Judy Decker

mailto:jdecker44@roadrunner.com

I am a Web manager,communications and English teacher for a school and I write fiction novels and creative nonfiction short stories. I am in the process of compiling a list of online journal prompts. If you have a good quote or a compelling idea that writers might like to use for their daily writing exercise, please feel free to add them to the JudyDeckerJournal. (see below)

Thank you.

The following was moved here from JudyDeckerJournal:

List of unedited journal entries for everyday use in a school setting. Aim for 200 words minimum on each daily topic and don't worry about spelling and grammar. Try to write without stopping to think; just let the words flow. -- JudyDecker

The collective. An ant has a tiny reserve of nerve connections. Not too smart. But, an ant hill functions together, and collectively there is considerable ability to master the environment that is not present in a single ant. Could this be true of humans? Tell me your thoughts on two heads being better than one, or that consciousness is distributed and the more conscious minds that focus on one purpose the more apt is the solution to be found. Collaborative human mind. Whispering angel. Could there be a glacially slow consciousness in a forest?
Characterists of older child, middle child, youngest child. Think of birth order in your own family. Think of birth order of your friends. What similarities do you see among all first borns, etc.
Observed intelligence in animals. Many people believe that animals are not smart. What experience have you had that shows that animals have considerable intelligence.
Feeders and starvers--who are they? Feeders are people who always make you feel at home, offer food and drink. Starvers are those in whose homes you feel awkward, never offered food nor drink, etc. Tell which of your friends and family are feeders, and which are starvers.
Think of a time that you traveled and then write about your actually traveling to get there. For example, foibles of sitting between two pinching brothers for a 1500 mile trip.
Point of view. Write a familiar story from a different point of view, for example, the story of "The Three "from the wolf's point of view.
Can we actually own land or is this an imaginary, man-made concept? Can we own the earth? How has the idea of land ownership influenced politics and government? Was there ever a people who didn't believe in land ownership? How would they fare against an enemy who believed in land ownershp?
RE CREATE! How do you recreate your spirit and energy?
You're feeling too tired to do your work? Does your mood affect whether you do your duty? Does your mood affect your life? Should you work on changing how much mood controls you? Suppose the doctor didn't feel like going to the hospital to take care of you? Do you expect the same level of duty from yourself?
Write about an underdog that triumphed.
The last time that you were seriously embarrassed.
Create a favorite character that is much like you. Give a name and describe.
Think of yourself as your character. Now add a bully into the picture and tell about that bully. Give that bully a name and describe that bully.
Your scariest dream.
Take your scariest dream and insert a magical solution...traps...lasers, angels. Make it go away, forever.
Did you have scary dreams when you were little? What did you do to make them go away? Mom's bed?
12 wishes.
How are you stereotyped and by whom?
Write 10 goals that you can accomplish in the next few days.
How many goals did you actually accomplish since yesterday? Does it make you feel good or bad? Essence: How do you self motivate?
Five advantages and disadvantages of being you.
If you could take your mind and put it into someone's else's body...whose body would you like to borrow for 24 hours? Why?
Where would you really like to visit or live?
Select the traits that you would like in the perfect friend.
Describe a time when you were totally misunderstood.
Why do you obey people in authority?
What other language would you like to speak if you could just wake up tomorrow and know it fluently? What would you do with your new knowledge?
Describe in detail your favorite holiday meal.
Take your favorite holiday meal and use all negative, disgusting adjectives to describe it.
Tell the story of how you got your name. Choose a name that really fits you. Tell why it fits you better.
LIST everything that you know about Mars.
Every neighborhood has places that you would not find on a map. Usually they have local names or were named by kids. Tell me about those places. (Killer Hill, Wolf Track Path)
Write the lyrics to your favorite song, or if you don't have a favorite, write lyrics to a holiday hymn.
Tell about your most memorable Halloween...or scariest story that you have heard.
Tell about a time that you broke something valuable or special. To whom? What happened? Is the memory painful? Fix the memory to give a good outcome.
What was your favorite little kid story? Did your family have any special telling or use of this story?
Tell me a time that you completely misjudged someone.
Tell about a time when you were wrongly accused.
If you were invited to a friend's house and then invited to a 'cool' party on the same night and your sleepover friend was not invited, what would you do?
Personal experience with racism.
Favorite sports team, why?
Worst illness that you have ever had.
Your worst trait, or what people like least about you.
Legal death. In what ways is it legal to kill someone in this country. Do you agree with these ways?
Have you ever been in the minority and right? Did you stand up against the majority? What is the cost of standing up against the majority?
Jury of your peers....racism...would you like to be tried by a jury completely made up of people not of your race? What might be different?
Competition...competitive sports...do they inspire you to a higher level of achievement? Did you ever go beyond your physical endurance? What pushes you?
Where do you have Thanksgiving? Your best Thanksgiving? Your worst?
If you could end world hunger forever, but YOU would have to kill an innocent person to achieve it....would YOU kill that person to end world hunger?
If you were at a friend's grandmother's house and found a dead cockroach in your salad, what would you do?
If you could have one out of three...one being extremely positive but the other two being extremely negative...looks, athletic ability, brains...which would you choose? (GOOD LOOKING, but really dumb and uncoordinated, etc.)
What would it take for you to go to Mars, if you could never return to Earth? (Bring along a library, good books, batteries, etc.)
What are your addictions? Do you have a plan to overcome them? Junk food? TV?
If when you awakened this morning it was 1701 instead of 2001, how would your day be different? List through your day.
If you could have any gift, what would you choose?
Tell me about a time when you didn't belong.
Tell me about your worst injury.
What have you done today to JUSTIFY YOUR EXISTENCE?
Is there any kind of work that you like to do?
Your favorite read-aloud book.
Person who has inspired you.
When you miss school/work how do you spend your day? Who is with you?
To what or whom do you owe allegiance?
Describe the best house and neighborhood.
The most beautiful natural sight that you have ever seen.
If you could have access to any person in the world to talk with and hang out with, who would it be? Why?
Whose disapproval bothers you the most? Why?
How would you use a magic wand?
The hardest thing that you have ever had to adapt to.
Describe your kid treasure box. What is in it?
Plan a superior summer trip.
What is the difference between vengeance and standing up for yourself? Define and give an example of each then compare and contrast
What causes you to act honorably or dishonorably?
What is the difference between child abuse and discipline? Where is the line?
Do you believe the world will end? How?
Suppose the next baby born into your family is born severely handicapped. The baby comes home to live at your house and thinks that YOU are the greatest person on earth. How would this change your life? Your view of handicapped people?
What is your belief system about how the world began?
When is nature good?
Respond to, "Anyone who doesn't value winning above everything else is a loser."
What is good about censorship? Think about TV and books.
What is bad about censorship?
Manifest Destiny was the 19th-century belief that the United States was destined to reach from sea to sea. How was it good, bad?
What every day task to you absolutely hate? Which do you like doing?
All the right stuff. What is the right stuff? Who has it? What of the right stuff do you have? How do you get more?
STORY STARTED: 'What's in there is very dangerous,' she said.
What would be a solution to end homelessness?
Does our educational system encourage genius? How can we utilize genius as a national resource?
IF all politicians were magically honest, how would the world change?
You are the grass over which the first wagon train has passed, pushing you down to the earth. What do you say?
STORY STARTER: "She had heard great things about him and when she met him she was surprised because"..
What on TV is pure trash?
If YOU could dedicate YOUR whole life to one effort, what would it be?
If you knew the world was going to end tomorrow, what would you do today?
If you were to share your wisdom with a child, what lesson would you want them to understand? What do you wish someone had told you?
Would a woman president spend more on social problems and less on military? Right now the ratio is roughly 61% on social, 19% on military, and 20% on interest. Why? (See http://www.kowaldesign.com/budget/percentages.html if you're curious to learn more.)
What would you like to do on the next perfect day that is 70 and sunny?
Who is the meanest person you know and what makes you think so?
What is your solution for school bullying problems?
If you could arrange your school/work schedule to suit yourself, what would you do every day? Remember to include the things that you MUST do now and MUST do to prepare for your future.
Dragons protect:, Cats protect:, Trees protect: Make a quick list of things and what they protect.
Keeping things separate. List and explain about all of the things that you can and should keep separate. (For example, socks and undies, family toothbrushes, kids and guns.)
Peace of mind. What is it? Who seems to have it? How does one get it?
What is sacred?
Make five predictions about yourself.
Describe a time when you were a coward and didn't stand up.
If when you awakened this morning it was 2199 instead of 1999, how would your day be different? List through your day.
Would you rather be mentally ill or have cancer? Why?
Write about the one TV show which is most like the real you. Why do you think so?
Describe what a day in your life will be like when you are twenty years older.
Make up as many make-believe book titles as you can in five minutes.
Superior aliens. A spaceship lands on earth and out of it steps humans who are ten million years more advanced than we are. What do they look like? What do they know? (Matrix plug-in head for education, etc.)
Why aren't there more women in the government?
Other than your parents, who is your favorite relative and why?
STORY STARTER: "We walked down the steep staircase turning left and then right every fourth stair. 570 feet below ground were two huge rooms, silent and terrifying."
What is the sound of freedom?
Starting with fingers up through different computers, TRS-80s, etc., list every kind of technology in the correct order.
(These next 20 were pretty much lifted from Mark Zimmerman's Journals.) Do away with your greatest strengh AND your greatest weakness. Are you a great athlete? And a rotten poet? Imagine yourself a great poet in a handicapped body. Tell what how your life would be different.
What is the difference between need and want?
Tribalism is the big problem of our age. We gather in select groups and pick on people who are not members. What groups are you part of? Whom do you exclude?
Time. What if something would be very good in the future, but not good at all now? Like outlawing all gasoline engines.
How do you know that you know something. Explain your criteria.
What do all people find disgusting?
What do people here find disgusting but other cultures see as fine?
Why do all people find gouging out eyes horrible unless specifically trained to do it, but thrusting metal bits at supersonic speeds is ok?
What worries that you have are really not important, and what should you really be watching out for?
It takes four hours a week of study if you really plan to get ahead. What do you need to plan to learn now, in four hours a week, that will make a huge difference to your success in the future?
Thinking is not what makes us special. Animals think. WE KNOW that we know that we know. Explain.
Using the basic formula for computer indexing systems: KWIK, key words in context, CHINKS, little connectors 'like', 'and', 'is' , 'if' and CHUNKS phrases that cohere, like 'pretty girl', write ten sentences using these three categories. Any correlation with grammar?
All pure emotion leads humans to positive action and change. Except for two. One is fear. Fear is a perversion of emotion. Tell how this is so.
The other perversion of emotion is frustration. Tell how this is so.
Is anger ever appropriate? Or is it a perversion of emotion, too? Does getting angry ever accomplish anything that could not be more easily accomplished through better means?
Remember the journal entry about tribalism. That the greatest problem in our age is humans separating into little groups and then treating badly those who are not a part. List and explain all the common ways in which humans separate themselves. For example, age, race, gender, health, wealth, religion, politics, location,language, ancestry, education, citizenship.
Which of your categories from yesterday happened by chance, and which can be changed at will? Which are easily observed? Which have large subpopulations? Which must interact? Can these divisions be overcome? How?
We had a journal entry about time. What would be bad now, but good in the long run? How about this solution to nationalism....no immigration laws? How would this impact our world today? How in thirty years?
Loved one is offered a new job, lots of perks, good money ($95,000), car (Lexus), computer, office in the home. BUT!!!! the job is to create advertising to hook kids on cigarettes. Would you want loved one to take the job? Why or why not?
How are you attracted to opposites?
Law of diffusion. In physics there is a law of diffusion. The square root of N. Put a drop of ink in a glass of water and the ink equally diffuses in the water. A spray of perfume diffuses in the classroom air. Equally. People also diffuse: away from mean people, crazy bosses, boring towns with no culture, countries with no opportunity, and move toward better circumstances. Ideas also diffuse following the same law of physics. Ideas spread throughout our culture. Catchy phrases. Tell about things that have spread quickly throughout our culture.
Love and its opposites: civilisation - barbarism, vigour - enervation, manliness - effeminacy, simplicity - luxury, (constitutional) liberty - despotic ruler/servile subjects, Rome - Byzantium/Asia/the Orient, sociability - unsociability, moderation - fanaticism/zeal/enthusiasm, reason/philosophy - religion/superstition.
Things meant to be together: damsels in distress and heroes, hotdogs and buns, ...
Select the traits of a perfect friend that your parents would choose for you. (See # 24.)
Kill Line. Every person has a kill line, a line above which life has value and below which creatures may be indiscriminately killed without a thought. Won't kill rabbits, will kill spiders. Where is your kill zone? What creatures do you give yourself permission to kill? Why these? Who decides which creatures have value? Do you have absolute knowledge that this creature is not self aware?

CategoryHomePage