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What are your biggest obstacles to telling your story?

jenevang

jenevang

Rocking a two-piece under my scrubs
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Apr 20, 2011
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Is it finding the time to sit and journal? The inability to remember what happened? The struggle with what to say?

For me, I find it's the time issue. And that is just pitiful! When I look back on my printed pages, the ones I find I love the very most have nothing to do with the style of the page. They are the ones that really tell a story, either with words (usually) or images (less common, but important). Scrapping is therapy, yes... but the story will please and heal long after the page is completed.

What about you? Do you have trouble with storytelling?
 
I used to not know what to say. My problem now is having too much to say. I have a problem being concise, as my posts here can attest to. I am naturally typative but with a unneccessarily wordiness. I just have a hard time cutting things out. My HMO has an 'email your doctor' feature, but you only get 1000 words - that should be plenty, yeah? Well, I always go over and have to go back and cut out words and change all my 'and's to & and my 'I am's to I'm.
So, with all that huge journaling - it takes up like half my layout, so there is nowhere to be creative. So I err on the side of not saying enough because I am saying to myself, "It's a long story..."
But the point is to preserve that story.
There has to be a happy medium. Can anyone help? Purty Please?http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/
 
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I definitely struggle with telling the story. I guess for me, it's more of an issue of struggling with how to say it. I think I need to not worry so much about how it sounds, but just get the story out there.
 
well, I have no trouble on telling the story...but I have to admit that being pressed with time is one issue about getting it down in the LO...

I agree 100% on the story makes the page....unless one is scrapping for a piece of art on the wall....I NEED to have the story written down.... that was why I started scrapping, I wanted to leave something for Sarita to know how great her dad was ....
 
I think I have the most trouble finding the right voice. Do I want to have the journaling be written in the first person from my perspective? From both my husband and I? A simple narrative? Am I speaking to my children directly in the pages that are about them? I probably spend the most time thinking about those things and then deciding what to say. Also, I sometimes feel like I am saying the same things on a lot of different layouts. I need to find a way to be more creative in my storytelling.
 
Mine is two-fold. The first problem is remembering all the details b/c I soon forget lots of little bits and pieces and am never organized enough to write them down. The second is putting the story together on the page which surprises me b/c I am a chatty outgoing person who can talk non-stop but when it comes time to put it down on the page....my mind goes blank.
 
I don't have problem on telling the story. In real life, I'm not a chatty girl. But when I want to tell a story in my pages or say someting to my boys, words come vert easy. Scrap is definitively a therapy
 
grrfluudy said:
I used to not know what to say. My problem now is having too much to say. I have a problem being concise, as my posts here can attest to. I am naturally typative but with a unneccessarily wordiness. I just have a hard time cutting things out. My HMO has an 'email your doctor' feature, but you only get 1000 words - that should be plenty, yeah? Well, I always go over and have to go back and cut out words and change all my 'and's to & and my 'I am's to I'm.
So, with all that huge journaling - it takes up like half my layout, so there is nowhere to be creative. So I err on the side of not saying enough because I am saying to myself, "It's a long story..."
But the point is to preserve that story.
There has to be a happy medium. Can anyone help? Purty Please?http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/
Click to expand...
If I have a long story or a private story I sometimes create a pocket on the back of the printed page and add a printed page 2 just for the story and insert it on the back. I add a hanging tag or something to show there is an insert on the back. It's a good method for souvenirs too. This assumes you print your pages though...
 
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I usually start a page with the story so that part seems to come fairly easily to me. I am more likely to run out of room for the embellishments! I am not a fan (in my own pages) of repeating you're so beautiful messages over and over (although I am capable of an occasional very sentimental sob about how much I love a grandchild!!!). I just have so many stories inside that want to be told so really artsy pages with one word word art or with lots of sentiment don't come to me as naturally. I enjoy the artsy in other people's pages, then go back to telling the less artsy but very real tales of our lives on my own pages. :)
 
My struggle is more about how much of my life I want to (or should) publicize. My journaling is usually very descriptive, and I almost always have a personal text (for my printed pages) and a web text (for loading online). My web text takes out all the descriptive information such as names of people and places and even takes out descriptive characteristics that I'm not comfortable sharing online.

I guess my struggle is not one about journaling, but about maintaining my privacy while still being able to enjoy posting my pages online and getting feedback from my fellow scrappers.

And this struggle isn't just with scrapping, I have the same privacy struggle when I am deciding what if anything am I posting to Facebook. I have friends who are interested in hearing about our lives, but I still don't want to name names online because of personal safety, etc.
 
I find that my journaling/storytelling tends toward just the who/what/when ... I'd like to get deeper than that but it is hard. I've been scrapping a lot of outings and stuff like that, so the who/what/when is the most obvious road to take.
 
Making the journalling deep to make sure everything is told.

Tamara
 
I know I have a problem with actually getting the story on paper. If I'm making a page right after I take the photos I have WAY too much to say and if I'm making a page with photos I took months ago, sometimes I have no idea what to say about them! I haven't gotten down a good way to keep a journal so I don't have much to reference. I try to take photos of signs and keep memorabilia for photos, especially if I know it will be a while before I get to scrap them as this can jog my memory, reminding me why I was taking the photos in the first place@
 
I'm a bit like HeatherB.
I have problems with how much to say on a page that is going in a public forum. Usually the pages I publish are pretty straight forward. I don't mind showing myself as such, but where other people are concerned I hold back. I do love Art journaling though, so go figure!
 
I'm a lot like Johanna in that I generally have lots to say and often have to reduce it in size while trying to retain the clarity and be able to really tell the story I want to tell. I guess my main problem is telling enough detail to make my storytelling self happy when I'm scrapping older photos where I don't really recall the details anymore or scrapping photos that aren't mine. They are pretty but I don't always have the same emotional attachment to the ones with less story.
 
I get creative block. I have SOOOO much scrapping to catch up on, so I sit there on my computer and try to decide one page to start on, and don't know where to start. I have excuses "oh I can't scrap that event yet, I haven't scanned/photographed the memorabilia I want to include on the page"
And I end up sorting photos or sorting my scrap stuff. It's a bit of a mess in there!!
Once I remove the block and am on a roll I try not to stop!! My hubby gets it, I need to knock as many pages out while on a roll as possible, because once it's over, I struggle to get it back!!
MOC really helped me shift the block :)
Moving house has built the block up high.
Sigh, so much scrapping to do!!
I'm hoping this challenge will help me remove the block again :)
 
I'm fine with journaling stuff that was somewhat recent (meaning in the past couple of years), but older stuff is difficult for me. I'm thankful that I was VERY into blogging when my oldest was little, so I have all of those stories already written down. I just have to find the blog post and copy/paste for the most part.

*edited to add... I didn't start out journaling on my pages at all. I slapped some word art on there and called it a day (still do sometimes), but I'm happy that I've been better about telling the stories lately. I do have trouble deciding what voice I want to use sometimes, though. Most of the time I write as though I'm talking to my kids, whichever one is the subject of the page.
 
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I always struggle with a page title...so most of mine don't have one.
 
When I first started scrapping I thought journaling was a waste of space *gasp!* I've seen the error of my ways, though, and now pretty much all of my pages have some sort of text on them. I used to worry about voice, but now I just do whatever comes to mind and don't stress about it. If I can't think of a title, which is my most common problem, I'll pull a phrase out of journaling and use that. It's also a fun way to incorporate my journaling and right in with the design elements of the page.
 
katieFLapple said:
I think I have the most trouble finding the right voice. Do I want to have the journaling be written in the first person from my perspective? From both my husband and I? A simple narrative? Am I speaking to my children directly in the pages that are about them? I probably spend the most time thinking about those things and then deciding what to say. Also, I sometimes feel like I am saying the same things on a lot of different layouts. I need to find a way to be more creative in my storytelling.
Click to expand...
Same here.
 
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