This Week's Writing Prompts
Get out your favorite notebook—it’s time to fill it up! Click on the tabs below for prompts to get your writing sessions started every day this week. Respond directly to the prompts as presented, or go your own way using the prompts to kick-start your imagination. Let your pen lead the way! Each prompt focuses on a different aspect of your interior life, from examining your faith, to exploring speculative worlds, to inspiring creativity, to planning and setting goals. Oh, the places your mind—and pen—will go!
SUNDAY
About Miracles...
“When there is great love there are always miracles. One might almost say that an apparition is human vision corrected by divine love. I do not see you as you really are. I see you through my affection for you. The miracles of the Church seem to me to rest not so much upon faces or voices or healing power coming suddenly near to us from afar off, but upon our perceptions being made finer, so that for a moment our eyes can see and our ears can hear what is there about us always.”
~Father Vaillant to Bishop LaTour in a discussion about the miracle of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Willa Cather’s novel, Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927)
In your notebook, reflect on Father Vaillant’s assertion that a miraculous apparition “is human vision corrected by divine love,” and that loves makes our perception “finer.” Could it be true that the physical world we see around us every day is distorted and inaccurate because we perceive it without aid of divine love? What difference does great love make in the way we see the world?
MONDAY
Your Window Frames a Masterpiece
Sit in front of a window and take a long, steady look at the view. Imagine that the window frame is the frame of a painting and the view it contains is an artist’s rendering. In your notebook, describe what you see. What’s the color scheme? The focal point? The dominant light source and direction? What’s the message? The title?
TUESDAY
What's Going on Here?
American artist and teacher William Merritt Chase painted this piece, The Song, in 1907. In your notebook, write a story based on this scene. Who are these ladies? Where are they? What’s going on?
WEDNESDAY
The RMS Titanic Sails On
What if it was discovered that the Titanic never actually sank in the Atlantic in 1912? What would the repercussions of this new information be on the global imagination? In your notebook, write an alternative narrative account of Titanic’s maiden voyage.
THURSDAY
The Word as You See It
The Crimson Rambler, Gari Melchers (1915)
In your notebook, write an entry on this word/phrase:
ENDLESS SUMMER
FRIDAY
Week In Review
Asking the Stars, Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach (ca. 1895)
You made it through another week! The weekend is nearly here, and Monday presents a cosmic do-over. Reserve 30 minutes of notebook time today to reflect back on this week and to peer into the week ahead. Use the questions below to guide your review and future planning.
◍ REVIEW
What three things about this week do you want to remember?
What was one key learning from this week?
Grade the quality of your prayer life this week.
Grade your performance against any trackers (workouts, no-spend days, etc.) you are monitoring.
Grade your performance against progress made toward goals.
What one thing could you have done to make this week better?
◍ WEEK AHEAD
How do you plan to make the most of the upcoming weekend?
◍ WEEK AHEAD
What do you plan to do differently this coming week?
What is one thing you can do this coming week that calls for courage or a stretch of your current abilities?
What will you do to strengthen your prayer life?
SATURDAY
Subtle Transitions
October Snow (1926), Olga Wisinger-Florian
“It was hard to say when exactly winter had arrived. The decline was gradual, like that of a person into old age, inconspicuous from day to day until the season became an established, relentless reality. First came a dip in evening temperatures, then days of continuous rain, confused gusts of Atlantic wind, dampness, the fall of leaves, and the changing of clocks—though there were still occasional moments of reprieve; mornings when one could leave the house without a coat and the sky was cloudless and bright. But they were like false signs of recovery in a patient upon whom death has already passed its sentence.”
~Alain de Botton, The Art of Travel
For your notebook: What signals make you aware of the passing of time or the changing of seasons? “Season” has become synonymous with “era” or “phase,” in some contexts, particularly when speaking about life changes as one gets older. What season are you in? When did you get there? How did you know your life had changed? What season is ahead?
2027 Planner Page Printables Are Here!
This year's theme: Hotel Life. Plan your best year ever—with materials evocative of a glamorous, tropical 1930s hotel. Welcome to Palm Gardens!
