If you have already discovered the wonderful world of journaling, you know how helpful it can be to untangle your thoughts by laying them bare on the page.
Writing brings clarity and journaling has been linked to wonderful benefits in relation to mental health, decision-making, and professional advancement.
Whether you’ve committed to writing a certain amount per day or are just trying to fit in a few lines when you can, it is so much easier to get a writing project off the ground when you have a subject in mind from the get-go.
That’s where this article comes in. Read through our list of things to write about when you’re bored, which includes prompts for journal entries, fiction writing, and self-improvement exercises.
Avoid writers’ block altogether with our ready-made list of inspiring topics for your next writing project.
Keeping our writing minds alive and ticking is good for our mental health.
Processing things by summarizing them on paper help us figure out how we really feel about them.
And putting our thoughts into words regularly also makes it easier to write when we have to.
You are bound to be heartfelt and expressive when writing a sympathy letter if you are someone who is regularly honing their writing craft.
Many people want to write more but struggle put this desire into practice.
If this sounds like you, you might be wondering why it is that when we’re busy we have no shortage of great ideas for writing projects, but that when we actually find the time to sit down at our keyboards, we tend to draw a complete blank?
To make things easier on yourself, just skip all the overthinking and choose one of the following topics to journal on!
Things to write about when you’re bored
- Write about what you would do if you weren’t afraid of failure.
- Write about meeting a close friend for the first time. What was it that made you connect with one another initially? How has your friendship changed over time?
- Write about falling in love with your current partner or a former partner, or, if you’ve never been in love, about what you hope falling in love for the first time will be like.
- Write about a time you felt extremely cold and couldn’t get warm.
- Write about a time when you couldn’t stop laughing.
- Write about a time when you felt betrayed.
- Write about a secret that hardly anyone knows about you and consider why you feel uncomfortable sharing it.
- Write about a time when you felt that you couldn’t say what you really thought because you didn’t want to offend someone and discuss how it made you feel and whether you think you made the right decision by staying quiet.
- Write about why you write and what writing means to you.
- Write about your romantic relationship with your partner as though you were an outside observer.
- Write about your relationship from your partner’s perspective.
- Write about a time you felt embarrassed and how thinking about it affects you now.
- Reflect on your childhood and see if you can draw connections between your current behavior patterns and the way you were raised.
- Write about a time you felt lonely, including what triggered the emotion and how you dealt with it.
- Write about a political decision that upset you.
- Write about a political policy that you feel passionate about.
- Write about a time when you observed an injustice.
- Write about a book that meant a lot to you and why.
- Describe the contents of your kitchen cupboard and reflect on why you keep the things you do there and what this says about you?
- Write about a place you spent a lot of time in as a child that you can’t go back to because you no longer have access to it or because it no longer exists. What did it smell like? What did that space make you feel like?
- Write about your parents’ relationship and discuss how you think it has affected your perception of love.
- Write about a time you let someone down.
- Write about the first time you felt grief.
- Write about a challenge you faced and how you overcame it.
- Write about the best meal you’ve ever had.
- Write about a river, lake, or seaside that is special to you.
Fictional topics to write about when you’re bored
The truly wonderful thing about writing fiction is that you can literally create your own world to exist in for the day. Then, you can return to it whenever you want.
You can create characters out of thin air and make them do whatever you want them to. The hardest thing about writing fiction is getting started.
Think about it this way: You would probably rather be in a fantasy world in which a tall, dark, and handsome stranger is leaning off his trusty horse to tell a girl “You’re beautiful” than in your current reality, in which some lame guy is expecting you to reply to “What’s up?” over text.
If this is true, simply select a topic to write about and escape into the word of fiction, where you’re in full control.
- Write a fictional account of the experience of being in a very small space like a jail cell or shipping container.
- Write a fictional account of an alien discovering your town centuries after the apocalypse. What artifacts would they find? What conclusions would they draw about our society?
- Rewrite a classic fairytale but set it in modern times.
- Rewrite the ending of one of your favorite novels.
- Write a story about a romantic betrayal set in a historical period that is of particular interest to you.
- Write a fictional account of a love triangle that is portrayed exclusively in the format of letters.
- Write a fictional account of a murder mystery that is portrayed exclusively in text messages.
- Write a story about twins who are separated at birth and then become reunited as adults.
- Write a spooky Halloween story set in a remote ski lodge during a power outage.
- Write a story about a childhood friendship told in the first person that switches back and forth between narrators.
- Write a story about a woman who goes missing out of the blue.
- Write a fictional account of your favorite celebrity’s life behind the headlines.
- Write a fictional account about an Irish family’s emigration to America in the 1840s.
- Write a story about a divorce told exclusively from the perspective of a nosy neighbor.
- Write a romance set in a small fishing village in France.
- Write a fictional crime story told through the medium of a true crime podcast, in which the podcasters become too wrapped up in the story for their own good.
- Write about a journalist who uncovers something dark about her family’s history and is forced to choose between her professional career and saving her family’s good name.
- Write a satire about a small-town doctor’s practice in a southern town, in which each character is based on someone in your own life.
Self-improvement journal topics for when you’re bored
While fiction writing is all well and good, you might be more focused on improving things in the real world than creating a false one.
If you’ve been trying to level up for a while and want to use smart planning and organizing techniques to make sure you stay on top of your game, incorporate writing into your daily routine.
Choosing a topic to write about for just fifteen minutes per day will give you clarity about the things you need to get done and will ultimately improve your self-knowledge and self-confidence.
Reading and writing for understanding what you want and how to get it will prove key factors in your development.
Here is a list of things to write about in order to improve your self-esteem and give you clarity about what your goals are.
- Envision what you would like your life to look like in five years’ time and write a description of it.
- Write ten positive affirmations that you would like to say to yourself in the mirror every morning.
- Write a list of things you are grateful for.
- Write out a to do-list and set yourself a realistic deadline for when to complete each task by.
- Write a list of the things in your life that are currently causing you stress and then identify and write down three things you could do to reduce your worries about that problem.
- Write a letter to a person in your life that you have been hurt by.
- Write a letter to someone in your life that you are grateful for.
- Write a letter to someone you know with whom you feel there have been words left unsaid.
- Write a letter to the one who got away.
- Write a letter to your child, the child you are carrying, or to the child you hope to have, in which you express your hopes and dreams for them.
- Write down the best and worse pieces of advice you’ve ever received and then analyze what made them good or bad.
- Write down every age you have been to date (beginning at age 10) and then describe each year in up to ten sentences. Reflect on what was good, what was hard, and what you learned in each.
- Write a list of things to do that you know always make you feel good, so that you can refer to this list and choose an activity if you ever feel down.