The first 10 minutes of Ink Your World

By Quynh Vu · July 9, 2026 · 4 minute read

I planned this agenda sitting at a cafe table, sketching out little icons in my own notebook until it felt right. I don't want anyone just watching me draw for two hours, so the workshop opens with something everyone does together, pens down on paper in the first sixty seconds. Here's exactly how it starts.

Write the day, then make it pretty

First thing, everyone writes the day of the week. It sounds almost too simple, but that's the point, it works in any journal, on any day, for the rest of your life. Then I show a few cute ways to write the date, some different lettering styles, so from the very first line you're already playing.

Name your pen

Next, write down what pen and ink you're using. This one has a purpose: months from now you'll flip back and know exactly what made that page. And almost everyone has a story about how they got their pen, a gift, a limited edition, a nib somebody talked them into. Once you start telling that story out loud, the whole room relaxes.

Warm up your hand

Lowercase alphabet, uppercase alphabet, numbers one through ten. Then horizontal lines, vertical lines, quick loose lines. Nobody's grading this, it's just getting your hand moving before we ask it to draw anything real.

Draw what's already in front of you

Whatever's on the table: your pen, your pen case, your phone, a roll of washi tape. Then we go through a day in list form. What did you drink today? Coffee, water, tea. What brings you joy? Coffee, people, stories, pens, whatever's true for you. Then the morning routine, the boring stuff nobody thinks to draw, glasses, a toothbrush, making coffee, getting ready. The ordinary stuff turns out to be the easiest to draw, and honestly the best to look back on.

Then you tell each other

Here's my favorite part. I pair people up and have them share what they drew and why. Ten minutes talking, then we come back together, and I ask what did you learn about someone. That's always where the real moment happens, someone mentions a pen story, or their dog, or a husband who's always late, and the whole room laughs. You never know what's going to come up. That's the whole point of capturing these little moments in the first place, you never know until you draw them.

Quynh