“Very often, a week of insights will be followed by a week of sluggishness. The morning pages will seem pointless. They are not. What you are learning to do, writing them even when you are tired and they seem dull, is to rest on the page. This is very important.” (Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way)
Writing Exercise: Rest on the Page Without Going Slack
Techniques Illustrated in the Quotation
1. Writing Through Resistance: Building creative stamina by writing despite fatigue or disinterest.
2. Emotional Honesty on the Page: Letting go of performance and productivity, embracing the emotional truth of the present moment.
3. Character Interiorization: Capturing a character’s inner lull—quiet emotional states without dramatization or external conflict.
Writing Prompt (500 words)
Write a scene in which your protagonist is in a liminal space—emotionally, physically, or spiritually. Nothing major happens: no new plot development, no new character enters. The protagonist is alone and tired, but they choose to stay in this stillness. Their mind wanders. The setting is simple: a laundromat at midnight, a parked car in a grocery store lot, a walk down an empty hallway, a coffee shop before opening. The character resists action but cannot escape thought. Let the scene rest on the page. Convey texture, emotion, and internal tension without event.
Your job is to explore what your character hides even from themselves. The writing must be alive without leaning on dialogue, conflict, or revelation. Use voice, sensory detail, and authentic mental drift to hold the reader’s attention. Avoid dramatizing exhaustion; evoke it with precision.
Evaluation Criteria
Strong responses will:
– Sustain emotional tone without relying on plot movement
– Reveal character through interior texture rather than action or exposition
– Use sensory details sparingly but effectively to anchor the scene
– Create rhythm in prose that reflects the character’s mental/emotional pacing
– Allow the character to remain unresolved, without forcing insight or catharsis
Weak responses will:
– Mistake stillness for vagueness or filler
– Insert artificial action or internal monologue that resolves too cleanly
– Drift into abstraction or generalizations
– Use passive voice or bland language to evoke mood without specificity
– Lean on summary instead of scene
Follow-Up Questions for Workshopping/Revision
– Does the prose reveal what the character is avoiding?
– Are the details emotionally resonant or just descriptive?
– Is the pacing consistent with the character’s inner state?
– Where is the temptation to resolve or explain, and what happens if that’s cut?
– Could this scene stand alone as a mood piece? Why or why not?
Recommended Reading
“The Depressed Person” by David Foster Wallace (from Brief Interviews with Hideous Men)
This story exemplifies writing through emotional paralysis without relying on plot movement. The narrator is self-absorbed, immobilized, yet rendered with such brutal, recursive honesty that the reader remains fully engaged. Wallace uses repetition, linguistic control, and psychological precision to hold the interiority taut.
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