Journaling With Photographs

Most discussions that we have about journaling involve the written word. But we can combine regular journaling with photographs and this may even make our journals more interesting. Photos, by themselves, tell vivid stories that we may not be able to capture with words.

These photographs give an account of our everyday lives and also of special events. Of course, we can add descriptions and subtitles to our photos that give an explanation to the unique parts. In addition to these explanations we may also say how we feel about what we see and add our reactions to something caught on camera that we may not have seen before. With photographs we may either be subjective or objective. Hopefully, we will be more of the latter and try to see what is really there before us and not what we want to see. As with words, we can distance ourselves from the pictures and see them for what they are.

Dates are important when journaling and this is especially true when we add photographs. We may be going over our journals at some point and we would want to make reference to the date of a particular event. It is possible that something may have changed between the taking of a specific photograph and the present time. So the dates when these changes take place are important. In addition to this, dates are important to bolster our own distorted recollection that time can create.

Photos are interesting; they are worth a thousand words; and they make time stand still. For all these reasons, they can assist us in creating vibrant, dynamic journals that captures life. Maybe we should all invest in a camera.

Remember there is nothing like words in black and white to help you see where you are and where you are going.

Sheryl A. Keen
Author “Journal According to John.”
http://www.sherylkeen.com
https://personaljournaling.wordpress.com
http://authors.aalbc.com/sheryl.htm

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Journals as Writing Tools

Writers write and the more we do it the better we become at it. It’s like they say practice makes perfect. When we write in our journals we may not be doing our official writing but the act of writing constantly can sharpen our minds and our thought processes. So when we come to the writing that we do for publishing, we will have unconsciously honed our skills a little.

We can also consciously use our journals to develop our skills as writers. We can try out different writing methods and see which one is best for us. This is where we can try a writing technique that is not usually our style. Who knows, we may find something that could possibly enhance our writing and make our stories that more exciting and meaningful. The great thing about our journals is that we can try these things with ourselves before we allow anyone to see our finished products.

Our journals may also have great story ideas in them and so we can use our own past experiences as research. Think of all the places we have been, our thoughts and impressions on events close to us and far from us, stories told to us by strangers and family members and just the events of our everyday lives. We have some of this written down in our journals and this record can be used as fodder for interesting stories. Rereading our journals can take us back to a particular memory and all the feelings that surround that memory and make for powerful fiction or nonfiction.

Let us look at our journals as more than just static records and see them as tools to sharpen our skills and as a library where research can be done.

Remember there is nothing like words in black and white to help you see where you are and where you are going.

Sheryl A. Keen
Author “Journal According to John.”
http://www.sherylkeen.com
https://personaljournaling.wordpress.com
http://authors.aalbc.com/sheryl.htm