ten writing prompts for controlled discomfort
Note to self: Keep these. Don’t overthink them. They interrupt the usual journaling voice and force sideways honesty. Leave them where someone else might stumble across them.
Someone finds your bag, wallet, keys. Write who they imagine you to be - and how meeting you would disrupt that image.
Describe your life philosophy as if explaining house rules to an overnight guest.
Create a lost-and-found listing for something intangible that’s important to you.
Write convincingly why “boring” is an excellent quality, and list the boring things about yourself that you are proud to have, be or do.
Write about your relationship to time using only gardening metaphors.
Complete this ten times with different endings: "I pretend not to notice when..."
List seven things you do regularly, then rate each on a scale from "sustainable" to "gradually making me unhinged."
Write a paragraph using only sentences that begin with the last word of the previous sentence.
Create a maintenance manual for yourself as if you were a complicated appliance another person must learn to operate.
Complete this sentence twenty times without repeating structure or sentiment: "The thing no one warns you about is..."