Journal
Prompts for your own pages
Fifteen minutes, one question, no editing. Several stories in the archive started exactly this way.
Set a timer, pick a prompt, write longhand if you can. The goal is to keep the pen moving — not to publish, not to impress.
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The first hour
Describe yesterday's first hour in present tense. Include one sound (the lift ding, kettle click), one smell (coffee, rain on concrete), and one choice you made on autopilot.
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A familiar route
Write about your walk to Serangoon MRT or the market. What changes when it rains? What is always the same — the auntie at the fruit stall, the shade under Block 234?
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Letter unsent
Begin with "Dear past self" or "Dear future self." Say what you have avoided saying aloud. Stop when the timer ends — even mid-sentence.
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The overheard moment
Recall a fragment of conversation at a hawker centre or in a lift. You do not need the full story — explain why that one line stayed with you.
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Object with history
Pick one object within arm's reach — a mug, a plant pot, a MRT card. Where did it come from? What would you miss if it disappeared?
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Weather as mood
Write about a day when the weather matched how you felt — or fought it. Name the sky colour, the air on your skin, the light in the corridor.
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Kindness received
Describe a small act from a stranger — someone who held the door, shared an umbrella, saved you a seat. What changed in the next ten minutes?
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The meal you remember
Write about a meal tied to a specific week — char kway teow after overtime, soup your neighbour brought up when you were sick. Who was there? What was happening in your life?
How I keep practice separate from publishing
Rough pages stay in a Moleskine on the kitchen shelf. Drafts that might become stories move to a folder on my laptop. The notebook is allowed to be messy; the folder is where I revise with a reader in mind.
If a prompt grows into something shareable, give it a beginning, a turn, and an ending before posting anywhere — including here.