Creative Writing Ideas

Here are a few more ideas for your journal writing:

One Liners: Sum up your day, or how you feel using only one sentence.

Brain Drain: This is also known as stream of consciousness writing. Set a timer for 30 minutes and write whatever comes into your head. Don’t censor yourself or worry about it making sense. Keep writing until the timer runs out. I really mean whatever pops into your head.  It’s okay if you start out with “I don’t know what to write,” or “this is goofy”
The idea is to just get it all out.  It is useful for clearing your head, or as a warm up before more purposeful writing.

Write Your Day Backwards: Recount your day starting with the last thing you did before you sat down to write, working backwards to the beginning of your day; and have dessert before dinner if you like!

If I Would Die Tomorrow

If I would die tomorrow, I could have joy for everything I’ve done.
What I haven’t done never existed, and cannot compare.

I have known the joy of great, true love
and the miracle of giving life.

I have been kissed by the sun and touched by the ocean,
and so I am lucky.

I have heard music, and danced, and laughed.

I have encountered many wonderful creatures,
and so I am blessed.

I have visited lands that are constantly in creation,
touching the spirit of the earth; glimpsing the beginning of all life.

In dreams I have flown and had wonderful adventures
that couldn’t exist anywhere else.

I have known hardships, and loss, and sickness;
and I survived to find joy again.

I learned the value of being in the moment  and living “as if “
instead of wondering “what if “
May I always remember.

I have lived well and I am loved.

written by April Esterly

for Paul 1962-2008

Here are some writing exercises to inspire you and broaden your perspective. Once you read them, you will probably come up with some of your own ideas, which is the point. The main goal is to use either use  different senses than you normally would to observe something, or  limit your observation of something to one sense only

1. Imagine you can’t taste and describe a food by the way it smells/feels.

2. Choose an object or a color and imagine how you could describe it to a blind person, such as how it feels, or the feelings it evokes.

3. Describe something using only one sense. For instance what does a pot of boiling water sound like? Or describe your favorite (or least favorite) smell; What does rain look like, smell like, feel like?

4. Using your description from #3, and elaborate by writing about how it makes you feel.

5. Go to a park, zoo, mall, etc. find a safe, comfportable spot to sit and close your eyes. For ten minutes just listen, then writie about everything you heard. Sensing