Hello Fellow Writer, Reader, Journal Lover, and Rambling Creator!

Enjoy some free writing prompts and links to writing tools you can use to help make writing a part of your wellness routines!

-Prin 🙂

Free Writing Prompts

If you need free writing prompts to inspire some journaling or writing projects, look below. I love writing daily. I find myself able to express thoughts and revisit them at a later time for project ideas. I’m happy to share calming tips and ways to get through writer’s block, too. Enjoy!

1. Make lists of 100 for a variety of topics that provide you with happiness, smiles, or good memories. Gratitude lists, childhood memories, special vacations, favorite foods, and a variety of other interests can make for a lovely goal to reach 100 on a list of positivity.
2. Many people struggle to maintain journaling, but it can be easier to jot down incomplete sentences. The purpose of journaling is to log the thoughts, feelings, or events you are wishing to express. There’s no need for polished sentences in raw form.
3. Go outside and describe what you see in nature for 10 minutes. If you don’t feel like writing, use the voice memo feature on your phone and keep an audio journal. There are also cool recording pens!
4. Write a note card to a family member or friend with no special occasion in mind.
5. Read the news or Google something of interest, and paraphrase your feelings about what you just read. You can use a Word or Google doc for this. This helps ensure you are reading and processing the information you take in on the internet.
6. For 1 week, write down in a small notebook or type notes of phrases, unique sayings, or anything that catches your attention from the things other people say around you. At the end of the week, circle all repeating words to see what topics most surround you.
7. Identify your best characteristic from 10 years ago. It could be physical, mental, professional, emotional, academic (anything goes), and write a 500 word “story” about yourself. It can be a hybrid of fiction and non-fiction. If you feel creative, make it a scrapbook about your life.
8. Listen to 30 minutes of any genre of music while writing or typing anything that comes to mind. The sentences or words do not have to make sense or create a coherent essay or story. Stream of consciousness can be very healing and insightful.
9. When people tell you “that ship has sailed,” remember how storms have a way of bringing back things that have been lost at sea. What are the storms in your life? What are things lost in the sea of life’s many distractions? What are things people have discouraged you from pursuing?
10. Vulnerability and manipulation often look like the same thing. List 10 of your relationships, current and / or past, and think of how you and the other person engaged in vulnerability and manipulation.
11. Go outside and focus on one aspect of nature. It could be a specific blade of grass and its movement in the breeze, a tree swaying with leaves, or wildlife behavior. Bring a paper and pen, or voice memo record yourself making observations. Make it fun and create a scavenger hunt.
12. Stare at a cup. Write freely about the types of things you have seen, smelled, tasted, touched, heard, and felt with this cup. Choose a favorite coffee mug and see where the idea takes you. Maybe spend 5-10 minutes writing about only this cup.
13. Toxic positivity inspires people to make bad choices under the idea that they are taking care of their inner child or doing what is best for them through avoidance. Avoidance is not the same thing as healing and making the effort towards being calm. What do you avoid?
14. Write a letter to a deceased hero in your life. This person could be a personal relationship, but they could also be someone from centuries ago!
15. Find old pictures of yourself as a child, teen, or young adult. Pick one that stands out to you somehow. Write a letter to yourself as you were in this photo. Tell yourself about your life and treat this old version of you like a pen pal.
16. Give thanks for 5 memories that involve the holidays with family or friends. Write down what happened and be as detailed as possible about who, what, where, when, and how the memories took place.
17. Go outside if you live in a seasonal geographic location, or look up autumn leaf changes online, and describe the colors by writing down what they remind you of – use metaphors and similes. For example, the red leaves looked like cherries. If you’re feeling creative, draw or color, too!

Free Creative Writing Prompts

Creative writing prompts are slightly different than other writing prompts and exercises. They’re geared to say very little and allow the writer to build poetry, prose, short stories, character ideas, novels, and more with a one-word or short phrase. I hope you enjoy these free creative writing prompts to make something that is truly yours today. Enjoy and good luck coming up with something amazing! All of the below free creative writing prompts are written by Prin, but you have full permission to use them without any hesitation. You don’t need to credit me, but if you would like to support my projects by linking my page to yours, that would be wonderful. Best of luck to your endeavors!

1. The apple rotted
2. Yellow like a dying daffodil
3. Shades of tree green
4. Pineapple
5. Carcasses of love
6. Heartbeat and footsteps
7. Carrying burdens like lush limbs after a snowfall
8. Follow me into the invisible labyrinth

How to Get Over Writer’s Block

There are two kinds of writer’s block and everyone has different needs for how to get over writer’s block. The first type is when you lack motivation to write anything at all – the total blank space and empty ink state. The other type is when you are creating and coming up with ideas, but you find yourself consistently criticizing these until you do not complete them or abandon them entirely. Below you’ll find some “rules” that have helped me throughout my life to get through low productivity seasons. I do not believe in the concept of writer’s block and try to discourage people from using the term or applying it to themselves too much.

Top 10 Tips for How to Get Over Writer’s Block

1. Stop saying you have writer’s block. Change your language to something softer. “I haven’t been as productive lately, but I have a few open-ended ideas.” “I am working on a few projects and waiting to see which one I should complete first.”
2. Do not delete anything ever. Make copies of documents. Restart in new file systems. Don’t get rid of anything you’ve done before. In a sea of 100 bad ideas, there could be 1 great idea that will be gone forever.
3. Use free writing prompts and a journaling system to write with an almost academic commitment. Forget about deadlines or publications. Just write as if you have an assignment that must be done. Good or bad.
4. Use your phone to jot down potential ideas or phrases that come to your mind. Use the Notes section or keep a Google doc that can easily transfer to your PC or laptop at a later time for review.
5. Read. Take some time for “research” and read a book. Read an old classic, if you’re not into a new publication at this time. Pick up an old favorite from childhood. One time I reread Alice in Wonderland and was so thrilled to be an adult able to understand the metaphors and symbolism so much more clearly. It was packed with great poetic ideas for me.
6. Listen to music you enjoy and begin to summarize what the song is saying, why you like the song, and describe the mood of the song. Avoid using the lyrics too much. Try to say what the song is saying in your own words. You’ll find some great creative writing starters this way. If moved to do so, give credit where credit is due and tag the artist in your blog or social media as a way of stirring up interest in your new projects.
7. Decide on a non-fiction topic that interests you very much. It can be related to anything in life. Spend some time on Google or your favorite news site and search for the most recent news or discoveries within that topic. For example, if you enjoy going to museums, search for museums and click on “news” tab. Evoke reactions within yourself and see where it takes you.
8. Take time to address social needs in your life with family and friends. If you have isolated yourself, consider joining a hobby group or making plans with old friends. Spend time on the phone with someone who knows you well. It is easy to become disconnected after writing for long periods of time in life, and reconnecting with others is a great way to inspire new writing projects and writing prompts from your own life.
9. Watch less television and stream less visual stimulation. As a writer, you depend on your imagination. More than most people, writers need to exercise the imagination in order to create characters, expand vocabulary, make poetic connections, and articulate observations. If you get sucked into visual cues for too many hours a day, you’re allowing your brain to be fed how to feel and think. This is fine for the rest of the world, but not for writers. Limit the social media, too.
10. Focus on your overall health for 21 days without worrying about writing. Are you sleeping enough? Do your teeth hurt? Are you overdue for a doctor’s visit? How is your grocery list looking these days? Put a pause on takeout and fast food. Go for some walks. Stretch. Make simple health goals that address any health or mental health issues that could be impacting your professional goals. Gut health is also important for the brain. Boosting your immune system helps. Is it time to see a therapist? Are you being inconsistent with medication? Do you need medication? Be honest about your physical health to allow your brain to have the physical health to participate in developing creative ideas. Writers, don’t forget you are a person first before anything else. People need to take care of their bodies.