by P. Payne

Created on: October 11, 2010   Last Updated: October 15, 2010

Whether you are a writer looking for inspiration for a story or a teacher trying to jump-start the writing portion of student brains, journaling prompts can help.

Writing prompts are not something to agonize over, but simply a tool to help overcome writer’s block and provide inspiration. Sometimes, it doesn’t seem like there is anything to write about. Your life at the moment is boring, but it hasn’t always been. Educators, writers, those in the health field and many others, including actors developing a character role, use journaling to increase their awareness, creativity, and productivity.

The idea is to use a word, a phrase, an image, or a question to generate thought about a subject. Thoughts should be written down as they come without worrying about grammar, spelling, or other aspects of writing normally taken into account. The human brain has thoughts traveling through it continuously. Journaling will help get some of those thoughts out of your head and onto paper (or computer). Just write down the thoughts as they come.

Writers may never use any of their journals for anything but an exercise to get them started writing. But one or more of those journals could hold the beginnings of a short story or novel. Creative writing prompts to assist with character development, story point of view, and other story elements can be found at http://www.creative-writing-solutions.com/creative-w riting-prompts.html

For students, who many times have a really hard time with writing assignments, journaling helps to get thoughts moving. At times, the topic may address subjects or experiences in a person’s life that need to be addressed. Journaling may help clarify a person’s thoughts on a subject, or help the writer discover feelings or opinions previously lurking under the surface of his or her consciousness. Besides writing, journaling is a good stress management tool, and helps to promote personal development.

There are many Internet sites where journal topics and journaling advice can be found, including http://www.squidoo.com. Another website with journal topics for writers from elementary school to college and beyond is http://www.thewritesource.com/. There are more than 100 thought provoking journal prompts at http://pyxlin-journal-prompts.wikidot.com/, and more than 300 creative writing prompts for stories and poetry at http://www.creativewritingprompts.com/. A website page designed to jog people’s memories about events during their lifetime and people in their life can be found at http://www.creativewritingprompts.com/. Additional journaling sites that may be helpful are http://www.journalingtools.com/.

Those looking for inspiration or information about the benefits of journaling can find a plethora of information and writing prompts simply by doing an Internet search and choosing a topic for writing a journal each day.

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