Journaling + Fiction – June 17

“Hope is patience with the lamp lit.”Tertullian Journal prompt: Spend at least 20 minutes writing about a hope you’ve held long enough to grow impatient. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist’s patience with hoping finally runs out.

Journaling + Fiction – June 16

“Sweet mercy is nobility’s true badge.”William Shakespeare Journal prompt: Spend at least 20 minutes writing about something for which you should forgive someone. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which your antagonist pleads with your protagonist for mercy.

Journaling + Fiction – June 15

“[T]he success of democracy depends, in the end, on the reliability of the judgments we citizens make, and hence upon our capacity and determination to weigh arguments and evidence rationally.”Irving Copi Journal prompt: Spend at least 20 minutes writing about a situation in which you had to rely on the judgment of someone whose rationality you doubted. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which your...

Journaling + Fiction – June 14

“When we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.”K’ung Fu-tzu Journal prompt: Reflect on your previous journal entries and spend at least 20 minutes writing about an experience when another person’s bad behavior taught you something about yourself. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist realizes that s/he shares an important trait...

Journaling + Fiction – June 13

“Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the heart can hold.”Zelda Fitzgerald Journal prompt: Spend at least 20 minutes writing about a person you love so much your heart can’t hold it all. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which the love your protagonist feels for another spills from your protagonist’s broken heart.

Journaling + Fiction – June 12

“It is easy to live for others, everybody does. I call on you to live for yourself.”Ralph Waldo Emerson Journal prompt: Spend at least 20 minutes writing about what you would do differently tomorrow if you decided today to live for yourself. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist realizes s/he has been living for someone else because it’s been easy.

Journaling + Fiction – June 11

“Sometimes incompetence is useful. It helps you keep an open mind.”Roberto Cavalli Journal prompt: Spend at least 20 minutes writing about what you learned during the last situation in which you felt utterly incompetent. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist succeeds at an important task because s/he hasn’t the foggiest notion how to accomplish it.

Journaling + Fiction – June 10

“Because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.”Ralph Waldo Emerson Journal prompt: Spend at least 20 minutes writing about the opportunity you seized that you consider most important to your life at this point. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist learns through an expression of gratitude that the reason for a pivotal moment in...