Write what you see
Find something in your environment that you can look at and study from time to time – a favorite tree, sculpture, building, mountain, lake, garden, or street corner, for example. Twice each season, look at this and write what you see. Be sure to notice with all five senses – what you can hear, see, touch, and even smell and taste while you are at the place where you are writing.
Imagine you are a tourist in your own life this week.
Write postcard messages with descriptions of where you are and what kind of time you are having. Address these messages to one or more people in your life. Tell them why you are addressing particular observations and thoughts on them,
Imagine someone you are no longer in touch with…
…but who mattered very much to you at one time has just died. Write a eulogy, a praising of their life. Although you may only be able to write about a small part of their life where it brushed yours. Use lots of detail and make comments on what their life meant to yours.
Write a Dear Ann letter
Think about an issue that you would like to inform others about or want to know more about yourself: why a loved one, boss, teacher, or co-worker behaves as they do, perhaps, or how one can cope with an illness or separation or other difficult time. Think of your letter as taking up the whole column and go on at length describing what you’re puzzled about or what you’ve learned and want others to know.
Imagine there is a bog box…
…at the end of your street into which residents can put unsigned complaints. Write complaints from several points of view: a child’s, an elderly person’s, a bus rider’s, a commuter’s, a store owner’s, a visitor’s, a crow’s, a dog’s, a grasshopper’s….
If you were to design a tee shirt motto today,
what would it say? Why would you want to share this thought with others? What would you hope they would think or do as a result of seeing your tee shirt motto? What would you hope you would think or do as a result of wearing this motto?
Today, you are the host of a talk show
What is your topic? Who are your guests? Who is your invited expert? Write a script in which you ask the guests and expert questions. Write their answers. Weite questions from the audience and write what you have to say to everyone. What will your sequel show be?
List ten words that you can associate with specific people…
…either because they taught you that word or they use that word a lot. Describe the person and the circumstances of their using the word or teaching it to you. Look the word up in the dictionary and write the exact definition of the word in your journal. How does this word apply to your life?
Pretend you are writing from an unusual vantage point
For example, from under the basement stairs, from the river bed in a drought, from inside a rose, or from a wheel rut or footprint in mud. Use the five senses to get across what things look, feel, sound, taste, and smell like from where you are.
Dash off a list of images from your childhood
The rubber galoshes your mother made you wear, the hole in the neck of your teddy bear where you stored notes you write, the telephone table in the hallway of your grandmother’s house, the cracked glass in the storm door, or your clothes hamper in the shape of a giraffe. Write about a time you remember concerning this image. Include information from all five senses – what are the sounds, smells, tastes, sights, and touches that come to you when you remember the image you are remembering now?