Scrapropos

txboys asks: How do you make journaling come alive? (I get stuck in the rut of labeling who is in the picture, their ages, date, and a 4 word description of what they’re doing….boring!) I really struggle with this, especially when scrapping pictures that are several years old.

Who-What-When-Where-Why-How. This old standby high school composition guide still works when you journal, and sometimes, that’s enough. The fact is, not all layouts need extra journaling. I don’t write flowery, emotional, descriptive prose on every page. But your most important stories and memories will be lost if you approach every page with the simple who-what-when strategy. How do you know when to add more? How do you know WHAT to add? Here are a few tips for approaching the journaling portion of your layout:

1. Determine who you’re writing for.Who is your intended audience? This will help determine what, and how much, you decide to write. In the layout above, I decided that I was writing for my kids. That helped me decide to focus on who Grandma is to them, rather than what the occassion was for her being there. Sometimes, I write as if talking to my husband. Sometimes I write for myself. Other times, I write for a general audience or for future decendants. You don’t have to address the audience in your journaling, but thinking this way helps focus your journaling on what’s important to tell. When you approach a layout from this angle, it also helps you choose and cull your photos. There were a lot of photos in this batch of Aidan opening his presents from Grandma, but they didn’t help tell the story and emotions I ultimately wanted to convey.

2. Look beyond the obvious.Decide what you want that audience to know. It would’ve been easy for me to journal the following: “Grandma Nancy came over on Aidan’s birthday. She gave him a MagnaDoodle and a Knight in Shining Armor costume. He loved his presents. We had lots of fun.” But really, what does that TELL the reader? What do they know about the people in the photos that they didn’t know before? Is there a behavior that’s being exhibited that you can focus on? Maybe there’s a conversation that took place that needs to be remembered. Train yourself to look at the deeper STORY the pictures tell rather than the obvious pictures themselves.

3. Focus on relationships.Whether you’re scrapping photos of your cat napping in the windowsill, or your kids building a snowman, or your parents at their 50th wedding anniversary, or your grandkids opening gifts at Christmas… consider focusing on the relationships between you and the subjects, or between the subjects themselves. Too often, we journal about stuff that really doesn’t matter. “For his birthday, Aidan got a MagnaDoodle and an armor costume from Grandma.” Who cares? Why is that important? Tell about the relationship instead.

4. Elaborate.Use colorful descriptors. Use a thesaurus and replace standard verbs and adjectives with words that bring your journaling alive. (You’ll find that after a while, you won’t even need a thesaurus anymore!) Ask yourself questions to further your thoughts, and then answer the questions in your journaling.
“The boys love it when Grandma comes over.”
WHY?
“Because she plays with them.”
HOW?
“She plays hard with them - tickling, wrestling, sword-fighting.”

“The kids are happy when Grandma comes over.”
HOW DO YOU KNOW?
“They laugh.”
HOW MUCH DO THEY LAUGH?
“Enough that the sound fills my entire house.”
HOW DOES THAT MAKE ME FEEL?
“I am blessed.”

5. Journal about moments instead of events.
I love the quote in this layout: “We do not remember days; we remember moments.” Isn’t that true? What do you want to remember about the photos you’re getting ready to journal about? What MOMENTS can you elaborate on? What EMOTIONS can you convey in your journaling? In the end, it hardly matters that this was a birthday. It hardly matters that Grandma brought presents. The MOMENT I wanted to capture was that this woman PLAYS with her grandkids, and they adore her for that. She brings happiness to our household. That’s what I want my kids to remember about her. That’s what I journal about.

Here are a few more layouts that feature journaling that feels “alive”. Thanks for the great question, txboys! Go - journal your life!

(click to enlarge)