“His resolve is not to seem, but to be, the best.”Aeschylus Journal prompt: Reflect on your previous journal entries and spend at least 20 minutes writing about what change you’ll make in the new year to transcend merely seeming to be the best. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist proves the best in a crowded field.
“You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.”Woodrow Wilson Journal prompt: Spend at least 20 minutes writing about how you’ll most enrich the world during your life. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which an ally must remind your protagonist of your protagonist’s errand in the world.
“Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway.”Eleanor Roosevelt Journal prompt: Spend at least 20 minutes writing about the worst criticism you received for doing the right thing. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist doesn’t do the right thing out of fear of being criticized.
“The love of knowledge is a kind of madness.”C.S. Lewis Journal prompt: Spend at least 20 minutes writing about a discipline about which you’re passionate that few others care about or understand. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist drives everyone else crazy talking about something s/he recently learned.
“Perfect may not always be pretty but excellence is always elegant.”Janna Cachola Journal prompt: Spend at least 20 minutes writing about the most elegant solution to a problem you’ve ever seen. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist wins ugly.
“Timidity is the root of prudence in the majority of men.”Carl Philipp Gottlieb von Clausewitz Journal prompt: Spend at least 20 minutes writing about something you’re should but are too scared to do. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist justifies his/her timidity with prudence.
“I think it’s easier than ever to hear only what you want to hear. That doesn’t make a good citizen.”Eli Pariser Journal prompt: Spend at least 20 minutes writing about how you’ll expand your sources of knowledge and information to encounter ideas you don’t want to hear. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which reality pierces your protagonist’s filter...
“Good resolutions are like babies crying in church. They should be carried out immediately.”Charles M. Sheldon Journal prompt: Reflect on your previous journal entries and spend at least 20 minutes writing about the habit you’ll replace with a better one in the new year. Fiction writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist realizes that s/he has procrastinated too long.