Writing from personal experience

1.  What is happening around you?
Use your senses. What can you see, hear, smell, taste or feel? What does it remind you of? For example; a smell of food could remind you of a relative cooking; the sight of shadows could remind you of childhood nightmares.

2.  Use old photographs to evoke memories.
These may be your own, but equally could be found in magazines or on the internet.

3.  Listen to music whilst you write.
 This could be music that you like now to relax, or songs that featured in the charts in your past that meant something to you, for example.

4.  Hold an object that has been gifted to you.
Think about the feelings that you felt when you received it, or the feelings of the giver that you imagine could have inspired the gift.

5.  What are you most passionate about?
Could you write an argument to support your cause? Think about your audience; a single person or the general public?

6.  Write a letter to someone saying things that you wished you could have told them.
 This could be a deceased relative, to release trauma or to your future or former self.