Shoutout to the old journal I found while cleaning out my closet

I was finally organizing my closet this past weekend, part of my big home tidy up project. Under a pile of boxes, I stumbled on an old journal I kept in high school. It's full of half finished stories and strange notes I barely remember writing. That gave me a spark for a new writing prompt about discovering a hidden diary that holds a secret. I want to share it here but I'm not sure how to set it up right. Should the prompt focus on the diary's owner or the person who finds it? Has anyone made a prompt from something they found at home? I'd like some ideas to make it work.

3 comments

3 Comments

colerodriguez3d ago

Hey, @mason.brian's right, focus on the finder's surprise.

mason.brian3d ago

Old journals are such time capsules, aren't they? Once I found a box of my dad's letters from college when we were cleaning the attic. They were all about his band and crazy road trips, nothing like the dad I knew. It made me wonder how much we change without even noticing, not really about writing prompts but more about memory. I ended up just sitting there reading them for hours, completely forgetting the cleaning. Sometimes the find is more about the surprise than what you do with it, you know?

dylanh273d ago

But what good is a surprise if it doesn't lead to anything? Like, you read your dad's letters and get caught up in the moment, but then what? If you don't use that stuff to connect with him or understand your own life better, it's just a temporary feel-good thing. I mean, finding old journals is cool, but the real value comes from what you do after, not just the initial shock lol.