reading more of your posts and hearing more about your writing.
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