In almost every workshop I lead, someone tells me, "I'm not a writer." I understand the impulse — it can feel like a title you have to earn before you're allowed to put a pen to paper. I don't believe that. I think you become a writer by writing, badly at first, and these are a few of the prompts I use to get people started.
1. Your peaceful place, through the five senses. Describe somewhere you feel safe using only what you'd see, hear, smell, touch, and taste there. Don't explain why it's peaceful — just describe it, and let the feeling come through the details.
2. A letter to someone who came before you. Write a short letter of gratitude to an ancestor, real or imagined. You don't need their name. You just need one thing you'd want them to know.
3. Name your "monkeys in the brain." Write down the negative messages you tell yourself on a hard day. Then, underneath each one, write a single sentence that talks back to it.
4. Make a list, and call it a poem. List ten things that are true about your week. Read it back. You'll notice it already has rhythm — that's the poem.
5. Answer "Who am I?" without using your job or your role. Try a simile: "I am like ___ because ___." Write five of them and see which one surprises you.
None of these prompts need to produce something polished. The goal is just to get words onto the page — the shaping can come later, or not at all. Writing doesn't have to be for anyone but you.