This week I’m going a bit off topic in as much as I’m not really presenting a technique today. Instead, I have a question for you. Who are you talking to when you journal on a scrapbook page? More to the point, who is the audience?

I know that may seem like a silly question to a lot of people. But just think about it for a minute. Are you journaling with a specific person in mind? Or are you just writing something as if it were a note to yourself?

If you don’t have an audience in mind, today I’ll let you know how this can so easily transform your journaling from flat to engaging.

Who’s Your Favorite Reader?

From my perspective, a favorite reader is someone who just loves to hear you talk and hangs on your every word. Yes, I did just see you roll your eyes. Hopefully, we both also chuckled at my comment. I readily admit I love to talk when someone wants to hear my story.

But let’s be honest, the hang-on-every-word type likely doesn’t describe the majority of people in our lives.

For me, my oldest granddaughter loves it when we have “alone time” to just talk. She’ll ask me anything knowing I’m generally not afraid to answer nearly any question. And even though she’s no longer with me, my sister was always interested in all the details of the goings on in my life. I can distinctly remember her lighting up when I’d talk about my grandchildren.

When journaling, this is the kind of audience you are looking for. These are the people who matter, the ones who want to know more about your story. The people for whom you are preserving all these memories.

Truth be told, a specific person doesn’t even have to be someone you know! Over the years I’ve received more than a few comments from strangers who’ve seen my journaling on a variety of platforms…mostly scrapbooking forums. When someone I don’t even personally know lets me know they enjoyed reading my journaling, I’m encouraged to do more.

My favorite reader can sometimes be just a random, hypothetical person. Someone who doesn’t know anything about my life. My journaling goal then becomes the desire to change that with my writing. So, I just try to write about my story in a way that would make sense to a third-party (or…second-party? I’m not sure).

When all else fails and I’m having trouble “visualizing” my reader, I tend to think of my maternal grandmother! She’s been gone more than thirty years now. But I still “talk” to her almost daily! She always loved to be invited into any story I had. The more details, the better!

Audience Questions

The second and sometimes most important part of journaling is answering the reader’s questions. This is what lets journaling evolve to a different level. It is important because this is what makes that connection with your audience; they are the reason why we journal in the first place.

Rule #1…no detail is too small!

Let’s imagine for a minute that I’ve invited an 11-year-old into my scrapbook and she landed on a page that really captured her attention. Her first question is, “Where was this?”

I say, “That’s in Stowe, Vermont. I just love it there.” She looks at me with a quizzical nod and asks, “Why?”

You know how the rest of this scenario goes, don’t you? I answer with “The Von Trapp Family Lodge is there”. Then another questioning look from her, begging for more information. So, I just keep feeding her curiosity until a huge smile appears and she gazes at me with adoration for the story into which I just invited her. Even better, she says, “I want to go there too!”

If you fill in all the details of your story, your favorite reader will celebrate (or commiserate) with you. If you leave out the details, your story is going to fall flat every single time; I guarantee it.

Transforming your journaling from flat to engaging truly is just that easy. All you need to do is answer your favorite reader’s questions and remember not to skimp on the details.

Predicting Audience Questions

Journaling for a hypothetical reader means you write your thoughts for an imagined audience. You choose questions by thinking about what that person would find meaningful, what personal insights you want to share, and what parts of your life story provide the most clarity or value to them.

To figure out what questions to answer for a future reader, try to put yourself in their shoes. How about we try a little experiment here.

I have this random beach photo from Pixabay:

That’s such a fun, cute summer beach photo. I smiled the minute I saw it. But do you know what else happened? I started wondering about a million things (okay maybe not that many). And a list of many questions started running through my head.

Now I want you to just briefly ponder that picture. How many questions are popping into your heard? That’s exactly what happens when your audience sees photos in your layout! This happens even before they read any journaling that might be present.

The photos are the key to unlock the questions you should be answering. Focus on the hidden stories behind the photos. It seems a bit trite to say we should always be capturing the 5 Ws: Who? What? Where? When? Why? But that’s always a good starting point.

Journaling isn’t always easy. I get it! I used to be horrible at it. And I still find even current layouts of mine that provide little “personal” context. That’s because I know the personal details and am just recording dates and locations. What I need to do more often is imagine someone opening my scrapbook twenty years from now and having questions!

I could go on but the simplest thing to tell you at this point is to read my “Tell Your Story” post from March of 2023.

No Extra Tips Today

This post really was basically just a lot of tips. If there was one special, really important tip for today, it would be this:

Tell your story with your whole heart!

Storytelling offers the opportunity to talk with your audience, not at them. – Laura Holloway

Thanks for reading this week’s Tuesday Tip. Remember, if you have any suggestions or questions please don’t hesitate to “Message Me”. Check back next week for tips about wavy word strips. Click “Follow Me” to stay in touch. I hope you have a wonderful week!