Journaling + Fiction – April 1

“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.”Edith Wharton Journal prompt: Spend at least 20 minutes writing about an opportunity you could seize right now to amplify the impact of a person or group that’s spreading light. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist gets burned while spreading light.

Journaling + Fiction – March 31

“What lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.”Aristotle Journal prompt: Spend at least 20 minutes writing about your power to say no. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist deploys The Bartleby Stratagem: “I would prefer not to.”

Journaling + Fiction – March 30

“Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.”Oscar Wilde Journal prompt: Spend at least 20 minutes writing about what you learned from getting away with something you shouldn’t have gotten away with. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist suffers on learning that turnabout is fair play.

Journaling + Fiction – March 29

“We suffer more in imagination than in reality.”Lucius Annaeus Seneca Journal prompt: Reflect on your previous journal entries and spend at least 20 minutes writing about a time you felt cruelly misjudged and later realized it wasn’t that big a deal. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist is paralyzed by imagining worse than the worst that could happen.

Journaling + Fiction – March 28

“Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.”Scott Adams Journal prompt: Spend at least 20 minutes writing about the act of kindness you’ve observed that’s caused the most impressive ripple. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist’s bacon is saved by a person to whom s/he previosuly extended a kindness your...

Journaling + Fiction – March 27

“Neoteny is the retention of all those wonderful qualities that we associate with youth: curiosity, playfulness, eagerness, fearlessness, warmth, energy.”Warren G. Bennis Journal prompt: Spend at least 20 minutes writing about a person you admire for staying youthful despite his or her chronological age. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist realizes that s/he is considered elderly...

Journaling + Fiction – March 26

“An open mind is all very well in its way, but it ought not to be so open that there is no keeping anything in or out of it.”Alfred North Whitehead Journal prompt: Spend at least 20 minutes writing about what you learned the last time you were open-minded about an idea to which you should have closed your mind. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist keeps an open mind about a...

Journaling + Fiction – March 25

“It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it.”G.K. Chesterton Journal prompt: Spend at least 20 minutes writing about an aspect of your faith (or lack of faith) that you find amusing and the philosophical implications of laughing about it. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist laughs at an article of another character’s core belief system.