If you haven’t noticed from other posts, I am addicted to journaling—
- Writing my thoughts in diaries
- Tracking my habits and goals
- Documenting information about topics
- Reflecting on myself and my world
I am a huge advocate that journaling in any form can be a very fun and therapeutic experience for anyone, which is why I’m always writing about it.
In my other posts about journaling, they are typically more bullet journal-like with trackers and lists. However, I do also keep a bookish reflective journal, too. I actually started a journaling group at my store, and we share thoughts based on the prompts I’m going to share with you here.
There is no particular order to these prompts, but they are all themed to relate to books and reading as a way to think about ourselves and our lives. It really is a fun and non-pressuring way to practice introspection and foster great conversation and human connection—which we need so much more of nowadays. Try out as many as you’d like:
- If life were a novel, what chapter title would describe this season of it?
- Which fictional character do you see yourself in the most, and why?
- If someone wrote a book about your life, what genre would it be and why?
- What part of your story are you still trying to understand?
- What is a trait you admire in a character that you wish you had more of?
- What book changed how you see the world?
- What book found you exactly at the right time in your life?
- What childhood book still feels like home to you?
- What book do you wish you could read again for the first time?
- What book would you give to your younger self?
- What lesson have you learned from a book that still stays with you?
- What fictional character made a choice you disagreed with, but now understand?
- What book made you rethink something you believed?
- What story has comforted you during a difficult time?
- What fictional journey mirrors something in your own life?
- If you could step into any fictional world for a day, where would you go and why?
- What kind of adventure do you secretly wish your life included?
- What story do you feel called to your life right now?
- What dream of yours feels like it belongs in a novel?
- If you life had a “plot twist”, what would you hope it would be?
- What chapter of your life are you ready to close?
- What kind of main character are you becoming?
- What is something your past self would be proud of today?
- What story about yourself are you ready to rewrite?
- What does a “happy ending” look like for you?
- What part of your life could make great content for a horror novel?
- What part of your life would be the next greatest thriller?
- What do you think a favorite genre says about a person?
- If you owned only one physical book in your life, which would it be, and what does that say about you?
- What could we conclude about you based on how you read your books–physical, e-book, audio?
- Do you think you’re a reliable narrator when it comes to telling your story?
- What kind of setting best represents where you are emotionally right now?
- If you could rewrite one chapter of your life, which would it be and why?
- Which plotline of your life has hit its climax (turning point), and where is it leaving you afterward?
- What would the blurb of your life say?
- To whom or what would you dedicate your life story to?
- Like the recommendation quotes from authors, what would others say about your life when recommending it as a novel?
- What kind of protagonist were you as a child?
- Which fictional character would your want beside you during a hard season of your life?
- Would you call yourself more of a villain or anti-hero? How would others read you?
- What character’s courage inspired you the most?
- What villain from a story do you secretly understand?
- Which character would you trust with your secrets?
- If you could be trained to take on life by any character, which would you choose? Why?
- What book reminds you a specific moment or season in your life?
- What book feels like comfort when the world feels overwhelming? Why do you think that is?
- If you could avoid death by entering the world of your favorite book, where would you end up? Why choose there?
- If you could trade places with any book character, which story would you live in? What makes their story so coveted?
- Thinking about a character who frustrated you, would the story be better if your were in their place?
- What book best helps you understand another’s perspective? What made it so different?
- What story changed how you think about relationships?
- Thinking of a character most other fans dislike, what makes that character redeemable? What would redeem you?
- What magical ability from a story would you most want? Why? How would you use it?
- What tropes are you getting tired of? How might that be an indication of you changing?
- What are your story triggers that could make you DNF a book? Why do you think that ends it for you?
- If your town were the setting of a novel, what genre would it be? Why is that?
- What kind of quest would you secretly enjoy going on?
- What creature or magical being from fiction fascinates you the most? Why do you think that is?
- What part of yourself would make an interesting character trait in a novel?
- What hope would you want the ending of your life story to contain?
- Is there any symbolism in your life? What is something significant in your life in a subtle way?
- What type of story do you always return to? What does that say about you?
- How has your taste in books changed as you’ve grown? What does that say about you?
- What motifs keeps appearing in your life story?
- If someone were to intepret a theme from your life, what would your story teach us?
If you did one a week, it would get you through a year of some great thinking about your life as a story and how the stories you love have become a part of you and your world. It’s a simple as getting a favorite blank journal, writing the date and question at the top, and answering it below. Even more fun would be to review your answers over the years and see how they change as you read and experience more in your life.
Which question do you want to answer? How do you practice introspection as a reader?
Let us know in the comments below!
