Journaling: In your own words | Going beyond the 5 W’s

Have you heard of using the 5 W’s for your journaling? What is means is covering the five basic W’s (who, what, where, when and why) in your sentences or paragraph. Sometimes this method works great and is just enough and… sometimes it can be just plain boring and monotonous.

What about how you felt, what it smelled like, sounded like, made it special? What were you thinking, doing, seeing? Who said what, what did you say back? Including some of the smaller details will make your journaling more interesting to read and can take you right back to that moment, no matter how many years have passed, when you re-read it.

Let’s try it! Here’s the journaling I had before on this layout:
Journaling reads: Love my Smart Start, toast and coffee in the morning!

Well… that’s great, but why do I love it? What makes it special enough that I felt like photographing it and making a layout about it? Because, let’s face it, if I’m going to this much effort to scrapbook it, it must have a deeper meaning than the fact that I just “love it”, right?
Let’s brainstorm! It usually helps me to do this while I’m scrapbooking – think about the photo, the events that happened around it, how it made you feel, why it is important, etc. Jot down little words and sentences here and there on a scrap piece of paper. Then, when you are ready to start writing, you can take your list of words and start forming sentences!
After brainstorming and thinking about what is really important about this photo, and the reasons behind why I really wanted to scrapbook it in the first place, I’ve re-wrote the journaling to read: My morning toast is not complete without my grandma’s homemade raspberry jelly – She makes it from scratch every summer with the berries from their garden! Yummy!!

Forget talking about the Smart Start and coffee – we can see it in the photo and really, it’s not that important! What was really important in the photo was talking about the jelly my grandma made. Ten years from now, looking back at this layout, my family members and I will be able to remember that about my grandma… but maybe without those words, we, or the person viewing the page, would have forgotten (or never even known) her love for making jelly, and it would have been a page just about my breakfast.
Details like this are so important to write down – Try to focus on them while brainstorming to help you create more meaningful journaling!

Along with our details and words, photos are also an important part of scrapbooking – and because of this, we have an amazing giveaway for you, today!

Maggie Holmes Studio is giving away a spot in her next online photography workshop beginning August 30th. This is for the beginner/intermediate class in which you will learn the basics of photography, including how to shoot in manual mode, composition, lighting and much more!

Maggie is passionate about all things creative, especially when it comes to preserving her family memories. She is an avid and acclaimed scrapbooker that has been in the industry for many years. Most recently she was named one of the 9 Most Influential Scrapbookers of 2010 by Ella Publishing! She is also a professional photographer who now offers 2 different online photography workshop courses in which she teaches her students not only how to master their cameras but how to create magical and meaningful images as well.

You can check out what she is doing on her blog. You can find out more about her photography workshops here. If you live in the Arizona valley and you want to hire her to capture your family or special event you can find out more about her photography services here.

Leave a comment below, telling us who your favorite person to photograph and scrapbook is, to be entered into this giveaway – winners will be drawn and posted here at our blog on August 15th! Check back then to see if you’re a winner! *One entry per person, please.

Also, if you have not entered our other big giveaway here, hop on over there and enter that one, too!

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