I’m happy to announce that the National Journal Writing Month (NaJoWriMo) will resume again on October 1st. NaJoWriMo is held four months a year (January, April, July, and October). Each month consists of 30 days of writing prompts and other tips and strategies for developing a journaling habit for personal growth.
October Theme
The theme for NaJoWriMo October is Unleashing Your Creative Mind Through Journal Writing.
I’m jazzed about this month’s theme of creativity because many of us don’t explore and use our creative energy unless we’re a painter, fiction writer, poet, songwriter, graphic designer, or other types of artist.
The older we get, the more disconnected we become from our creative potential. But we all have creative abilities, even if we don’t know how to paint, draw, or write stories. For the purposes of journal writing, the theme of creativity will be a mixture of prompts that invite you to reflect on your thoughts, ideas, and experiences about creativity and to use creative expression in your journal writing.
The prompts will focus on creativity and personal growth. As with other NaJoWriMo themes and prompts, you will continue to learn about your journal writing and creative exercises.
October Thematic Email Prompts
One of the ways to participate in NaJoWriMo is to use daily thematic prompts emailed to you daily throughout the month of October.
Journal prompts for Unleashing Your Creative Mind focus on
- What inspires your creativity?
- What forms of creative expression do you use in your daily life?
- What are the roadblocks to your creativity?
- Finding creative expression in music, novels, photos
- Your past experiences with creative experiences
- How you can be more creative.
Order the book on September 30 to receive your first prompt on October 1st.
Order Journal Writing Book
If you prefer a dedicated journal for NaJoWriMo October, you can order the journaling prompts in book format.
The NaJoWriMo writing book for October consists of 31 journaling prompts and 91 pages for responding to the prompts.
The book has durable binding and paper and is great for preserving journal entries.
Three Levels of Participation
Each NaJoWriMo has three levels of participation that you can challenge yourself as a journal writer.
Beginner Level: Journaling Challenge
The Beginner Level for NaJoWriMo is a great way to get started journaling. It involves writing a simple diary or journal entry a least once a day for 30 days. The journal entry can be as simple as a one-sentence summary of your day. The goal is to start building a journal writing habit. Use whichever tool journal writing tool works best for you (e.g., pen and paper notebook, an online journal writing app, or a dedicated journaling app such as Day One for the Mac.
Advanced Level: 15,000 Words Challenge
For this level, you write daily for the entire month and push to write 15,000 words in one month (500 words per day.) This is a great challenge for building writing fluency and deepening your reflective writing. Of course, you can increase or lower the number if you like. Using a digital journaling application or writing notebook that includes a word counter will help monitor the number of words written.
The Mac and iOS application, Day One, reports how many words you write for each entry. And the online web application, 750words.com, also includes a word counter.
Thematic Level
The thematic approach involves one or more approaches:
- Respond to the journal writing prompts about creativity that you can purchase. The prompts will include creative exercises, such as short fictional reflections.
- Actually, keeping an art journal in which you commit to using drawings, painting, and other forms of artistic expression. As we get closer to the month, there will be more ideas about this.
- Developing your theme and exploring it throughout the month.
- If you’re interested in participating in the National Novel Writing Month, on which NaJoWriMo is based, you might use your journal writing to write and prepare for that month. You could use your journal to explore the novel you intend to write. You could write about the characters, the settings, and the plot, without actually writing the novel until November.
[Tweet “I’ve signed up for National Journal Writing Month. You should join me. #NaJoWriMo”]
Is there a way I can check to see if I signed up? I was having comouter issues yesterday and am not sure my payment qent through. Thanks!
Jennie Sisler
Hi Jen, I see you has signed up for NaJoWriMo website, and I received a notice that you ordered the 7 Daily Writing Prompts to Start Your Day. Gumroad which handles the distribution of my prompts, is down for maintenance at this time, but I’ll check on there later to see if your first prompt was sent out. Did you order another prompt set as well?
Hi Jen, I see you signed up on my website and my 7 Day Prompts set. Gumroad, which distributes my prompts, is having maintenance issues, but you should receive your first prompt today or tomorrow. Let me know you don’t receive your first prompt. Thanks for signing up. Are you new to journal writing?