Journal Lists

Another way to handle that feeling of being stuck with your journal writing is to use lists. These can be as simple as listing ten things that make you laugh, or cry, angry, etc. You could list ten things you swear you’ll never do; ten of your favourite foods, or ten of the foods you dislike the most.

Why ten things? It’s a doable number. You can scratch around in your brain and find ten things in response to any of the prompts I used. If you tried twenty it would be too many. Five might not be enough of a stretch. Of course, that’s entirely up to you. The point is to list your response.

Topics to list are everywhere. Ten travel destinations you dream of visiting; ten things you wish for; ten reasons to finish school; ten things you love/hate about where you live or your job; alternately, ten things to do before you die; and so on.

A list is attractive when you don’t really feel like writing a lot. A list doesn’t necessarily take a long time. You can return to your list and add more any time you like. You can use the listed items as prompts and write on one item in depth. For example; with the list of ten favourite foods, is there an interesting reason why that food is on your list? Perhaps freshly baked bread evokes a particular memory or time rich with satisfying emotion.

Nan Fischer has an exercise for creating lists titled Journaling Seeds on her Inspired to Journal website. Check out the rest of her website while you’re there for more journal writing inspiration.

Heather