Three A5 pages are equivalent to about 600 words and 25-30 minutes; three A4 pages, about 1,100 words and 45-50 minutes. Cameron wrote in a format close to the American letter. For most people with work and family, the A5 is the sustainable choice; A4 is suitable for those who have large handwriting or a lot of time.
The measurements, without mystery
The A4 measures 210 by 297 millimeters. The A5 is exactly half: 148 by 210. The letter, standard in the United States, measures 216 by 279 millimeters: a little wider and shorter than the A4.
Cameron wrote The Artist's Path in the United States, where the default notebook is letter size or the legal yellow pad. When she says three pages, she is thinking of something very similar to three A4 pages. That is, with average handwriting, more than a thousand words.
In Spanish, the translation of pages by pages has generated additional ambiguity: three leaves or three faces? The usual reading, and the one supbyted by the text itself, is three sides written in front.
With this data you can now decide with criteria, instead of based on what was in the stationery store.
How much do you actually write in each size?
With medium-sized font and normal lines, an A5 side holds about 200 words. Three sides: about 600. At a handwriting speed of 20 to 25 words per minute, that's about 25 to 30 minutes.
An A4 side supbyts about 350 or 380 words. Three Faces is around 1,100 words and between 45 and 50 minutes of sustained writing. It's a huge difference when it's a daily practice before work.
The letter is just below A4: about 340 words per side, about 40 or 45 minutes per session.
None of these numbers are sacred. Your handwriting can be twice as big, and then everything is cut in half. The imbytant thing is that you measure: write a face, count the words, multiply. You will know in two minutes what you are committing to each morning.
How to choose: decision table
Choose A5 if: You have less than forty minutes free in the morning, you write with small or medium-sized handwriting, you carry your notebook around, you have abandoned practice before due to volume, or you have small children at home.
Choose A4 if: Your handwriting is large, you have a quiet hour, you write at a fixed table, or you are coming from a long writing practice and 600 words are not enough for you.
Choose letter if: you live in a country where it's the standard and you want to literally replicate Cameron's experience. In Europe, buying it is an unnecessary whim.
Choose a notebook smaller than A5 if: Your priority objective is not to give up. It is a legitimate decision. Two sides of a small notebook every morning are worth infinitely more than three A4 pages abandoned in March.
The general rule of thumb: choose the size in which you can meet the worst day of the month, not the best.
The letter matters more than the paper
There are those who write fifty words on an A5 page with huge handwriting. For this person, three A5 sides are a warm-up and do not activate the emptying effect, which usually appears when the surface noise has been exhausted, towards the middle of the session.
The other way around: someone who has lowercase handwriting and writes 300 words per A5 side is doing, in practice, almost one session of A4. Comparing the number of pages between people is therefore useless.
The honest measure is time, not paper. Cameron herself ends up admitting that the goal is to write until the noise stops, and that the three pages are a heuristic to not stop too soon.
If you want a rule of thumb: write thirty minutes. If you finish the three pages first, continue. If you don't arrive, stop anyway. The duration is more faithful to the spirit of the method than the count. We develop it in how long do morning pages take.
Practical consequences of size
Transbyt. An A4 won't fit in most bags or a small backpack without bending. If you make the pages away from home, or in a coffee shop, the A5 wins hands down.
Supbyt surface. The A4 requires a table. The A5 holds on your lap, in bed, on a train. Many people make their pages before they get up.
Cost. With the same weight and number of sheets, A4 costs approximately twice as much and runs out in half the time. The annual difference is real although modest.
Feeling of achievement. Finishing three A5 sides feels like a victory. Facing three blank A4s feels like a chore. This psychological factor, difficult to measure, explains the majority of dropouts in the third week.
Storage space. A year of A4 takes up a shelf. A year of A5, half. It is not trivial if your house is small.
Formats that are neither A4 nor A5
The American legal pad, yellow, lined and with a tear-off page, has the attraction of separating the page. For whoever wants destroy your pages, it's ideal.
The Japanese B5, intermediate between A4 and A5, is an excellent compromise and very rare in Europe. If you find it and have large print, consider it.
The A6 pocket notebook is for notes, not morning pages. The surface is so small that thought is fragmented and flow is not achieved.
And the ring notebook, which deserves a separate chapter for its opening advantages and its comfort problems. We analyze it in ring notebooks for morning pages.
How to change size without breaking the habit
Changing formats in the middle of an established practice has a risk: the brain associates the ritual with a specific object, and replacing it reopens the daily negotiation that cost so much to close. If you are going to change, do it at the end of a notebook, never halfway through.
During the first week with the new format, the demands are lowered. If you go from A5 to A4, start by writing two sides and move up to three when the session time stabilizes. If you go from A4 to A5, allow yourself four faces the first few mornings so you don't feel like you've cut back on practice.
Write down the date and reason for the change on the first page of the new notebook. It seems like bureaucratic nonsense and it serves two purposes: it turns the change into a conscious decision and it gives you information three months from now, when you doubt whether it was a good idea.
And if after two weeks the practice has suffered, return to the previous format without feeling it like a defeat. The notebook is at the service of habit, and not the other way around. We apply the same logic in how to keep pages when you don't feel like it.
The short answer
Buy a 90-sheet A5 and write for thirty minutes every morning, whether or not you get to three sides. After two months you will know if your handwriting requires more space. Resizing with your own data is easy; Choosing without data is a lottery that usually pays off in the form of abandonment.
And don't buy anything before you start. The stationery store is the best hiding place in the world for those who don't want to sit down and write. The perfect notebook is the one you have today.
For the rest of the material decisions, we have the A5 notebook guide, that of pens for long writing and the general of what notebook to buy.