For October 2025 I’m inviting you to join me for a month-long creative practice inspired by Inktober — but with a soulful twist. Together, we’ll explore 31 archetypal prompts designed to spark reflection, insight, and play. All you need is a pen and a piece of paper. Nothing fancy, no rules, no pressure.
In this post I will my 10 best practices for sticking with a 31-day creative challenge.
In each post I’ll share my process and progress — the messy lines, the spontaneous doodles, the unexpected stories that appear on the page.
This isn’t about creating perfect art. It’s about giving yourself a few minutes of quiet each day to see what emerges when ink meets intuition.
Think of it as a journey inward: part drawing, part journaling, part self-discovery. By the end of the month, you’ll have a collection of pages that reflect the many facets of your inner world — not masterpieces, but mirrors of your own wisdom.
🌙 Join me as we explore prompts like Shadow, Threshold, Whisper, Healing, Gratitude, and more.
Let’s keep it small, simple, and powerful — one pen stroke at a time.
Supplies You’ll Need:
- Your favorite pen (not a pencil!)
- Either a journal or set of index cards
Download
If you'd like to use my list of prompts, you can download them here.
Watch on Youtube
Transcript
Video title: Inktober 2025 - 10 Best Practices for Sticking with a 31-Day Art Challenge
Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/live/MoVOHClKFPQ
Video language: English (auto-generated)
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[0:01] : Good morning, my creative friends, and welcome to Painting in Your PJs with Minette. I'm Dr. Minette Ryarden.
[0:08] : Delighted to be here with all of you for the launch of Inktober, which is an
[0:15] : amazing challenge created by an artist named Jake Parker um quite a few years ago. It's been
[0:21] : going on for a while. And there's 31 prompts that are shared. And the invitation is to draw. Small, simple.
[0:31] : But if you know painting in your PJs, if you know me, and if you don't, welcome.
[0:36] : Delighted you're here. Painting in your PJs is all about understanding how to use art as a creative process for
[0:44] : self-discovery and personal growth. It's so much more about the journey than
[0:49] : about the products. Sometimes what I create is pretty. Sometimes it's more
[0:55] : meaningful than pretty and everything in between. And this year we've been really focused
[1:01] : on our paper doll chronicles, but I love Inktober. So, I'm taking a pause this
[1:07] : month to do something a little bit different to
[1:13] : really just kind of revisit my own inspiration and daily creative practice.
[1:19] : And paper dolls will be back in November with a really fun creative project for
[1:25] : November for me is always a month of gratitude. We always create a gratitude
[1:31] : journal of some kind, but I have something fun and special in mind coming for November. Still working out the
[1:38] : details. You can tell I've been painting already this morning. And when I look at
[1:45] : the traditional prompts for to Inktober, I knew I wanted something unique. Every
[1:50] : year I usually also do Inktober Tangles, which is 31 Zenangle patterns. Great way
[1:56] : to keep me connected to my Zenangle practice. And I wanted something that felt a
[2:03] : little bit more aligned and more useful on my own journey of self-discovery.
[2:11] : So, I actually created my own set of prompts.
[2:17] : I'm going to change my camera over here. And these are Inktober. In fact, I am
[2:24] : considering renaming it uh perhaps something like ThinkTober
[2:31] : because it is thoughtful ink inspired prompts that I want to share with you.
[2:38] : And there's a link to download these prompts in the description of the video
[2:45] : that you will see below. And each one of these prompts is something that's going to teach you
[2:52] : something about yourself. So, for example, our first prompt was rooted.
[2:58] : Draw something that grounds you or what keeps you stable in life. And so, for
[3:03] : me, I did a little bit of journaling first. Sometimes I might draw first,
[3:10] : sometimes I might write after. But my creative discovery cycle always really
[3:17] : uh involves that idea of there we start with a prompt.
[3:24] : Then usually there's some sort of art making followed by reflection in writing. And I
[3:32] : like to do that reflection in writing personally so that
[3:40] : one I can remember it but two I'm not overthinking and these can really go any direction
[3:48] : right they can go any direction and so I'm giving you the prompts sometimes the prompts are an image a walk in nature
[3:56] : just about anything can be a prompt that helps us connect more deeply to the
[4:04] : stage of life that we're in. And pretty much all of my work is with women in
[4:09] : midlife and beyond. Most of my clients are in their 50s to their 70s. And we're
[4:14] : all kind of in that curious place of who am I? Who am I now? Who am I becoming?
[4:22] : What's next? What's my purpose at this stage of life? And I also hear so many
[4:28] : women say they want a daily creative practice
[4:33] : that nourishes and sustains them. And that that can be really challenging to
[4:39] : create. And the most often cited excuse is I don't have time. But if you put
[4:46] : your phone down for 10 minutes a day and draw instead, I guarantee that you have
[4:53] : time. So, what I want to do today is I want to draw my day two prompt and share
[5:00] : that with you. And then I'm also going to share with you 10 of my best practices for staying sort of sticking
[5:09] : to a 31day challenge like this. Because what happens is that we're all gung-ho.
[5:15] : So many people on my email list downloaded this wonderful list of prompts yesterday
[5:22] : and uh will do great for a couple of days and then it's so easy to fall off
[5:28] : track. So I had to figure out what I was going to create in when I was going to
[5:34] : do it and other things like that. So, I think that I'll start with my day two
[5:41] : drawing prompt, which is something that represents shadow, a part of myself that
[5:47] : I don't often show, and I'll talk about what I came up with and why,
[5:54] : but this is a great month. The days are getting shorter, right? Maybe things are
[6:00] : starting to slow down. We're not quite in the the holiday rush yet. It's a
[6:07] : great time to just take a pause in October. This is a threshold season
[6:14] : to do a little bit of introspection and deeper reflection. And that deeper
[6:19] : reflection just invites us to connect with what is
[6:24] : most important in our lives. And it's very dry here. And I my voice
[6:30] : is a little froggy this morning. often is first thing in the morning because I haven't done a whole lot of talking even
[6:36] : though I've been up for a few hours already.
[6:41] : I'm going to pause and take a couple of sips of tea here.
[6:47] : So, all you need to do the Inktober challenge in particular and
[6:53] : one of the reasons why I love it is it's just freaking simple. All you need is
[6:58] : something to draw in. I am working in this is just a inexpensive storebought
[7:07] : journal that I had already started. I handstitched this cover a while ago and
[7:14] : I love the shape and I love the size of this journal. It's not too big and it
[7:20] : feels very doable. And then I have one pen. This is a Sharpie gel pen. I really
[7:26] : love these pens. They're really juicy. So, all I'm going to be using is
[7:32] : something to write on and something to write with. And it's really important that you choose a pen and not a pencil
[7:40] : because a pencil invites us to erase, to try to get it
[7:46] : perfect, to start over again. And what I want for you in this particular
[7:51] : challenge as we're connecting more deeply to ourselves is not to get caught
[7:58] : up in perfection, but to enjoy the process and just to practice really
[8:05] : drawing like a kid. So this is not about needing to know how to draw, but instead
[8:12] : it's about reconnecting with your own inner imagination.
[8:18] : So for some people that shadow maybe they don't often show is how sensitive
[8:24] : they are or how silly and goofy you like to be. For me a part of myself that I
[8:30] : don't often show is how deeply spiritual I am. It feels like often a private
[8:37] : personal part of my life. And when I started thinking about this, what I
[8:44] : thought about with this prompt was you would laugh. If you saw my shelf that is full of
[8:52] : decks of tarot and oracle cards, one of the things that I love to explore and
[8:57] : play with and connect with is that aspect of connecting spiritually through
[9:06] : um some of my own decks of cards. Um, you know, another
[9:14] : aspect of that is the simple sacred practice of lighting a candle is also
[9:21] : really important to me. And so what I want to do here in this, so I'm going to
[9:27] : label every one of these. So this is day two, Inktober.
[9:36] : So it's literally October 2nd. And I'm gonna imagine
[9:42] : that I have a really simple bookshelf.
[9:47] : And rather than books, that shelf is full of different sizes
[9:58] : and shapes of decks of cards.
[10:03] : And I have a lot of them. And they're different shapes and sizes.
[10:11] : There's even a couple that are in kind of a, you know, organza bag
[10:18] : instead of a box.
[10:26] : And then I'll take some time to kind of fill this in a little bit. I have a lot
[10:33] : of decks that represent animals. So, this one with that bag, I think I'm
[10:40] : just going to do some individual lines. So, you know, they might have an image
[10:47] : on the the side, right?
[10:54] : And they might have a label on the side.
[11:01] : They might just have the label. So some are tarot.
[11:08] : Some are oracle.
[11:13] : Some are all about archetypes.
[11:20] : So again, the idea here is that these drawings don't need to be fancy. They
[11:27] : don't need to take a lot of time. You know, if I want to get fancy, I can come
[11:34] : back here and, you know, give some of these a little bit more dimension.
[11:44] : practice a little bit of that perspective drawing. Make them look a
[11:49] : little bit more like boxes sitting up on the shelf.
[11:56] : And it feels like perhaps I maybe want to add that candle flame as well.
[12:06] : Maybe that candle is burning.
[12:13] : That flame is burning brightly there.
[12:19] : Let's see. I think I have a spirit one. I have a one that's a mystical something
[12:27] : or other. I just got a neat one that is wild
[12:32] : alchemy. by
[12:38] : Kim Cray. I have I think I own all of her decks at this point.
[12:43] : Um, some of them are about creativity.
[12:49] : Some of them are decks of questions for journaling.
[12:56] : Some of them are inspiring. Right. I think I have Colette Baron
[13:02] : Reeds Enchanted Map Deck. So, I'm just looking to very simply in a few minutes
[13:09] : really capture this quite simple
[13:14] : idea here of shadow.
[13:21] : What is that part of me that I don't show that often? And then I might take a minute to do a
[13:27] : little journey journaling.
[13:43] : So for me again it's right. I don't talk about my
[13:50] : spiritual practices very often.
[13:57] : I could have also done my deep connection to animals here. I talk about
[14:02] : that some, but I don't get into kind of the more sort of intuitive mystical
[14:08] : parts of that. So, think about what is an aspect of yourself that you don't show. And remember that you are creating
[14:16] : this for you, not for anyone else. So, this is a fun thing to do in my journal
[14:24] : that I don't need to share with anyone. You know, with my tree over here really
[14:31] : represents that sense of being rooted and grounded for me, but it could be
[14:37] : something completely different for you. So it doesn't matter what anyone else is
[14:43] : creating, which is one of the things that I love about Inktober is people's
[14:48] : different interpretations of the prompts. So in Manette style, this month
[14:55] : is all about going a little bit deeper into our own
[15:01] : imagination, learning to connect our thoughts and our feelings with images and symbols in some
[15:09] : new ways. So I think it's going to be a really fun month. And I want to share
[15:16] : with you today, how do we stay
[15:22] : inspired and committed? So, every year I usually like to do the hundredyear
[15:28] : practice. And uh it's great to start with a 31day practice. And if you are an
[15:36] : Instagram lover, I will be sharing all my images on my Instagram. I'm Dr.
[15:43] : Manette Ryarden over on Instagram. And um there are so many challenges this
[15:49] : month. There's a Birdtober, there's Inktober Tangles, there's uh gather and
[15:55] : stitch this month for those of you that love to stitch. So there are so many
[16:00] : things to do and I thought it would be a good reminder for myself to create this
[16:05] : list of best practices. What are the things that keep me going over time? And
[16:12] : I want to put that right into one of my journals so that it is present. And I
[16:19] : picked a bigger journal. This is one I just made. I haven't done the cover yet, but I made a giant journal because I
[16:28] : love these for when I am teaching. They are so great. And I thought, oh, it
[16:34] : would be so helpful if I write these things down. There's also something about writing with our hands rather than
[16:41] : just typing things that helps us to embody the learning and the knowing. So
[16:46] : these are Manette's
[16:53] : best practices
[17:01] : for sticking with a challenge.
[17:08] : And it could be a 30-day challenge, a 31-day challenge, a 90-day challenge. It
[17:14] : all ends up being the same. And this applies to our art and creative work as
[17:20] : much as it does to our other aspects of self-care, whether that's meditation,
[17:26] : whether that's exercise, whether that's eating healthy, these same practices can
[17:33] : apply. Uh, sticking with a creative
[17:41] : challenge.
[17:46] : And again, I'm writing this for myself. It's going to be a little bit messy. And I know if you're watching, if you're
[17:52] : here joining me live this morning, stop by and say hello. I love hearing from you.
[17:58] : And if you're catching the replay, tell me which one of these 10 practices
[18:05] : are the most meaningful for you or the most challenging, the one that you know that you need to focus on. So number
[18:14] : one, and this one is often the hardest for me when it comes to these challenges,
[18:20] : is to keep it simple. So, in this case, we're going with just a pen and paper,
[18:28] : no special supplies, and the simplicity removes barriers
[18:33] : to entry. A ballpoint pen and a stack of index cards would be perfect for this
[18:40] : process. And the simpler it is, the less space it takes up, the less cleanup is
[18:46] : involved, the more likely we are to keep going. So, no color, no paint. You know,
[18:53] : I love all of those things. I got a new set of watercolors yesterday. I'm like, "Oh, I could go watercolor all the
[18:59] : backgrounds before I do my" Well, no. I need to keep it simple and not get too excited.
[19:06] : Two is what I call set a tiny
[19:13] : container. So, what do I mean by set a tiny
[19:19] : container? five to 10 minutes a day,
[19:27] : which means that we're going to keep the drawing simple. We're going to keep it small. It's about showing up every day.
[19:35] : It's not about producing something big, beautiful, perfect, etc. This is very
[19:42] : much the focus here is on the practice. So, five to 10 minutes a day
[19:52] : is all we need. Little messy clock there.
[19:57] : Three. And this one is really important to me and it's actually the one that is most aligned and connected with what I
[20:06] : shared about that shadow and about my own spiritual practice which has
[20:12] : everything to do with treating every aspect of my day and my life as reverent
[20:19] : as sacred. Right? To me, it is so important to treat things with reverence
[20:26] : and to be very present with what it is that I'm doing. I'm not saying this is easy or I get it right all the time, but
[20:34] : it's really important. And so, for me, that is to create a ritual around the
[20:40] : practice. So, how do you create a ritual out of a
[20:47] : creative challenge? You can choose a consistent time or setting like morning
[20:53] : coffee right before bed, a cozy chair by a window. Ritual
[20:59] : builds rhythm. And when we feel that natural rhythm,
[21:06] : then we also build the habit, right? We also build the habit. So for me, even
[21:11] : though most of my creative practice is a morning practice or I do a lot of
[21:17] : stitching, I'm teaching myself to crochet, all kinds of fun things, things that I can do upstairs watching TV in
[21:24] : the evenings with my hubby have a different rhythm to them. But for
[21:30] : this one, I decided to incorporate it with my nighttime routine. I will make a
[21:38] : little cup of tea or a little moon brew chocolate drink that helps me sleep and
[21:45] : I will sit in bed with my cup of something warm and my journal and do
[21:52] : this practice. 5 to 10 minutes, right? 5 to 10 minutes is all it takes. What I
[21:58] : noticed last night is that yesterday had been a full day. I'd had a
[22:06] : really lovely connection with a friend. So after doing my drawing, I kept going
[22:11] : with the journaling. So sometimes other things happen that will benefit you from
[22:17] : that experience. Four is to honor the prompt.
[22:29] : So, what I mean by honor the prompt, this is where you let the word become a
[22:35] : doorway. It's an invitation and you draw the first symbol or line that comes to
[22:41] : mind, even if it feels random or messy. It's your reaction to and reflection on
[22:49] : the prompt that matters. And if you don't love a prompt, you can skip it.
[22:54] : You can change it. You can maybe do a couple of one minute sketches till you
[23:00] : get one that feels great. But honor, I would even say the intention of the
[23:05] : prompt. Right? I want you to see the prompt as an invitation
[23:13] : to connect to yourself and to your imagination.
[23:22] : We talked about this a little bit, but it bears repeating here.
[23:28] : Pair it, meaning the drawing,
[23:34] : with what I call deep reflection, which is one of my eight keys of a
[23:39] : midlife renaissance that I teach in my midlife renaissance program for women
[23:45] : trying to find their purpose. And after you do your drawing, jot down
[23:52] : a few words. And it can be really simple. What do you notice? How do you feel? What surprised you? The power of
[24:01] : deep reflection is that is the magic of that creative discovery cycle that I
[24:08] : shared earlier where we had the prompt followed by in this case draw followed
[24:18] : by write
[24:23] : and reflect. Okay, this pen is fat. It doesn't write small, but you get the
[24:28] : point, right? So, you have a prompt, you draw, you do some deep reflection, and I
[24:34] : call this my creative discovery cycle
[24:39] : because it works like magic. It can be very discovery.
[24:47] : It can be very helpful in particular when we're trying to solve
[24:53] : a problem, to move through a stuck place, to do some unraveling or healing
[25:00] : of past stories and experiences. So, don't forget that deep reflection.
[25:06] : And again, you saw mine from last night was just a couple of lines, right? Like
[25:13] : I think there's two sentences, but it was just noticing
[25:19] : how I felt about the prompt and what I was visualizing here made this more
[25:25] : profound and reminded me always how important it is for me to get outside.
[25:34] : Six. This one should this one could be numbers one through 10. And that's embrace imperfection.
[25:45] : One of my goals is always to get better at drawing. And the only way to get
[25:52] : better at drawing is to practice. The reason that we're drawing with a pen and
[25:59] : not a pencil is that ink is permanent. And that's the gift. We allow smudges
[26:06] : and mistakes to become part of the story of this experience. And this will be the
[26:14] : most challenging for some of you. Seven.
[26:20] : This is almost as important as number six and is off often also the antidote
[26:29] : to perfectionism and that is to stay playful. Remember, this isn't about making art
[26:36] : with a capital A. It's about following curiosity, trusting imagination.
[26:43] : It's about scribbling in the margins of your life, just like we used to doodle in our notebooks when we were in school.
[26:50] : In fact, I still doodle in my notebooks.
[26:56] : The next thing that is so important is to track your progress.
[27:04] : So that's why I recommend keeping everything in one journal where you have
[27:12] : enough pages to fill. You could do something really simple. Another reason
[27:18] : I grabbed this big journal is that you could break this up into a bunch of
[27:24] : squares. Maybe you have six squares per page in five pages of your journal. and you
[27:32] : do a little, you know, two or three square inch
[27:37] : sketch. So, sometimes size constraint can be really helpful for a challenge
[27:43] : like this. Plus, you see your progress. Do you have a daytimer that you love, a
[27:48] : calendar, a paper planner, a wall calendar? Do a little sketch in your
[27:53] : calendar, little teeny tiny sketch, so that you can see those sketches build.
[27:59] : So, a way to track your progress is really important because at the end of the month, you'll get to celebrate your
[28:06] : success and see the arc of the story that you told because I guarantee these
[28:12] : prompts were uniquely designed to help you get to know yourself better. And so, by the end of this month, there will be
[28:18] : some magic happen that will be profound and unexpected,
[28:24] : even while you're staying playful throughout the month.
[28:29] : And then of course you have to give yourself some grace.
[28:36] : I have to give myself some grace. I'm looking ahead at this month and we
[28:45] : have two different um travel adventures coming up this month. So I know that
[28:53] : there might be some flexibility. So, some days I might do two prompts. If I
[29:00] : know I'm going to be gone, like we're going away the last weekend of October
[29:05] : for some creative playtime, just my hubby and I, and I will finish early,
[29:14] : right? I will take the time to get my work done ahead of time. So sometimes I
[29:21] : might batch create because I'm committed to the process, but I may not get it done every single day. The other thing
[29:29] : about this keeping it simple and setting a tiny container is that I have no
[29:34] : excuses. I always travel with a journal and I could do this process anywhere
[29:40] : that I am. So I also don't have any excuses. But you know, life comes up. So
[29:47] : you get overly tired. You don't have to do it at the same time every day. It's
[29:53] : helpful to do it at the same time every day because then you don't forget. You build the ritual. You build the rhythm
[29:59] : and you build the habit. But there may be some days where you want to do it in the morning and you sleep in because you
[30:06] : really need the sleep. Or you commit to do it at night and your brain's just so tired you can't think of anything to
[30:11] : draw. Well, do it the next morning. So definitely give yourself some grace.
[30:17] : And then finally number 10 is celebrate the journey.
[30:29] : What I find is that women tend to hit a goal and just move on, right? and they
[30:38] : don't pause to celebrate,
[30:44] : admire, acknowledge, give themselves credit for what they
[30:52] : accomplished. So, it is so important to take that time to reflect back. Even if
[31:00] : you do five prompts over the 30 days, that's five more days of drawing than
[31:06] : you might otherwise have done. So, so important here to make sure that you
[31:12] : take some time to think about setting yourself up for
[31:18] : success. You may be going, "But Manette, it's October 2nd. I'm a day behind already." You are not behind.
[31:28] : Um, hi Blanca. I'll answer your question in just a second. Um,
[31:34] : I did not make a new journal, but it's important to remember that you're never starting from behind. Start where you
[31:40] : are. You could skip day one and start with day two or you could do days one
[31:46] : and two today, right? You can't get this wrong. So, Blanca, I'm using um I made
[31:54] : this journal cover, but this is just an inexpensive storebought journal. That's
[32:01] : kind of my everyday journal. And so, I decided to
[32:07] : I want to work small in a journal, not large. What I'm writing in here is an
[32:15] : extra-large journal that I created for when I'm teaching. I love these great
[32:21] : big journals to keep all of my teaching notes together. So, I thought I would
[32:27] : add this to this one because it's a nice big page. Um, and I do like big
[32:35] : journals, but for this 31day challenge or for travel, I know I need it to be
[32:40] : something a little bit smaller and uh inviting, right? Like, I can sit in bed
[32:47] : with this pretty comfortably. I can sit in a chair. I can sit on an airplane. I can even sit in the car on a road trip,
[32:54] : which we have a road trip coming up at the end of the month. So, I know that I needed it to be a little more simple.
[33:02] : And I kind of love this is such a fun uh journal with a just huge variety of
[33:09] : different things. I went to a retreat in New Mexico and we were asked to do some
[33:15] : pre-work and so I started it in a couple of months ago. So
[33:22] : it has a little collage. It's got some pockets in it where I've tucked in some extra collage stuff. So this is just a a
[33:30] : really fun one. Um yeah, thank you. Um yeah, this was really a fun one to
[33:37] : create. I think this was inspired by a lesson um from one of the
[33:45] : No, this was from a beautiful book that I got about making stitched journal
[33:51] : covers. So, it's kind of a collaged stitched journal cover that I'm super
[33:56] : happy with. And I sewed all the pieces together first and like sort of quilted
[34:03] : them together and then came back and added the hand stitching over the top of it all. And then a friend of mine is
[34:10] : teaching me some fun beading techniques. So I beaded this button also. So this
[34:16] : was a fun project. This one, the cover is waiting to be stitched together, but
[34:24] : I will get that stitched together soon. Thanks for asking. You know, I love
[34:30] : making my own journals. So, I want to just say have fun with this. Do what you
[34:36] : can. It's all going to be great no matter what approach that you take. And
[34:43] : uh share your progress. Tag me on Instagram if you're on Instagram or
[34:50] : share comments below this video with any other questions or curiosities about how
[34:56] : do you keep going with this or if you need ideas for prompts, right? Or for
[35:03] : drawings and sketches. There's so many fun ways to approach this. And I said this at the beginning of the video that
[35:10] : I'm almost thinking my version of this is like a thinktober
[35:16] : because it does require a little reflection and introspection. So thanks
[35:22] : everyone for joining me. I'll be doing some shorts over the next week or so to
[35:30] : I won't be here next Thursday. I'll be back the following Thursday. I'll do a live and let you know where I'm at.
[35:36] : How's it going? How am I doing with my own list of best practices? And what am
[35:42] : I discovering on this journey? So, thanks for being here. Thanks for catching the replay. Thanks for joining
[35:48] : me live. I've lost my mouse. There it is. And I appreciate you all.
[35:56] : And uh good luck this month. Have a great time. Yeah, just download the prompts. Awesome. Yep.
[36:03] : Love it. All right. Talk to you soon. Bye everybody. Have a great day.
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