Journaling that goes nowhere is simply that. It is journaling that gives no information, doesn’t explain anything, or tell what is really happening in the photos.
First of all, there is nothing wrong with journaling that doesn’t give specific information. Sometimes we find favorite photos that we may just want to journal a letter or advice to a child or the person depicted in the photograph. That in itself can complete a layout.
But what I am really talking about when I refer to journaling that goes nowhere, is the scrapbooker who just plain despises journaling. You know you’re out there. I am quite the opposite but because I teach journaling classes, I run into this all the time.
It’s ok not to include journaling on every single page. But what is expected is a quick basic 5 w’s approach to journaling. Covering the basic WHO, WHAT, WHY, WHERE and WHEN is absolutely the bottom of the barrel information needed, so what is so difficult about that?
Reading journaling on a page that simply says “This is us at the zoo”. Well happy days, because now all I know is that you went to the zoo sometime in your child’s lifetime. Include the date, include who you went with. That information is a wonderful addition to any page.
Another problem I see more often, is getting trapped in your writing. This typically happens because the scrapbooker did not allow enough space on the page or in the journaling box to say all that they wanted to say. Or quite the opposite, they left too much space and didn’t have more to say.
My advice for this is, plan ahead. Decide what you’d like to include before you sit down to journal. Measuring space on the page is another great way to get the journaling box size right too.
If you have pages that seem to fit this category of biggest scrapbooking mistakes, take your journaling that goes nowhere, and make it go somewhere. Go back to a scrapbook page and even if you have to write directly on the layout, somewhere at the bottom is always good, place some information about the photos, the time frame and what is going on in the page.
Journaling is serious the next major piece of scrapbooking next to the photographs. Keep your memories alive by saying what you want to say, and being sure to take care to include it on every layout.