31 Great Journal Prompts!

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Sometimes you want to journal, but you don’t know what to write about. I always find it difficult to find journal prompts I actually care enough about to spend time on them, but it’s really helpful to have a collection of them in case you hit a journaling wall!

Writing tips and book reviews! | Attempting Authenticity

Here are 31 journal prompts that I hope will stimulate your writing and help you to get out of the journal rut.

  1. Your favorite book and why you love it
  2. Your most outrageous goal
  3. The weirdest dream you’ve ever had
  4. Your earliest memory
  5. Your favorite sound and why you love it
  6. Your first day of school
  7. Something fun you used to do with your childhood friends
  8. A movie you haven’t seen that everyone else has seen
  9. Your favorite season and why you love it
  10. Where you see yourself in 5 years
  11. Where you thought you would be now vs. where you are
  12. The most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen, and why it’s the most beautiful
  13. Something you’ve always wanted to try
  14. Something that’s holding you back in your life
  15. Your greatest fear and where you think it comes from
  16. The best day of your life so far
  17. Someone you always thought you’d be friends with but aren’t anymore
  18. Your biggest regret
  19. The thing you are the most proud of!
  20. At least 10 things you like about yourself
  21. Something you used to do that you’d like to pick up again
  22. Your favorite place in the world, and why it’s your favorite
  23. A word you dislike, and why
  24. A word you adore, and why!
  25. An “impossible” dream that you have
  26. The moment you realized you weren’t a kid anymore
  27. Your favorite time of day and why
  28. A smell that instantly transports you to another time/place
  29. An opinion of yours that’s changed, and why
  30. Are you happy? Why or why not?
  31. What have you learned about yourself using these prompts?

Happy journaling and let me know how it goes!

Writing tips and book reviews! | Attempting Authenticity


5 Tips for Starting a Journal!

Journaling for Beginners! | Attempting Authenticity

I made a post last week about cultivating inspiration so that you can decrease the number of times when you’re feeling burn out and hopefully boost your creativity! In that post I briefly mentioned journaling and why it’s a really awesome thing to incorporate into your daily life as a writer/artist/business person/student/whatever else you do.

But I know that if you don’t journal a lot (or if, like me, you’re a little inconsistent with it) you might feel like you don’t know where to start and might need some inspiration. So here are 5 tips for getting started!

Writing Tips and Book reviews! | Attempting Authenticity

  1. Find a journal you really like. Personally I gravitate towards Moleskines, leatherbound journals (like this one), and Paperblanks journals. The paper quality is really lovely and it makes writing in them an actual treat. If you don’t love the journal you’re writing in, you probably won’t use it very often.
  2. Find a pen you love! I like Pentel’s black liquid gel ink pens, or their ballpoint pens, but that’s just me. They glide like heaven across the creamy pages of a good journal ❤ Stabilo and Staedtler also make lovely pens that are super affordable.
  3. Let go of the pressure. Writing in your journal is for you. It doesn’t matter how neat or messy your handwriting is, what you write about, or how eloquent you are. It’s just your journal. Write what you want, how you want, and don’t evaluate yourself as you’re doing it.
  4. Set the stage. Make journaling a nice experience. I light a candle and have tea or hot water with lemon while I do it, and I sit in bed because it’s comfortable. Sometimes I listen to music. I don’t set a timer or anything—I just enjoy the moment and let myself totally relax into the words and into the motion of the pen sliding across the paper.
  5. If you can, do it first thing in the morning or before bed in the evening. The middle of the day is often too hectic and busy, and you might find yourself pushing it aside in lieu of “more important” things. But early in the morning or late at night you can sit, relax, and get lost in the wordage.

I’ll post some great journal prompts for you next week!

Writing Tips and Book reviews! | Attempting Authenticity