Earlier this week, I filmed a video about my journaling process. I've been journaling/keeping a diary since I was 8 years old and I've never really had much of a plan/strategy. I usually write freestyle, letting my journal become whatever it wants to become for that season. However, I do think that questions/prompts can help you get started.
Last night, I went through some old journals and found this — apparently, I’ve been creating journaling prompts for a long time! This journal entry is from circa 1999-2000:
Below, you will find a list of 25 different ways I have filled the pages of my journal over the years. You can go by page by page, pick a few, or use these to come up with your own.
25 JOURNALING PROMPTS
1. What did you do this past week? - Write a log of everything you remember, going day by day. Look at your phone's camera roll for reference.
2. What's on your mind? - Even if you're thinking "I don't know what to write in this journal!" Just write that until something else comes up
3. Doodle first (even if it's scribbles or stick figures) and write words as they come up
4. Fill the page by writing your word-of-the-year over and over. Use markers or colorful pens if you'd like.
5. Look through your camera roll and find a photograph you want to remember. Describe it on the page.
6. Make a list of things you need to do for the week - even if you have an official list somewhere else, there’s nothing wrong with writing it down again.
7. Fill a page with your favorite movie quotes, poems, song lyrics, verses
8. Write a letter to your younger self
9. Write a letter you will never send
10. Write one thought on a line at a time. Perhaps a poem will begin to take shape.
11. Go sit outside or by the nearest window and write down 25 things you notice. Use all of your available senses.
12. Create a bucket-list of things to do this year, only within a 25-mile radius where you live
13. What’s going on in your life that you want to remember 6 months from now? Write that down
14. What’s going on in your life that you want to remember 5 years from now? Write that down
15. Browse Pinterest and make a list of recipes or DIYs you’d like to try
16. Clip words and photos from magazines and fill the page. It may seem random now, but years from now, you might enjoy looking back to see what caught your attention back then. Here's mine, from way back in the day. It's not dated, but I would assume it's from whatever year the GameBoy Color Advance came out!
17. Fill the page with shapes. Circles. Squares. Triangles. Why not? Who says a journal is only for words? ;)
18. Draw a portrait of yourself. Stick figures are allowed. It’s your journal!
19. Describe 3-5 things you wear all the time. Are they in the closet? In the hamper? In a pile on a chair? This will be fun to look back on years from now!
20. Describe the coffee mug/cup you always use. Where is it now? In the cabinet? In the sink? Journaling does not have to “deep.” This another neat thing you can use years from now.
21. What’s in your handbag/book bag right now? Write down everything that’s there. These small things change so much over the years, and yet, they remind us: we’re alive.
22. Just write a few words that speak to you, write in the center of the page. Sometimes you can let white space fill the page
23. Write “Note to self:” and then see what happens next.
24. Write down a few words that speak to you. Leave space in between them. Write what comes to mind for each word. It can be anything. No wrong answers
25. Write in different handwriting styles. All caps. Cursive. Fill the page with as many styles as you can come up with!
I hope you feel inspired to start journaling or to keep journaling!
Journal with me!
Comments
Hi Morgan. I’m so thankful I found you today. You offer the kind of wisdom my chaotic, frightened, heavy heart needs. Here’s my question. I faithfully journaled for years. Then, during an ugly divorce, my ex stole, copied, & distributed years of my deeply personal journals to dozens of people. That was 2004. I need to emote in writing. But, ever since, fear keeps me from being honest & vulnerable in my writing. So I stop. The filter “what if someone reads this?” paralyzes me. I don’t want to immediately destroy what I write (that’s what’s been suggested). Thoughts? Ideas? Thank you for your perspective, your beautiful thoughts, & for sharing yourself with us.
This reminds me so much of my childhood. I would write and write. I would fill notebooks with magazine clippings. I miss that part of me thank you for this beautiful reminder.
I loved this Morgan, thank you. I am inspired. – Allie