The art and practice of journaling is very personal. For some, journaling means putting down their daily thoughts, while for others it is fleshing out characters, stories, plot lines or building entire worlds of their own.
Sometimes, it can be difficult to get started. Coaxing the urge to write can take a bit of a nudge. Writing prompts can be just the ticket to setting you in the right frame of mind and allowing 100% of your creative mind to be available.
Here are several writing prompts as well as some ideas to help you create your next journal entry:
Opening Lines
- “You can never go back.”
- “People say that when someone is quick with explanations or excuses, there’s usually a lie to be found somewhere.”
- “Of course I’m up to no good. That’s why we are still talking, isn’t it?”
- “Dying is easy. It’s when you come back that things get tricky.”
- “So tell me, where were you last night?”
- “We were both complicit in this, so blaming each other isn’t going to change anything.”
Quote Prompts
- “One must be a fox in order to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten off wolves.” – Machiavelli (‘The Prince’)
- “Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake?” – Leonardo da Vinci
- “To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.”- Oscar Wilde
- “The little things? The little moments? They aren’t little-“ – John Zabat-Zinn
- “Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music.” Ronald Reagan
Writer or Character Prompts
- Everyone has heard someone say something to them that affected them for the whole of their life. Who said it and what did they say?
- Did you choose your character or did they choose you? What was the process like in getting to know your muse?
- ‘Jumping The Shark’ – Is there any situation that you would never bring into your personal storyline?
- Write the character of your choice in a strange place under a strange set of circumstances. Let your imagination be your only limit.
- Every character has a personality and temperament. Whether they are a protagonist or antagonist, a hero or anti-hero or just something in between, explain how you as the writer build and portray the character. What do you do?
- Through the eyes of your character, write a letter to another character that he or she interacts with.
- Write about an early childhood event that made you cry or frightened you or made you ashamed, proud, triumphant, etc. Write a story about the event and take your readers back in with as much detail as possible.
- There is a special place that your Character can go to, a magical place that no one else knows about. Your character has friends there who can lend a hand when your character needs it the most.
As you can see, a writing prompt can be created from just about anything. They can come from a snippet of conversation overheard while waiting for the bus or created from a line of dialogue from a movie. They can even come from a famous quote or a lyric from your favorite song. You can even create your own writing prompts from nothing more than a picture or a single word in order to set the mood or serve as a jumping off point for creativity. From there you may end up with the beginning of a short story, screenplay or maybe even a novel.