writing Prompts

11. Five years from now, I will be... 

12. Write about a day you'd like to forget. 

13. Invent and describe a new food. 
journal writing prompts
14. Describe an event that changed your life forever, or make up and describe an event that would change your life forever. 
15.  Describe someone who is a hero to you and explain why. 
16.  Write about a time in your life when you struggled with a choice and made the right one. 
17.  Imagine yourself in a different century and describe an average day in your life. 
18.  Which character from a book would you most like to meet and why? 
19.  Three goals I have set for myself are... 
20.  What would you do if 300 mice had just gotten out of their cages in a pet shop where you worked?
21. What would you do if you were locked inside your favorite department store overnight? 
22.  What would you do if you woke up one morning to find yourself invisible? 
23.  What would you do if you were able to communicate with animals? 
24.  What would you do if you could travel into the future? 
25.  What would you do if you could travel into the past? 
26.  What would you do if someone just gave you $1 million? 
27.  What would you do it all the electricity in the world just stopped? 
28.  What would you do if you could travel free anyplace in the world? 
29.  What would you do if the dinner served to you in a fancy restaurant came with a fly in the mashed potatoes? 
30.  Write a list of at least 50 things that make you feel good. 
31.  Describe the perfect day.  Put in as many details as you can.  Make it a possible day, not a "dream day." 
32.  Who is the person from history that you would most like to meet and talk to?  Why?  What would you like to ask? 
33.  Who is the person from literature that you would most like to meet and talk to?  Why?  What would you like to ask? 
34.  Compile a list of words that describe you as a child.  Compile a second list that describes you as you are now.  How are these lists the same?  How are they different? 
35.  Compile a list of inanimate or animate objects to which you might compare yourself metaphorically.  (I am a windmill.  I change direction or my thoughts whenever someone talks to me...) 
36.  Tell about what triggers anger in you or someone else. 
37.  Invent a monster and describe it.  Tell where it lives, what it eats, and what it does. 
38.  What is your favorite kind of weather?  Why? 
39.  What is the best book you have ever read?  Why did you like it?  Did reading the book change you in any way?  What way? 
40.  Write about what you didn't do this weekend.

41. Think about an incident that happened to you and exaggerate in the telling. Make it into a tall tale. 
42.  If you were ruler of the world, what things would you banish absolutely for all time (rain on weekends, eggplant, and so forth)?  Make a list.  Use your imagination. 
43.  If you could go back in time anywhere and "anywhen," where/when would you go and why? 
44.  What law would you like to see enacted which would help people?  How would it help? 
45.  What commercial on TV do you dislike beyond all others?  What about it is particularly annoying to you
46. Design some gadget, machine, building, or other creation that might enrich the future. What does it look like? What does it do? How does it function? In what ways might it benefit people?journal writing prompts

47. What current fashion in clothing do you particularly like or dislike? Explain. journal writing prompts 
48.  Convince someone why music or art or computers are important in your life.  Make them appreciate your viewpoint. 
49.  If you had $100,000, how would you spend it? 
50.  Be a building you know well.  Talk about your life and memories. 
51.  You are to tell a person from a distant planet or from another era what pollution is.  Make that person understand what causes it and why it is bad. 
52.  If you could do something that you never have done before, what would it be?  Why would you want to do it? 
53.  Begin a list of questions that you'd like to have answered.  They may be about the future or the past. 
54.  What do you consider your greatest accomplishment to date and why? 
55.  Write one characteristic or habit about yourself that you like and describe it.  Or write about one thing you don't like about yourself. 
56.  What is your hobby?  Why do you enjoy it? 
57.  If you could go somewhere where you've never gone before, where would you go and why? 
58.  What's, if anything, would you be willing to fight or even die for?  Explain your answer. 
59.  If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?  Why would you make this change? 
60.  Is there a machine you feel you could not live without?  Explain.
61. Write about what you think you will be like and what you will be doing 10 years or 20 years from now. 
62.  Did you ever stick up for someone? 
63.  Describe your neighborhood bully. 
64.  Write about a baby-sitting experience. 
65.  Describe a great fort you built for a great game you played as a child. 
66.  Write about an enemy who eventually became your friend. 
67.  Write about a time you cheated and got caught. 
68.  Write about a privilege you earned. 
69.  Write about the stray animal you brought home. 
70.  Did you ever send away for something that turned out to be a disappointment?  (Or order something over the Internet) 
71.  What is it like to go shopping with your mother? 
72.  Write about a time you performed in front of an audience. 
73.  Write about a difficult decision you had to make. 
74.  Write about learning to skate, to ride a bike, to climb a tree, or to turn a cart wheel. 
75.  Did you ever get lost in a strange town? 
76.  Were you ever locked in or out?  What did you do? 
77.  What was it like to spend your first night away from home? 
78.  What was it like to come back home after a long vacation? 
79.  Write about a disappointment. 
80.  Write about something minor that turned into a big deal.
81. Did you ever win or lose a contest? Tell the story about what happened. 
82.  Write about something you desperately wanted when you were younger. 
83.  Did you ever know someone who had "everything"? 
84.  Right about the time as a child played in one of the following: treehouse, a cornfield, a construction site, a junkyard, an abandoned house or barn, a stream, a cemetery, a swamp, a pasture, railroad tracks. 
85.  Did your mom or dad ever make you wear something you hated? 
86.  Write about a time you were talked into something and you regretted it. 
87.  Were you ever in a helicopter, limousine, racecar, hot-air balloon, submarine, or horse-drawn  carriage? 
88.  Did you ever forget something really important?  What happened as a result? 
89.  Write about an experience in a hospital. 
90.  Were you ever accused of something that you didn't do?
91. Write about a disastrous trip or vacation. 
92.  Were you ever given a responsibility that you couldn't handle? journal writing prompts
93.  Were you ever in a fire, flood, tornado, or hurricane? 
94.  Describe the best concert you ever attended. 
95.  Write about a window you broke or something valuable you lost. 
96.  Did you ever catch fireflies?  Crickets?  Frogs?  Snakes? 
97.  Write about a time you tried to help and ended up making things worse. 
98.  Did you ever break an important promise? 
99.  Write about moving to another city or neighborhood. 
100.  Describe an outdoor game you used to play in the summer time. 
101.  Write about building sand castles or mud pies. 
102.  Did you ever meet a famous person? 
103.  Write about mowing the lawn, burning leaves, or weeding the garden. 
104.  Describe the club you organized as a kid. 
105.  Describe a car or bicycle accident you were in. 
106.  Write about being a misfit. 
107.  Write about a day spent in another country. 
108.  Write about a time you out-smarted someone. 
109.  Write about going shopping for new clothes. 
110.  Did you ever turn someone in or tell on someone and feel bad about it later? 
111.  Imagine that you are an animal in the zoo.  What type of animal are you?  How do you feel about being caged?  How do you feel about people that visit and watch you? 
112.  Write about a time your parents embarrassed you. 
113.  Describe learning something from a friend. 
114.  Write about a time you gave someone good advice.

115.  Write about the funniest thing that ever happened to you. 
116.  If you had to escort a visitor from outer space for a 30-minute tour of your community, where would you begin and end? 
117.  Be a grape that becomes a raisin: describe how it feels to shrink, to shrivel, to become dry and wrinkled. 
118.  Be an icicle that becomes water.  Describe how it feels to be cold and firm and full of beautiful crystals but only to melt and lose your shape. 
119.  You go to the store with your parents and baby brother.  Your parents go into a store and tell you to watch your brother.  You take your eyes off your brother for just a minute and you can't find him.  You... 
120.  I really hate it when my mother/father/sibling... 
121.  What if the use of robots in school becomes a workable reality? 
122.  What would you pack in your suitcase if you could not go home again? 
123.  You have just met an alien from another planet.  He wishes to take a student back to his planet.  Convince him you would be the perfect specimen for him to take.