Today’s journal writing idea is probably one that you’ve heard before. I know I have, and plenty of times. Hence I don’t even know who to attribute it to, but suffice it to say that Oscar Wilde and F. Scott Fitzgerald were already doing. And it involves getting out of the house, which is also great, especially now that Spring is finally here!
For this exercise you will need a journal, a pen, an interesting place to go and some free time. Though the “interesting place to go” is kind of optional, since all places can, potentially, be interesting to a writer. There are three main ways to do this creative writing exercise.
So gather up all these things and once you get to the “interesting place” of your choice sit down on a bench or chair in the case of a cafe or simply lean against the wall. Observe the people and the scenery around you, and when you see something or someone interesting write it down. It can be a person that gets your attention and you might consider describing him or her in detail, perhaps even making things about about their background and the reasons why they are here, in this place, at this time.
Or you might see an interesting exchange between two or more people: a husband and wife, a mother and daughter, two lovers or friends. Describe what you see. how they move their hands when they speak, what their body language says and how it says it. Are they madly in love of are they all a little fed up with each other? Make up a story for all of them or simply make note of what you observed to use later, in another story.
The third type of journalling you can do when doing this exercise is describe the scenery. Not the people, but simply the place that you are observing. This is especially useful if describing the place in your stories, books, poems, etc. does not come very naturally to you. Every story happens somewhere, but the art of describing that somewhere is not innate to every writer. So to remedy this, simply try to describe the “interesting” places of your choice and do so IN DETAIL. Describe the way the paint looks on the benches, the way the sun catches the leaves or the exact way the waiter moves as he brings you your Latte. At first you might want to go for literal descriptions then as you get better and better you can fictionalize it, you can incorporate the scenery descriptions into the stories of the people you observe. Either way you are left with a journal full of descriptions to use as you need them, in other writings.
And as always, Stay Creative!
P.S. And here are some other journal prompts that you might find interesting and/or helpful:
Journal Prompts: Write in the Morning
Journal Prompts: Describe, Describe, Describe Those Feelings
P.P.S. If you enjoyed these journal prompts (or any of the other posts on this blog) please consider sharing the good word with other by socially bookmarking them and subscribing to the RSS feed. Thanks.
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You have a great site! Thanks for visiting my writing prompts lens.
I love getting out and observing people. You just never know what ideas you can generate. My favorite place to go: the beach. However, I’ve come across a few interesting characters at the grocery store.
Have a great day!
Hey. Thanks for visiting my site. And I completely agree that the beach is a great place to recharge those creative energies. And I should really try the grocery store idea, as it is, I only go there to shop.
Have a nice day too!