All posts by Chelle

Think of the last page-turner book you read. Chances are you got excited right alongside the main character. Or maybe shed a tear or two at their misfortune. Adding emotion to the story you are telling will make it more interesting. Today’s tip is about adding emotion & feeling to your scrapbook journaling. I’ll bet the author didn’t write “she was happy” or “we were excited” or even “they were sad”. Just stating how someone felt leaves your journaling flat.
Here are some writing techniques that help convey feelings:
• Describe how your body reacts to emotions
• Show how feelings translate into behavior
• Dramatize the emotion of the moment by capturing it in a scene–describe it like a movie.
It helps me to think about what I want to convey before I start writing. Here’s a couple of examples:
In the first one I wanted to capture the excitement of the school’s 100 point parade. I decided to use the third suggestion and capture the scene:
The halls are quiet. The few students not in class are walking quietly with their hands at their sides. At precisely 2:45 Mrs. Bott reaches for the intercom microphone and announces the beginning of the 100 point AR parade. All the classrooms are emptied as excited students pour out into the hallways. They line up, some with noisemakers as they prepare for the parade. Emily and the other 100 point-ers move quickly to the office in their brightly colored Lewiston Leopard Reader shirts and line up behind the principal. When everyone is ready, he turns the siren on and heads down the first hall. Teachers bang on noisemakers and ring cow-bells, students shout and cheer as the paraders run by. The only time it is OK to run in the halls is when you are following the principal in the 100 point parade. Four hundred and fifty high-fives as they run by each of the kids. They exit the building and return in the next hall. Out the back door, and into the next building. Past the 5th graders, some who are tall enough to make tunnels with their arms, the runners dash and dart. Three short minutes later it’s all over-except for the lunch room, where parents and students line up for their “picture with the principal for the wall-of-fame.” The calmness returns to the halls.
Mr. Thomas started the 100 point parade when Emily was in 1st grade, and when he left, Mr. Baker continued the much loved tradition. Most years Emily read enough AR books to earn a spot in the parade. This year as her last at Lewiston, was also her last 100 point parade. She chose the bright pink shirt-the most popular this year-even with the boys. We are so proud of her!

And in this one I wanted to share the emotion–giddy to begin, exasperation with the prep work, dejection at the rain, and complete despair with the mortar, but slowly coming out of it. I used the first and second suggestions focusing on how my body reacted and how those feelings translated into behavior.
I hopped out of bed and flew through the morning routine, singing my way around. Finally TODAY I was to start putting the rock on the house. Before I knew it I was on the porch roof doing the prep work. Sweating, I wrestled with the long sheets of black tar paper and unruly chicken wire. I was as determined to finish quickly (and get to the rock) as the chicken-wire was determined to stay in a curled up roll. It took most of the morning to prep for the upper level rock—frustrating, but now it was FINALLY time to put the rock on! I loaded the tractor bucket with an assortment of rock sizes and colors and maneuvered it into place. I mixed my first batch of cement to attach the rocks and crawled out onto the porch to begin—just as it began to rain. Determined, I started anyway—it wasn’t raining THAT hard. I was working on the south side of the upper level portion—right under the valley of the front roof. Before I’d finished even three rocks, the water was pouring down on me. Dejected I gathered my tools and the cement and crawled back inside to wait out the rain.
After a couple of hours the sun came out. I thought arranging my round rocks would be simple—compared to the Welker’s square rocks I’d helped with to prepare—but it was a little difficult to find rocks to fit. Nevertheless, I was excited as I quickly finished the south side—about 5 square feet. It looked so awesome!
Now for the mortar. I had Dave’s special tools, but I just couldn’t get the sticky cement to stay in place! I worked near the top—but it didn’t look any better. I worked near the bottom—still no improvement. My cement was drying fast and it was looking really crappy! I wanted so badly for my mortar to be smooth, but I just couldn’t make it look right. All I could think about was the 1100 more square feet of rock that was all going to be a mess. The more I messed with it, the worse it looked—there were gaps around the rocks & the cement was far from smooth. I sat in my still damp clothes and cried. I called Dave (my husband) who called Dave (my contractor) who didn’t have time to do it—nor did we have the money to pay him. But he did offer to teach me AGAIN. I had dried my tears and was attaching rocks to the front of the house when he had time to come teach me. It made a lot more sense as we worked on it together and I quickly caught on to how to seal the concrete to the edges of each rock and then smooth everything out. My spirits soared as the amount of “done” grew. Afterschool Dad came to help. I was working up high, with room on the ladder for only 2 or 3 rocks. That meant I was traversing the ladder every couple of minutes to get more rocks. Having him hand me rocks in the right color and shape speeded the process drastically. After a while we switched places.
 Then next morning I didn’t hop out of bed: I was still excited about the rock, but my arms felt as if they’d fall off. Too much lifting 50 lb bags of mortar mix, and 35 lb buckets of cement, but mostly too much lifting 5 lb rocks above my head. Three days later at 10 pm, we’d finished the upper floor portion so the porch could be roofed. But putting the rock on had just barely begun…
ACK! I need to get it scrapped!

We could spend an entire year on editing tips, but since I want your scrapbook journaling to sound like YOU, rather than your sophomore English teacher, we’ll keep it to a few tips.
When I am finished writing, I imagine that I am someone else: someone who is reading my journaling 50 years from now. (They’ve got my whole album, I don’t have to explain everything.) I read it out loud, looking for things I could explain in a shorter, better way.
Here’s some things that have helped me:

After you’ve written your journaling, take another look with these tips in mind.

Does your family have a favorite saying…maybe it’s a movie quote…or a phrase from an inside joke. Those sayings make great words for your scrapbooks.
Do you ever find yourself answering “JUST BECAUSE” to your kids crazy or annoying questions? My Dad did, so he came up with a favorite answer: “Because it’s colder in the mountains than it is in the spring.” It’s a non-sensical phrase that he uses all the time…especially when his Math students whine “Why do we have to have an assignment?” But it made the perfect title for this layout about hiking with Grandpa:

What sayings do you have? How about your family? Try using them as the “words” on your layouts.