Stuck on what to put on tonight’s page? These junk journal prompts take the choice away: you shuffle an ordinary deck of cards, turn one, and that card tells you what to write and what goes on the page.
Table of Contents
Why junk journal prompts stall — and why a random draw helps
A list of 100 junk journal prompts sounds useful until you’re actually looking at it. Then you spend twenty minutes choosing, skip the hard ones, and close the journal. The problem isn’t a shortage of ideas. It’s the choice. A card draw takes the choice away: you turn a card and that’s tonight’s page, done.
How these junk journal prompts work with a deck
You need an ordinary deck of 52 playing cards. No jokers, no tarot, nothing to buy. The same idea sits behind many solo diary-style games: one random draw, one clear instruction.
- The suit is the theme.
- ♥ Hearts are people.
- ♦ Diamonds are things.
- ♣ Clubs are places.
- ♠ Spades are what’s ending.
- The rank is the depth.
- Ace to 10 are quick pages: a few lines and one piece of ephemera.
- Jack, Queen and King are longer pages: a full spread, several layers, more writing.
- Each of these junk journal prompts has two halves: something to write, and something to put on the page. Most of the time is in the second half. You don’t need to draw. Cutting, tearing, gluing and writing is plenty.
Shuffle, turn the top card, find it in the table below, and make the page. Shuffle the card back in or set it aside. If you set it aside, the deck becomes a 52-page journal with a built-in end.
The 52 junk journal prompts
These free junk journal prompts are a sampler written for this post. They aren’t taken from any of our games.
♥ Hearts: people
| Card | Writing prompt | What goes on the page |
|---|---|---|
| A | Who did you speak to today? Write one thing they said. | A torn scrap with the quote handwritten |
| 2 | Name someone you haven’t thought about in years. | A blank portrait frame or name label |
| 3 | Describe a stranger you noticed this week. | A ticket stub |
| 4 | Who taught you something useful? What was it? | A specimen-style label naming the skill |
| 5 | Write about a person whose handwriting you’d recognise. | A letter or envelope |
| 6 | Who would you call with good news? | A tag with their initial |
| 7 | Describe a family recipe and who made it. | A recipe card or index card |
| 8 | Write about a neighbour, past or present. | A strip of map from that street |
| 9 | Who makes you laugh, and how? | A small cut-out photo or doodle |
| 10 | Describe a person you’ve lost touch with. What would you ask them? | An envelope glued as a pocket |
| J | Write a short portrait of a friend: how they walk, talk, dress. | A portrait plus three hand-lettered labels |
| Q | Write a letter to someone you admire. You don’t have to send it. | A full letter, folded into a pocket |
| K | Write about the person you were ten years ago. | An old photo or portrait, layered over a dated ticket |
♦ Diamonds: things
| Card | Writing prompt | What goes on the page |
|---|---|---|
| A | What’s in your pocket or bag right now? | A receipt |
| 2 | Describe an object you use every day. | A label naming it |
| 3 | Name something you’ve kept for no good reason. | A tag tied to the page |
| 4 | Write about something you bought and never used. | A price tag or receipt |
| 5 | Describe the oldest thing you own. | A dated stamp or ticket |
| 6 | What’s on your windowsill? | A pressed leaf or flower |
| 7 | Write about something broken you haven’t fixed. | A torn paper, mended with tape or stitching |
| 8 | Describe a gift you remember. | Wrapping paper scrap or a gift tag |
| 9 | What would you save in a fire? | A pocket holding a list |
| 10 | Write about a collection, yours or someone else’s. | A row of small labels |
| J | Describe one object in such detail someone could draw it. | A specimen label plus a rough sketch |
| Q | Write the history of one thing you own: where it’s been, who’s had it. | A luggage tag and a map strip |
| K | What will you leave behind? Make a short inventory. | An index card list, tucked into an envelope |
♣ Clubs: places
| Card | Writing prompt | What goes on the page |
|---|---|---|
| A | Where are you sitting right now? Describe it in three lines. | A torn background strip in the room’s colours |
| 2 | Write about a shop that’s gone. | A receipt or paper bag scrap |
| 3 | Describe your walk to somewhere you go often. | A map strip |
| 4 | Name a place you’ve only seen in pictures. | A postcard |
| 5 | Write about a kitchen you remember. | A recipe card |
| 6 | Describe the view from a window you know well. | A frame with nothing in it |
| 7 | Where did you go as a child to be alone? | A pressed leaf or tag |
| 8 | Write about a place that smells a particular way. | A label naming the smell |
| 9 | Describe a journey that went wrong. | A ticket stub |
| 10 | Write about somewhere you’d like to go back to. | A luggage tag |
| J | Describe a room in your house as if you were seeing it for the first time. | A floor-plan sketch on graph paper |
| Q | Write about a town or city you lived in. | A map, layered with a ticket and a postcard |
| K | Describe the place you’d most like to end up. | A full map spread with one marked label |
♠ Spades: what’s ending
| Card | Writing prompt | What goes on the page |
|---|---|---|
| A | What did you stop doing this year? | A crossed-out label |
| 2 | Write about the end of a season. | A pressed leaf |
| 3 | Name a habit you’d like to let go of. | A torn tag |
| 4 | Describe the last time you did something you won’t do again. | A ticket stub |
| 5 | Write about a friendship that changed. | An envelope, sealed |
| 6 | What’s running out in your house? | A receipt or shopping list |
| 7 | Describe the end of a book or film that stayed with you. | A bookplate or library-card style label |
| 8 | Write about leaving a job, school or home. | A luggage tag |
| 9 | What are you ready to finish? | A checklist on an index card |
| 10 | Write about something you threw away and regret. | A scrap of packaging |
| J | Write about a goodbye: what was said and what wasn’t. | A letter, folded small |
| Q | Describe a version of your life that didn’t happen. | A map with a road crossed out |
| K | Write what you’d want said about you at the end of a long life. | A portrait frame with your own label |
Turning junk journal prompts into a spread
Here’s one card, start to finish.
Say you turn the 4 of Clubs: Name a place you’ve only seen in pictures, with a postcard on the page.
- Background. Choose one paper in the colours of that place: blue for the sea, green for a forest.
- Write. Three sentences: where it is, what you picture there, and why it stuck with you.
- Ephemera. Glue down a postcard (a real one, or a printed one) slightly overlapping the writing.
- Focal piece. Add a small label with the place name on it, on top of the postcard’s corner.
That’s a whole page from one of these junk journal prompts. A Jack, Queen or King card gets the same steps, with more writing and two or three more layers.
A quick-page card (Ace to 10) is often three sentences and one piece of ephemera. Use a simple layering order: background paper, then the supporting piece, then the thing the eye lands on. If you’re starting from zero, junk journal ideas for beginners covers the basic kit.
Make junk journal prompts into a game
Draw junk journal prompts in a row and something odd happens. They start to connect. The person from a Hearts card turns up on a Clubs card, and the thing you kept for no reason ends up in the Spades. That’s the core of a solo journaling game: random prompts that build a story because you keep writing the same world.
If you want to try that on purpose, what a journaling game is explains the format, and your first 7 nights of a solo journaling game walks through a real first week. If you’re still working out what kind of journaler you are, see types of journaling.
If you want the full version of these junk journal prompts
The junk journal prompts above are a free sampler. Our Folklore Forest solo journaling game is the full version of the idea. You play it with your own ordinary deck: the suit chooses the part of the wood, and each card points to an entry in the 60-page game book that gives you something to write and a Make prompt for the page. It runs 52 nights, one card a night, and when the deck runs out the book is finished. Nothing asks you to draw.
It comes two ways:
- The game on its own as a PDF, played with whatever papers you already have.
- The game and paper kit, which adds 36 woodland papers, 9 ephemera sheets and 12 Folk portrait plates, so the piece each Make prompt names is already in the download.
An Etsy buyer quoted on the Folklore Forest page put it this way: “I am so hooked I have ended up doing a page every night.”
There are other card-driven games in our solo journaling RPGs collection, including a Victorian murder mystery.
FAQ about junk journal prompts
What should I put in a junk journal?
Your own writing, plus papers and ephemera: tickets, labels, letters, tags, maps, photos, pressed leaves. The right-hand column of the tables above is a list of exactly that. New to it? Start with what a junk journal is.
How often should I use junk journal prompts?
As often as you actually will. One card a night works for some people and one card a week for others. With a deck, missing a night doesn’t break anything. The next card is still there.
Do I need to be good at writing or drawing?
No. Three plain sentences is a page, and none of these junk journal prompts ask you to draw. If you freeze, just do the right-hand column: put the piece on the page first and write afterwards.
Can I use these junk journal prompts with tarot or oracle cards instead?
Yes. Map the four tarot suits to the four themes. You can also use an oracle card as a second layer on top of the prompt.
Shuffle and try one of these junk journal prompts
Get a deck out of the drawer, shuffle it and turn one card. Make that page tonight. If you like these junk journal prompts and want a version where the cards tell a whole story, have a look at Folklore Forest.
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