Have you done work with writing territories, writing identity webs, or heart maps?
 
Using tools like these help writers to think about topics that are important to them. Once they have these collected, they can use them to generate ideas for:
 
personal narrative
realistic fiction
information writing
argument/opinion work
memoir
...and more!
 
You might introduce this with a few of my open-ended prompts to help students get started, but give them the freedom to fill in the heart map in whatever way they see fit.
 
With this download, you'll get the blank version and my sample!