Journal Writing Prompts

If you are just starting to write in a journal or have temporarily run out of steam, here are some ideas.

• Look at a magazine and find a picture that appeals to you. Cut it out, paste it in your notebook and write about it.

• Draw a word portrait of your interior landscape. Next draw a word portrait of your exterior landscape.

• Invent a dream you wish you'd had. Write about it in detail, paying special attention to concrete sensory images.

• Write a dream that a plant, a fish, a star, or a stone might have.

• List all of the things that have happened to you only once in your entire life.

• Write about an event in your life – first from your perspective and then from the perspective of someone else who was present.

• Write about a person or an event that is a paradox or contradiction.

• Turn a feeling – love, joy, beauty, anger or fatigue – into a character. Write a detailed description and dialog with this character.

• Allow your pen to give voice to a part of your body besides your mind. Have this part write a letter to you. Write a response.

• If you were to select music for a soundtrack of the day you've had, what songs would you play in the background? Why?

• Invent a new myth for the beginning of the universe.

• Write down everything that comes into your mind about money.

• Pick the first date from the past and place that pop into your mind. Now write a journal entry as though you were reliving a former lifetime.

• Write about a belief you've discarded.

• Your life is a journey. From where? To where? Write a travel article about this trip.

• Write an entry telling another person something that you are too afraid or reluctant to tell them.