Writing About Grief: Journal Prompts to Get You Started

There are many things to write about in the midst of loss… your feelings, your person who died, the questions you seem to find yourself stuck on most often, or the things you wish you had said are all great topics to think about when you are interested in getting your mind down on paper. Journaling can be a great form of therapy and self-discovery. If you are thinking about starting a journal, but are unsure how to start, try out some of these prompts:

• The one thing I miss most…
• If I had to describe the person who died in one sentence, it would be…
• If I had one more day…
• A song that makes me think of the person who died is… and here is why:
• The season that is the hardest without you here is…
• Something that makes me feel better when I have a hard day…
• People mean well when they ______, but it comes across to me as ________.
• Write a letter to your person who died.
• How have you changed since your person died?
• How have things changed around you since your person died?
• Do you have any unanswered questions about your person or the death?
• Something that would have made me feel better when my person died would have been…
• The happiest memory I have with my person who died…
• Do you think your grief will ever end?
• Write about your day. What was good? What was hard for you?
• What would your person want other people to know about them?
• What emotion do you feel most often in your grief?
• In a few sentences, what was your person like?
• Describe a time you told someone about the death…

If you are not the kind of person who is into writing things down, there are many journaling apps and websites that you can test out. Websites like Penzu, Evernote, and Journey are great ways to start a journal if pen-and-paper just isn’t your thing.