Want to feel more hope and open space? These daily October journal prompts ask you to see things differently.
I suggest giving yourself at least ten minutes or one full page per prompt, but go as long as you like!
Basic advice for how to journal:
* Write down every thought as it arrives.
* Anything that pops up on the page might be useful.
* It’s good to let it all show up, and sort it out as you go.
* If you miss a day (or a few days, or a few decades) of this habit, don’t waste your own time beating yourself up, please; just come back when you want to do it again.
* Be honest. Keep going. You may even find out what you really think.
(If we haven’t met, I’m Megan. I’m an award-winning author, trained facilitator, and respectful writing coach. I journal daily-ish. I do it because it’s fun, free, and seems to keep me more connected on the page and in my life. If you’d like to try something new in your journaling this month, here’s my Megged-up list of October journal prompts.)
October Journal Prompts
Click here for a printable .pdf file of all 31 October journal prompts.
1. What am I glad to know?
2. Where am I comforted?
3. Who do I believe?
4. What helps me?
5. Whose life have I improved?
6. What do I feel attached to?
7. Who has improved my life?
8. Why aren’t I doing worse?
9. What’s easy for me to love?
10. How do I get stronger?
11. What am I teaching myself to continue doing?
12. How can I show people that I care?
13. What fictional world would I love to step into? (Is there one where I would thrive?)
14. How do I prepare for the best case scenario?
15. Who would I like to understand?
(psst… if you want mood music to help you focus, here’s my personal journaling playlist:
ok, back to the prompts…)
16. What’s my relationship to gratitude?
17. How do I experience freedom?
18. What part of my life would make a good movie?
19. What’s obvious about me?
20. What rare things do I love, see, or know?
21. What have I spent many hours practicing, and why?
22. Where am I glad to have been?
23. What’s the perfect wording (no loopholes) for a magical wish I’d actually make?
24. What distracts me, and if I want to change that, what might help?
25. What’s predictable?
26. How do I feel about tomorrow?
27. Which things don’t really matter to me?
28. Who am I the most like?
29. What do I hope?
30. What do I want?
31. How would someone dress up as me for Halloween?
Those are my October journal prompts. Thanks for checking them out.
Journaling in private doesn’t have to be a gateway drug to writing for an audience, but it can. Sometimes, essential or innovative or exciting ideas pop out when we’re just trying to be honest with ourselves. If you recognize the truth on the page… that phrase that feels alive, that spark of a joke or insight, or that one big feeling you got while writing… do you want to take it farther? Could it be the start of something that belongs to the world and not just to you?
If you want to write things that matter to strangers, 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.