How do you journal?

I have always written it from my point of view, reflecting on the event, in past tense.

Some of it depends on the album, but for the most part my journaling comes from my point of view. If it's a layout for one of my boys (that will go in their individual album) I write to them "You had fund..." and often interject my feelings and opinions. For layouts that go in the family album I still write from my view, but write to anyone who might be reading "The boys had fun...we had fun...". My biggest struggle is when I'm journaling for something outside of the boys' individual albums because I go back and forth between saying John or Dad when writing about DH. Most of the time my journaling is past tense, but there are a few exceptions when the theme/story works better in the present tense.

Cute!! I really love that style of journaling and should try it for myself.

I use a variety of voices. Generally, for our books, it's in my words. For my grandchildren, it's usually in their voice. Occasionally, it's my thoughts.

Sometimes, I don't add journaling to my layouts and just let the pictures, design, colors and embellishments speak.

I have a scrapbook style journal, that includes things I've written, quotes I like, my bucket list, etc...

The things I've written....some are poetry style, some are thoughts and feelings(good and bad) that I needed to write out  because it's therapeutic for me to do that. 
I have typed some of it and then printed it out. Some I hand wrote on patterned paper,  cards, tags, etc.. 

I incorporated it all scrapbook style, on 8.5 x 11 pages.

My bucket list is printed out in increments of ten, with little boxes that are checked or unchecked based on whether I've done it or not.

I usually group things together by theme.
For instance: My travel bucket list (group of ten) have several on one layout. In lieu of an actual photo, it's a whatever form of paper I have used instead.
For instance: My "see in concert" list is done the same way as my bucket list.

I recently purchased some scrapbook paper that looks like notebook paper, wood fencing, faux brick wall, etc... that I am going to use to handwrite some of my thoughts and pieces of writing on.

I’m not consistent with how I do it. Sometimes what I’m scrapping might be more sentimental to me, and I’ll have more emotional journaling to go with it. Sometimes I’m documenting a thing that I don’t feel particularly any way about, and my journaling will be more factual - who, what, when, where, why. If I’m journaling something from years ago my perspective and words are different than when I’m journaling current happenings.

I’ve recently noticed that now that my kids are older (tweens and teens) I interject less of my own assumptions about how they feel into my journaling. When they were little my writing was more like “you had so much fun today when we went to the park for a picnic. The fruit salad was your favorite part of lunch and your favorite activity was swinging!” Now if that same scene played out I’d probably write it more like “today we had a picnic at the park. You ate every last bite of the fruit salad and spent an hour swinging! I loved spending the afternoon with you”. Like, I’m not projecting what I THINK their feelings are. I guess now that they’re big it’s more obvious that they’re their own autonomous people and I’m not omniscient. I can record my feelings accurately, but I can’t assume to guess I’m accurately recording theirs. Hope that makes sense.

my albums are for me, so I write from my point of view.  I know a lot of people make albums for their kids, to give TO them, so they write TO the person in the journaling.  that's the only reason I would ever change it.  Sometimes my tone is more 'formal' or 'to the point' in just listing Who, What, Where, When, but it's always from my own viewpoint.  I'm not big on emotional journaling-  my albums lean more toward 'photo journalism' than 'memoir' I guess you could say.  

On a lot of my pages, I tend to write 'captions' next to the photos instead of, or in addition to, one large journaling block. And like joblackford mentioned, I usually figure out too late that I had more to say than I had space for.  


I do have some pages like this, too-  typically those pages are a really good (IMO) photo that I want to highlight, kind of like a 'coffee table' book sort of photo.  I get those photos printed as 5x7, and just make a 'pretty page' with only the date and the name of the place where the photo was taken. 


ETA: I also scrap my pages long after the event / trip in question-- years, sometimes-- so I write my journaling from that 'farther away' viewpoint.  I don't try to fake that I'm doing the page right after we got back from the trip.  If my perspective on the event has changed, I will write my journaling that way. (if that makes sense)

I've read this thread several times and tried (and failed) to come up with a response.

I think my response is that I don't know.

Sometimes I don't really journal at all - maybe just a date and/or place

Sometimes it's pretty factual - we went here, did this, with these people, on this date

Sometimes I have a story to tell

sometimes I use text messages to share the 'right now' story (esp. in DD20's college album or DS27's albums - they text me the photos and I use the accompanying message to journal)

For trip albums, I ofen use the emails I sent while on the trip to journal and get that 'in the moment' journalling. Sometimes I also do a little research on what I photographed and include that.

I write scripture, and then I write my thoughts and prayers. I write from my viewpoint but try to make sure there are dates always listed. I try to do it every single morning when I get up. If I miss a day, I don't stress; otherwise, a chore and I don't want it to be a chore. It should be a joy.

If the event / photos were a long time ago, I will also sometimes write a note (usually on the back, but sometimes on the front) to indicate the time gap. I'll date the page with the date the photos were taken, but then I'll write a note that says something like "photos from October 2005, journaling done May 2020" to explain why my journaling is more 'reflective' than 'immediate' if that makes sense.

I generally write in past tense, I did, we went, we saw. I generally journal a lot on my travel pages and like to include some of the facts along with the "we loved this and that about our visit". Dates I'll usually include on a label or using a date stamp, or just printed at the end of my journaling.


It might not be all fluffy emotions, but it's still important information and, for me at least, it's better than a page which is all about how cute and adorable John is without any context to year or age, especially if those details are not obvious from another source.

It depends on how I'm feeling right then.

Many layouts just get who, what, when.

If I have a lot to say, I just write it like I'm telling someone else, then sign my name at the bottom.