Journaling is often viewed as a record of life events, and our responses to such events. It can also be a wonderful creative practice. But there are days when we run out of inspiration, or we need a new challenge. Here are 30 writing prompts for that moment when you face writer’s block – or you just want to try your hand at something different.
- Brainstorm: choose a topic, set a time limit (say, two minutes), and write down as many ideas as you can. Choose one idea from the list and write about it.
- Explore your thoughts and feelings. What motivates your choices? What moves you emotionally? What are passionate about? Write about that.
- Sources of your beliefs. Write about what shapes your values, convictions and observations about the world. What do you believe about friendship, climate change, the music industry, the afterlife?
- What do you find most challenging about life? What makes you laugh or cry? Write about that.
- Recurring dreams. Do you have dreams with recurring themes or features? Write down what you recall. What do your dreams teach you about yourself?
- Select a photograph of a person or event from an album, something that sparks an emotion, and write about it for someone who has no knowledge of the context.
- Write about a light-bulb moment, a religious experience, or an epiphany. What led to it? Why was it significant? How has it changed you?
- Proprioceptive writing. Write down your thoughts in a stream-of-consciousness manner as though you were speaking aloud. Review what you wrote, and if a word or phrase catches your attention, ask: “What do I mean by this?” Write down your response.
- Novel ideas. Imagine a great opening line for a novel or short story, or a plot for a story. Write a sentence, and another. Keep going until you stop.
- A true friend is… Finish the sentence. Explain why this is true for you.
- One weird thing that happened, real or imagined. Write about it for five minutes, exploring the consequences.
- Devil’s advocate. Think of an ethical or political issue you’re passionate about. What beliefs underlie your view? Write a response, questioning the validity of your beliefs and defending an alternative view.
- Another life. If you could live your life over again, what would you do differently? Where would you study, live, work? Who would you choose as friends?
- Focus on a current world event, either natural or political, and write about it for someone who lives in a very different part of the world.
- Freewriting. Choose a topic, set a time limit (e.g., 15 minutes), and write whatever comes to mind without stopping to think or edit. It doesn’t need to be coherent. Review what you wrote, looking for nuggets of humour or wisdom.
- Permission to tell the truth. Think of something hidden in your past, or in your secret self, and give yourself permission to write about it.
- 100 things. Lists are great writing prompts. Write a list of 100 things on any topic, such as “100 things I remember about my childhood home(s),” “100 things I’ve eaten,” “100 things I’m sad about,” or “100 places I’d like to visit.”
- Write a letter to a younger version of yourself. What advice would you give about growing older and making decisions?
- Distractions. Write a list of all the things that distract you from your work, and see if any patterns emerge.
- Conversations with family and friends. Write a dialogue between the significant people in your life. This exercise encourages you to consider their personalities, histories, opinions, how they express themselves, and what they might want to conceal.
- Conversations with fictional friends. Create a fictional friend and write a dialogue. Listen to what they say to you. Ask them all kinds of questions and see where the answers lead.
- Write about an amorous or erotic experience you had, one that you’ve never written about before. Focus on the feelings and the sense experience.
- Emotional experiences. Think of a situation that was especially meaningful for what your emotions in the moment taught you about yourself. Write about this, focusing on the sense experience and its impact.
- Fictional perspectives. Write about an event or fragment of your day from the perspective of a fictional character in a novel, short story, play, TV series, or film. Slip into their shoes and let them tell you about yourself from their point of view.
- Long lost friends. Think of your childhood friends you’ve lost touch with. Write down everything you remember about them. Imagine what it would be like to reconnect after all these years.
- A different voice. Write your usual daily journal, but use past tense and comment about your own experience in the third person voice. In what ways does this deliver a different perspective on your daily activities?
- Alphapoem. Write the letters A-Z down the side of a page, then write a poem in which each successive line begins with the next letter.
- Dialogue partner. Write a conversation in two voices – yours and your dialogue partner. They can be anyone: your older/younger self, your spouse, your child, your grandparent, your teacher, your boss, your body, your feelings, your erotic imagination. Anything goes.
- Imagine the impossible. Think what might happen in a fantasy world or science fiction novel. If you could do what is impossible in the here-and-now, what would it be? what would it be like? How would your world be different?
- Bucket list. Write a list of things you’d love to do, experience, or achieve before you “kick the bucket” – especially things that feel meaningful, adventurous, or once-in-a-lifetime. What’s stopping you from ticking them off the list?
Happy writing!
Rev Dr Rod Benson is General Secretary of the NSW Ecumenical Council and a minister of the Uniting Church in Australia serving at North Rocks Community Church in Sydney. In addition to professional and creative writing, he writes a daily private journal.
Previous articles in this series:
Ten compelling reasons why you should journal
How to start writing a personal journal
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