I always find that, inevitably, I go to the store thinking I’ll walk out with a bundle of cute clothes and extra almond milk, and I walk out with four notebooks with different cats on the covers, a binder in some weird color, and countless packs of pencils and pens- and none of the things on my list (I swear, I was only going in to buy some bananas and toothpaste!!). Seriously, I loVE office supplies. I call it, “the Illusion of Productivity”. This goes without saying, but I have TONS of empty journals lying around. To that end, I have used one journal to come up with a list of things to do with empty journals and have decided to impart to you all my list:
1) Write out a list of things to do with empty journals
2) Start a recipe book for your favorite desserts.
3) Glue different things (i.e., flowers, coins, pictures of pineapples) on every page.
4) Create a style lookbook (cut out things you like from magazines and stuff)
5) Write silly haikus
6) Draw faces and practice applying makeup on them
7) Draw a picture based off of song lyrics
8) Practice your signature
9) Make up a cartoon
10) Start a personal collection of pick-up lines
11) Write a song about writing songs
12) Make a list of prompts for a rainy day (or writer’s block)
13) Write a letter to someone you hate, but don’t send it. Burn it.
14) Start your own “Burn Book” (see Mean Girls) but write nice things about people.
15) Write a “she’s manic depressive he’s got an inferiority complex” AU for your OTP (or make up your own characters)
16) Write about a day in your life from the POV of a fly on the wall
17) Draw something without lifting your pen from the paper
18) Do an anatomy study
19) Draw optical illusions
20) Fill up a whole page with spirals (shhh shh don’t ask why it’s just for procrastination)
21) Make a scrapbook about your favorite year
22) Write an essay on art history
23) Start a bucket list
24) Walk outside and draw or describe the first three things you notice
25) Write a journal entry for your favorite character
26) Draw a water drop
27) Write an extra chapter for your favorite book
28) Draw something punk!Disney
29) Write a short version of a Shakespearean play, set in modern times
30) Design a dress
31) Draw a fish (focus on how the light would reflect off of the scales)
32) Write a horror story and make it as cheesy as you can
33) Pick a line from a classic piece of literature (i.e., anything like Charles Dickens, a religious book, a philosophy piece, Edgar Allen Poe, Charlotte Bronte, Mark Twain, etc.) and draw a picture that interprets the sentence literally
34) Analyze a character (it’s fun to research things like Meyers-Briggs personality types and stuff for this one)
35) Write a story about a schizophrenic who falls in love with one or more of his/her other personalities
36) Draw one of the Seven Deadly Sins
37) Write something based on Greek mythology
38) Write a (scientifically accurate) essay on time travel
39) Design a robot
40) Paint a whole page your favorite color
41) Draw clouds
42) Write about an accurately awkward, un-romanticized first kiss
43) Explore a certain emotion (i.e., anger), focusing on telling the reader what it feels like, looks like, etc.- without explicitly naming it.
44) Describe a person using a metaphor or simile
45) Draw an anatomically correct brain or heart
46) Draw something (flowers, people, trains, anything really) made up of other, smaller things (more flowers, words, cats, anything really)
47) Doodle a computer with your eyes closed
48) Write something inspired by the concept of a “selfie”
49) Design a house
50) Write your inaugural speech for when you become president of something
51) Draw a self portrait with a pink pencil
52) Draw a sandwich
53) Write about an art theft from the artists’ perspective
54) Write a story from the POV of a senior-citizen, unexpected villain
55) Use the whole journal to write kind notes to people and leave them anonymously
56) Draw one line for every day of the year, and at the end of the year see what sort of picture you’ve made
57) Describe your journal, in your journal
58) Write about a poltergeist who is very philosophic
59) Write a “artist/writer” AU for your OTP
60) Draw ice
61) Describe a character’s eyes without comparing them to a certain body of water
62) Finish this sentence: “I am not a god, I do not…”
63) Write the script for a mini movie
64) Create a flip-through moving picture
65) Make a list of your favorite sounds
66) Write a thesis-like paper on your philosophy on life
67) Draw a smell
68) Cut out pop-up silhouettes
69) Write a typical trope for a “perfect” love story (but imply an underlying dark theme, such as abuse or addiction)
70) Write about a character who went from rich to poor. Why did they? Who was responsible?
71) “Interview” a character (really get inside their heads)
72) Make a fleet of paper airplanes and color them ALL
73) Draw a cute monster
74) Write about a character with a bunch of phobias
75) Draw a puppy Tim Burton style
76) Make up “stupid workouts”- then video yourself demonstrating said workouts
77) Practice forging someone’s signature
78) Draw a macho character wearing a tutu. Write about the story behind it.
79) Write one thing per day that you love about yourself
80) Write out a shopping spree of stuff you would buy if you had exactly $2,789.25 to spend (no more, no less)
81) Write a 50 Shades of Grey parody called “50 Shades of Cats”, about a woman who must come to terms with the idea of “forever alone”
82) Interview your parents
83) Make a list of 20 things you want to improve about yourself- then do it.
84) Draw a series entitled, “The Art of Irony”
85) Make your will (it’s always best to be prepared)
dededos
turnnoffyourmind
stormborns
blakekathryn
