Things to write about: 100 ideas for when the page stays blank

The trouble with “write about anything” is that anything is too big. Nobody sits down and writes about love. People write about the note their dad left on the fridge, or the way their first apartment smelled of someone else’s cooking. Small and specific is where writing starts.

Good things to write about are small, specific and a little bit yours: a smell from childhood, the last text you sent, a job you’d never want, a stranger you still think about. Pick one, choose a form (a letter, a list, a scene), set a timer for ten minutes and start in the middle.

Roll a writing idea

Form

A letter

Lock

About

the kitchen table you grew up with

Lock

Twist

from the point of view of an object in the room

Lock

Roll againWrite for 10 minutes

Lock the parts you like and roll the rest. Nothing you do here is stored or sent.

Quick takeaways

• The more specific the subject, the easier the first line. “My grandmother’s kitchen” beats “family.”
• Pick a form as well as a subject. A letter, a list or a recipe gives you a shape to fill.
• A twist (a different point of view, a word limit, a time jump) makes a familiar subject feel new.
• Ten minutes is enough. Stop mid-sentence and it’s easier to come back tomorrow.
• Keep a list of ideas at the back of your notebook, and add to it whenever something catches your eye.

What should I write about?

Write about something small that you can picture clearly: an object, a place, a moment or a person. Then choose a form for it, like a letter, a list or a short scene. The dice above combine a form, a subject and a twist into one idea, so you don’t have to decide all three.

If nothing comes, try one of the techniques from the University of North Carolina Writing Center’s brainstorming guide. Freewriting is the simplest: in the guide’s words, you “let your thoughts flow as they will,” writing down whatever comes into your mind without stopping to fix it. Listing works too: write ten nouns from your day, then pick the one you have the most to say about.

Things to write about yourself

Writing about yourself works best when you come at it sideways: through an object, a place, a habit or a mistake, rather than “who am I.” These 20 ideas each point at one small, specific part of your life.

1. The first thing you remember.
2. A coat, bag or pair of shoes you wore until it fell apart.
3. Your morning routine, described like a nature documentary.
4. The best advice you ignored, and what happened.
5. A rule you broke on purpose.
6. The person you were five years ago. What would they think of today?
7. Something you’re quietly proud of that nobody has noticed.
8. A habit you picked up from someone else.
9. The worst job you ever had, hour by hour.
10. Your hands: what they’ve made, carried and broken.
11. A room you had to leave for good.
12. The meal you’d choose if you could only eat one again.
13. What your phone’s camera roll says about the last month.
14. An argument you won but shouldn’t have.
15. The places you feel most like yourself.
16. A skill you’d love to have, and the first step toward it.
17. The last time you laughed until it hurt.
18. A year of your life you’d like to redo, and one you wouldn’t change.
19. Something you believed as a child that turned out to be wrong.
20. Your life as a list of addresses.

Things to write a story about

Story ideas work best as a character who wants something, and a problem in the way. These 20 give you a situation with a question built in. Answer the question and you have a plot.

21. A locksmith is hired to open a door that has no lock.
22. Two strangers keep receiving each other’s mail.
23. A town where it hasn’t rained for exactly one year, to the day.
24. Someone finds a diary written in their own handwriting, dated next year.
25. A lighthouse keeper whose light has started signaling back.
26. The last day of a store that’s been open for a hundred years.
27. A wedding where everyone is secretly hoping it won’t happen.
28. A child who can hear what houses think.
29. Two old friends meet at a funeral for someone neither of them liked.
30. A lost dog walks into a police station and sits down.
31. A voicemail arrives from a number that was disconnected years ago.
32. The night shift at a 24-hour laundromat.
33. A letter that took 50 years to be delivered.
34. A ghost who is terrible at haunting.
35. Someone wins a prize for something they didn’t do.
36. A family road trip where the car radio only plays one song.
37. The quietest person in the office leaves a note on their last day.
38. A town that votes to cancel winter.
39. A robot learning to lie, badly.
40. The person who writes fortune cookie messages starts writing the truth.

If you want more, the story ideas guide builds a premise from a character, a want and an obstacle. For magic and other worlds, there are 100 fantasy writing prompts.

Things to write a poem about

Poems start well from one clear image and one feeling that goes with it. Pick a small, physical thing, describe it closely, and let the feeling come in through the details rather than saying it outright.

41. A window on a rainy afternoon.
42. The sound your house makes at night.
43. A piece of fruit, described as if you’d never seen one.
44. The walk home from somewhere you loved.
45. A pair of shoes by the door.
46. Something you found in a coat pocket.
47. The moment before you fall asleep.
48. A bus stop in winter.
49. Your name, and who chose it.
50. The last leaf on a tree.
51. A kitchen at 6am.
52. Hands holding a hot drink.
53. Someone you only know by sight.
54. The sea, from a long way off.
55. A photograph you don’t remember being taken.

Things to write about in a journal

Journal entries don’t need a big topic. Write about today’s smallest good thing, a conversation you keep replaying, a decision you’re putting off, or what you’d do with a free afternoon. Ten minutes on one of these is a full entry.

56. The smallest good thing that happened today.
57. A conversation you keep replaying.
58. A decision you’re putting off, and what you’re waiting for.
59. What you’d do with a completely free afternoon.
60. Something you changed your mind about this year.
61. Three things you noticed on your walk.
62. What you need more of this week, and less of.
63. A worry, written down so it stops circling.
64. Someone you’d like to thank, and what you’d say.
65. What a good day would look like tomorrow.
66. The last thing that made you angry, and what was underneath it.
67. What you’re looking forward to, however small.
68. A letter to yourself a year from now.
69. What your body is telling you today.
70. The best thing you read, watched or heard this week.

There are more journal-specific ideas in things to journal about.

Things to write about for an essay or blog post

Good essay topics sit where your experience meets a question other people have. Write about something you know from the inside, and frame it as a question: what changed your mind, what nobody tells you, what you’d tell a beginner.

71. Something everyone recommends that didn’t work for you.
72. What nobody tells you about your job.
73. A skill you learned late, and how.
74. The best thing about where you live that visitors miss.
75. A tradition in your family that outsiders find strange.
76. What you’d tell yourself on your first day at work.
77. A book that changed how you think, and what you disagreed with.
78. A small change that made a big difference to your week.
79. What a hobby taught you about something else.
80. An unpopular opinion you can defend.
81. Why you stopped doing something everyone else still does.
82. The most useful thing you own that cost almost nothing.
83. What your town was like before a big change.
84. A mistake that turned out well.
85. What you’d do differently if you started again.

Things to write about when you’re bored

When you’re bored, write something playful and short: a list, a fake review, a set of instructions or a letter to an object. Low stakes are the point. You’re not writing something good, you’re writing something.

86. A one-star review of your own day.
87. Instructions for making toast, written for an alien.
88. A letter of complaint to the weather.
89. The inner thoughts of your houseplant.
90. A list of 20 things in the room, ranked by how much they know about you.
91. A job advert for your role in your family.
92. Your life story in exactly six words.
93. A conversation between your left and right sock.
94. The last five things you searched for, as a short story.
95. A menu for a restaurant that only serves your comfort foods.
96. A weather forecast for your mood this week.
97. The rules of a sport you just invented.
98. A thank-you note to an object you use every day.
99. Your plans for the weekend, written as an epic poem.
100. A dictionary definition of a word you made up.

How do you turn an idea into a piece of writing?

Set a timer for ten minutes, write the first line without planning, and keep going until the timer ends. Don’t stop to fix anything. Read it back the next day, underline the best sentence, and start the second draft from there.

1. Pick one idea. Don’t shop around for the perfect one.
2. Choose a form. A letter, a list, a scene. It tells you what shape to fill.
3. Set a timer for ten minutes. Long enough to get going, short enough to start.
4. Start in the middle. Skip the introduction and begin with the most interesting moment.
5. Keep going. Cross out, don’t erase. Messy is fine.
6. Stop mid-sentence if you want to come back to it. It’s easier to pick up.
7. Read it tomorrow. Underline the one line that works, and build from there.

For more ways into fiction and poems, the creative writing hub collects prompts for adults, short stories and more.

Things to write about questions

What is a good topic to write about?

One you can picture clearly and have a feeling about. A specific object, place, person or moment is easier to write about than a big theme, and the big theme usually shows up anyway.

What should I write about if I have nothing to say?

Write about what’s in front of you: the room, the view, the last conversation you had. Or list ten nouns from your day and pick one. Having nothing to say usually means the topic is too big.

How do I find my own writing ideas?

Carry a notebook or a notes app and write down anything that catches your attention: an overheard line, a strange sign, a smell. After a few weeks you’ll have a page of ideas to choose from.

What are fun things to write about?

Fake reviews, letters to objects, instructions for aliens and conversations between things that can’t talk. The bored list above has 15 to start with.