Welcome to the February edition of write. Saturday!
Except from a disastrous attempt at learning the viola in eighth grade, I confess to being fairly illiterate when it comes to reading music. I don’t know as much as I should about classical music. But all that aside, I love music. There’s nearly always some playing somewhere in my house. Right now, in fact, as I write this I’m listening to Florence + The Machine.
So with my affection for music, naturally I adored this month’s gallery. Several layouts of mine grew directly out of the work of the other Write. Click. Scrapbook. member’s words and thoughts about music, some of them related to tunes and some of them not. Won’t you play along with me for this month’s write. Saturday? The following three prompts might help you write something you love as much as your favorite song!
Musical Tastes
Write about your subject’s or your own musical tastes. You could start with a listing of favorites, but then try to dig a little bit deeper. What do those musical tastes say about you? When did you start to love that sort of music? Who or what event influenced you? How have your tastes changed?
This prompt came right from Marnie’s "Dressed in Black" layout. I confess to doing a happy dance when I read her journaling because I had no idea our musical histories were so similar! (I also copied her layout fairly closely; the black and white images on mine include snippets from some of my favorite musical lyrics.) For my journaling, I wrote about where the spark of my musical affection came from and how it helped me along the way:
It’s always bothered me a little bit that I have no photos of myself from my adolescent days—I think my mom was just too bothered by my all-black get-up—so it took Marnie’s layout to get me to scrap some of the story even without any pictures. What stories haven’t you scrapped because you don’t have photos? Scrap them anyway!
What Do You Miss?
Write about something you miss either from your own past or from your subject’s.
When I read the journaling from Lisa K’s layout, it put a lump in my throat. I’ve never been on stage but I’ve felt that same yearning to return to an old skill. I wrote the journaling for this layout on a morning when I’d just woken up from a gymnastics dream:
The things you miss don’t have to come from your own past—they can come from your children’s, too. I actually wrote the journaling for this layout, which discusses a bit what I miss about my daughter Haley when she was little, before I saw Lisa’s layout, but I realized they’re pretty similar:
What do you look back on and miss right now? Find a photo that illustrates it and make a layout!
(For the record: Haley—who is the master of arms'-length pictures—took the photos, not me, as I’m fairly obsessive about not even touching my phone while I’m driving. And "special night" is the once-a-month evening when I take one of my kids out to dinner.)
Anticipation
Write about anticipation. Journal about something you or your subject is looking forward to, or, write about a time that you (or your subject) were filled with anticipation with the perspective of looking backward in time—how did the moment measure up to the anticipation?
This prompt was inspired by Keshet’s layout, "Sing to You," where she journaled about looking forward to singing to her baby. (She’s since delivered!) Anticipation is such a joyous thing but it can be easy to overlook in our scrapbooks because the event we’re anticipating sometimes feels more important. Don’t let it slip past you! What are you anticipating? How does the excitement influence your life right now?
In her "Adventure" layout, Christa journaled about her anticipation over her upcoming move to Japan:
I can’t help but be envious of all the adventures she’s going to have, and I'm already anticipating seeing her photos and layouts!
Keshet’s journaling brought back so many memories of my own pregnancies and the experiences I looked forward to. Since I’m done having babies and won’t experience that anticipation again, I looked backward:
In my journaling I wrote about how the anticipation of wondering "who will this baby be?" is no less sweet than where I am right now, when I get to know who he is.
There you have it—three journaling prompts to bring some new sparks to your journaling. Make sure you let us see if you play along!
