Writing things down is an effective way to process emotions and understand where you might be getting stuck. I don’t care if you are a terrible writer, if your handwriting is illegible and your grammar is questionable. If you find yourself writing below your standards, lower your standards. No one else ever needs to read what you write. Set a timer for five, ten, twenty minutes — whatever feels reasonable, and free write with zero judgment.

Writing prompts:

• What is your relationship with writing?

• Write about the way writing makes you feel - free? Judged? Can you consider it to be a way to clear your mind? Or does it tend to feel like an assignment in which you need to prove something and get a good grade?

• Do you remember your earliest experiences with writing? Write about how writing felt you then, and how it might have changed now.

• Have you ever shared your writing with others? Why or why not? How was it received?

• Do you think of yourself as “a writer”? Why or why not? What does it mean to be “a writer” or just someone who writes?

This writing prompt originally appeared with the article entitled Why Writing Works.