The morning pages are done first thing upon waking up. No breakfast, no turning on the TV. Just writing. When writing the morning pages, it's important not to backspace or edit; just keep writing even if your mind goes blank. This exercise is done for at least a half an hour or until a specific word count is reached (1500 to 2000). Writing in this fashion helps nurture creativity and shuts down the part of your brain that tells you what you're writing is not good enough.
Many writers who have trouble getting started writing use writing prompts. These prompts benefit beginning writers and advanced writers alike. These writing prompts introduce a single word, phrase or situation for you to begin writing about, such as: "Use the first line from your favorite song and write a story expanding on it."
Creative writers must learn how to suspend their disbelief in order to take advantage of their creativity. One activity that helps writers accomplish this is through a cognitive psychotherapy technique. Think of a situation that makes you uncomfortable and hold it in your mind. Next, imagine yourself sitting at your desk to write (or however you write) and think of the same situation in a positive light. Place the negative and positive images next to each other in your mind and slowly let the negative one fade away. Retain the image of the positive situation until you are comfortable in your writing position. Do this every time you write so you feel positive about your work and abilities.
Choose 15 terms at random from the dictionary. Flip through the pages and blindly set your finger on a random page and write down the word nearest your finger. Once you have 15 words written down, use at least ten of them to create a poem, using other words only as articles, to be verbs, coordinating conjunctions and prepositions. Take your finished poem and write a short story that uses the themes and images of your poem.