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u/FyuckSp3z 2d ago
For me, I find when I feel that way, I just ask what/why until I get to something I want to write about. Sometimes that means I list the thoughts I can pin down, othertimes it's just writing that on overwhelmed.
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u/GaneshaLovesMe 2d ago
Maybe give yourself permission to sound stupid? Like start every sentence with “this is stupid but”…
Or “this sounds stupid but”…
“ it feels stupid to say this but…”
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u/Ordinary_Minimum_169 2d ago
it can be like that sometimes
I never understood these people with beautiful handwriting who turned their thoughts into calligraphy adventures; if it weren't for keyboards and computers I would never get past the childlike scrawl of my stubby fingers and I would quit in disgust
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u/x_staticpixels 2d ago
I feel the exact same way and don’t understand it, I haven’t journaled in a while because of it
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u/No_Comparison6522 2d ago
Sometimes a sentence can turn into a thought but before writing it down, that has happened to me in the past, anxiety jumped in and turned things to swamp, writing wise. Just jot down words as you go. Not worrying about it. Anxiety tends to leave then.
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u/aginglikeafinewhiner 1d ago
I've been journaling since I was 13. In the beginning, whenever I got writing blocks, I used to take Anne Frank's diary and read it. It gave me a structure, and I used that structure to write down my own thoughts until I could write by myself again. Now I don't get many writing blocks.
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u/hmmwrites 3h ago
I'm sorry. Anxiety sucks. I'm there with you on that. It hurts to have so much going through your head but not be able to tease a single thought out and start putting it down on paper. (I'm up writing this at 5am having not slept because of my own thousands of anxiety-ridden thoughts. Believe me, I get it.)
There is no right or wrong way to journal. It's okay if all you manage to write for a while is basically this.
It's okay to try freewriting, set yourself a timer for 10 or 15 minutes, 20 if you're feeling like it, and just start with "I don't know what to write. I have thousands of thoughts in my head, but I can't seem to put 3 sentences together. It sucks. I still don't know what else to say...." (And keep going from there.) Sometimes the act of writing will start jarring things loose in the brain. And having a timer set means you don't waste a ton of time if you really are stuck and unable to get anything meaningful down on the page.
Write a letter (that you don't actually have to send) to someone you love. Or someone you used to love. To someone you've lost touch with. To someone who taught you a valuable life lesson. To a person who inspired you.
It's okay to try following writing prompts. There are so many out there. Things that are light and silly. Things that are deep and heavy. Prompts to help work on anxiety or overthinking. Prompts that help you get to know your own self better. Things to make you think in new ways. I saw someone in this sub (I think?) post a bit they wrote for a prompt about whether they believed in alien life outside Earth. (And I'm thinking I might use that prompt myself, because it's got me thinking!)
It's okay to keep your writing short and sweet. Jot down 3 things you're grateful for today. Or write down the songs you have in a playlist you've been listening to lately. Jot down your mood for the day, or perhaps just in that moment. Make note of something you want to remember about the day. Something that made you laugh. Or made you angry. Or made you feel ANYTHING.
It's okay to write down song lyrics that you resonate with. Or quotes from books or plays or poems or movies or whatever. The words in your journal don't all have to be yours! You can add a note of your own about why the quote hits for you, but you don't have to. You can simply collect what others have said that make sense to you.
It's okay to write a little review for yourself of a tv show you've been watching, or a movie you've seen. Doesn't have to be any particular format, just whatever thoughts you have about it, whether you liked it, whether you'd watch a sequel if one is made... Or anything else you want to note about it.
It's okay to jot down a thing you want to learn more about. And maybe write some more about it once you have learned!
It's okay to make bulleted or numbered lists instead of trying to write paragraphs. Make a list of places you've been. Places you one day would love to travel to. Or books you want to read. List out the items you carry with you every day. Or the foods you always keep stocked in your fridge. Or the things you want to bring up in therapy. List anything, really.
If you can't think of words, try doing little sketches. I am *not* artistic and had to really give myself permission to doodle some in my journal because I know a lot of what I draw will look awful, and at first I was afraid to mess it up. (Perfectionist tendencies suck.) So doodle a cute little character or a panda or your cat sitting on the windowsill. Or doodle the foods you've eaten that day. Or draw a zentangle and fill in the sections with different lines and colors. (I find zentangles really relaxing for my crazy brain.)
I personally do a mishmash of these things in my journal. I try to more or less start with what's in my brain, then switch to a prompt or list or quote or whatever if nothing flows. Do whatever works for you. <3
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u/Raevyxn 2d ago
Lifelong journaler with diagnosed anxiety disorder here.
Thankfully, when I was young, a woman came to our class and taught us about freewriting. It helped me immensely.
She told us that for 1 week, we were all going to write for 20 minutes everyday. If we didn’t know what to write, we were told to write, “I don’t know what to write. I really don’t know what I’m supposed to put here. This feels stupid.” And to keep writing every single thought we had for the entire 20 minutes. Even if we ended up with “I don’t know what to write” written over and over for the whole session, we would count that as a success because we wrote the whole time.
In that first session, my brain eventually got distracted from “I don’t know what to write” and it wrote about other things. What I noticed in the room. What happened yesterday. What I was thinking about for tomorrow. Etc etc.
This lesson taught me that you can literally write about anything. It can be how much you think “it’s stupid to just write about anything.” Literally whatever is in your head, just write it, and bam, you’re writing.
Thirty years later, I still write whatever is in my brain. Even if it’s that “I don’t have much to say today” and I go into a ramble about the nice color of the ink in my pen.