Listening to the quietest voice inside you can change your life (and maybe the world)! The focus of my April journal prompts: honesty, growth, and just enough fun to keep it all from feeling deadly.
If we haven’t met, I’m Megan. I’m a trained facilitator, respectful writing coach, and award-winning author. I journal daily-ish. It makes me a better writer and a kinder person. If you’d like to join me this month, here are my Megged-up April journal prompts.
Journaling can feel like deep safety, which makes your private pages a good place to take a risk. Be real with yourself. Accept your uncertainty. Push past your assumptions. Find out what you think.
In the words of the great Joan Didion: “I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.”
I suggest giving yourself at least ten minutes or one full page per prompt; whichever comes first; but please, go as long as you like.
April Journal Prompts
Click here for a printable .pdf file of all 30 April journal prompts.
If you want mood music to help you focus, here’s my journaling playlist:
1. What would I love to ignore? How well am I doing at ignoring it?
2. Who in my life was very unlikely for me to meet?
3. What can I fully enjoy without hesitation?
4. Who am I glad to be alive around?
5. What do I have today that I seriously earned?
6. What’s standing between me and peace?
7. If I could get one definitive “yes or no” answer about anything at all, what would I ask?
8. What makes a party awesome?
9. Using only the time between now and when I go to bed, what can I finish that I’m in the middle of?
10. What would I like to care less about? (Bonus: Why do I care about it so much?)
11. List time! What would I be good at in a post-apocalyptic wasteland? What skills am I bringing?
12. When is it easier for me to find patience? Where is it more difficult?
13. What do I want to protect and preserve?
14. What would be nice to remember about everyone else on earth?
15. Why am I this nice (or this mean)?
16. What’s the nearest living thing besides me, and how deeply can I describe it?
17. How do I know when I’m kidding and when I’m serious?
18. What do I hope will happen this week? (Bonus: how can I make it happen?)
19. How does “being certain” feel for me?
20. What easily holds my attention? Why?
21. What am I just now starting to really understand?
22. How am I dealing with everything?
23. Who (if anyone) had a positive influence on me when I was a teenager? How does it show up now?
24. What do I think would save the world?
25. How can I give someone in my life a memorable gift with minimal effort?
26. What am I almost ready to grow out of?
27. When do I feel unleashed (good or bad)?
28. Where am I leaking energy due to indecision?
29. What’s my relationship to surprise?
30. What’s a good investment of my time and energy today?
Those are my April journal prompts. Thanks for giving them a look.
Keeping a journal is valuable on its own. It can also become a slippery slope to other kinds of creative writing. Whether you keep writing as a hobby or pursue it as a career, getting real with your words in private is good practice for anything else you want to write. Make truth a habit. Start by writing in your journal, build your strength and courage, then (when you’re ready to level up) unleash your words on the world!
If you want to go beyond the privacy of your journal and give some writing to the public, I’m available to give you f*ckin’ friendly, majorly honest sliding-scale creative writing coaching. Get your ideas into the world.
xo, megan
Or just go home to the blog.
These (hopefully) really quite helpful creative writing tips offer what I’ve learned as an award-winning author who writes a million words a year, and what I’ve learned about supporting others as a private writing coach.
There’s no one way to write. There’s only your way. I hope some of my tactics and ideas can help you find it.
Yup, I’m a writing coach.
I work with folks at all levels of experience and all levels of income. My writers range from unhoused teens living on the streets to C-suite executives who want to up-level their communication. If you want a private coaching session but can’t afford it, email megan@howtowritesomething.com and ask for scholarship info.
curious/confused?: what does a writing coach do (and not do)
THANK YOU to this month’s generously supportive patrons who are helping me build a digital library of free writing resources to support writers with different access needs! Three cheers for A.J., Dan, Jason, Jennifer, Jessica, Josh, Katherine, Kathleen, Marianna, Nell, Sarah, and some anonymous folks who’ve asked not to be named. Come on in, the Patreon’s fine.