Every Picture Tells a Story Part 2: Writing Photo Stories
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In Part 2 of Every Picture Tells a Story, we move past captions to writing the memories associated with your photos.
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Every Picture Tells a Story Part 2: Writing Photo Stories
- 1. How to Turn Your Photographs Into Memories The Power of Stories Academy www.powerofstories.academy
- 2. Short piece of narrative Shares the story Photo or group of photos Provides more detail Background and context Adds life experience, opinions or feelings “BUT I AM NOT A WRITER!”
- 3. How to Write a Photo Story in Five Easy Steps
- 4. Consider your audience Yourself, children, grandchildren, descendants, friends, co-workers, organization What stories do you want to tell? Your childhood, your parents’ story, your children’s childhood, special vacation, achievement, love story, family home, traditional holiday celebration How do you want to tell them? How honestly? What about privacy? What will your end product be?
- 5. Remember the three techniques: 1. Look with fresh eyes 2. The slow reveal 3. Eyes wide shut Make your memory list
- 6. Make sure it includes: Who When Where What the people are doing, feeling, showing, saying Use all five senses: What did this scene look, sound, smell, taste, feel like?
- 7. You have the building blocks Now just write 4-6 sentences about your photo(s) Try to identify the heart of the story Consider your audience What will matter to them What might not be obvious to them Be selective – you don’t have to include every memory you uncovered
- 8. Repeat this process for other photos in your group Several short narratives Or combine into one longer Narrate an entire scrapbook/photo album
- 9. Bullet Points Turn each memory into a complete sentence. Lists Top Ten Things I Remember about this photo Headlines Imagine a newspaper running a story about your photo(s). What would the headline be? Dialogue Recall or reimagine what the people in the photo are saying to each other Poetry Structure can make writing easier. Try a haiku or a limerick!
- 10. Verify facts, dates etc. Consider your audience Tell the stories that are important to you Tell the truth Write only what you're comfortable telling. Think carefully before concealing or withholding. Guard against dark motivations But don't shy away from writing about hard times.
- 11. Anything left out? Verify details Check for detail and sensory images Show don’t tell Choose powerful words Watch for passive tense Change out “is”, “was” “nice” “good” “Grandma’s fried chicken was good.” Vs. “Grandma’s crispy fried chicken tasted like home.”
- 12. Find a writing buddy In person or online Someone who will: Share in the memories Offer constructive feedback Ask questions when something is unclear Tell you what to leave out/where to add more
- 13. Less about content More about form Editing includes: Checking spelling, grammar, punctuation Verifying spelling of names Rereading for style consistency Check for flow Eliminate redundancies, irrelevancies
- 14. Keep going Combine into a longer work Create a family tree – with a story about each leaf Copy and bind stories as a holiday gift Prepare stories for school reunion, post on website/Facebook page Read a story aloud at a family event
- 15. For more helpful information about saving your memories, visit: www.cincinnatiseniorconnection.org
Notes de l'éditeur
- Welcome, everyone. We’re so glad you’re here, and we’re happy today to share our thoughts on telling your stories, and leaving a legacy.
- For our purposes, we will define a Photo Story as a short piece - perhaps a paragraph or two - that shares the story behind a photo or group of photos. Photo Stories build upon the captions you write. Compared to captions, Photo Stories: Include more details - including information that might not be apparent from the photo which you might have unearthed when you mined your memories. Provide background and context that might not be visible in the photo, such as a bit of relevant family history. Add some of your life experience - for example, your opinions or feelings related to the photo. This may be the point where you begin to say "But I am not a writer." To which we say BALDERDASH Or more precisely, we say you may not consider yourself a "writer" but you are most definitely a storyteller. Everyone is. And we're going to walk you step by step through getting those stories down in print. We'll help you write with simplicity and clarity. We will also help you include the details that add life, meaning, and interest to your photos. If you do these things, you really can't go wrong. We promise there will be no letter grades or red pencils. You don't even need to share your stories with the group if you prefer not to.
- For our purposes, we will define a Photo Story as a short piece - perhaps a paragraph or two - that shares the story behind a photo or group of photos. Photo Stories build upon the captions you write. Compared to captions, Photo Stories: Include more details - including information that might not be apparent from the photo which you might have unearthed when you mined your memories. Provide background and context that might not be visible in the photo, such as a bit of relevant family history. Add some of your life experience - for example, your opinions or feelings related to the photo. This may be the point where you begin to say "But I am not a writer." To which we say BALDERDASH Or more precisely, we say you may not consider yourself a "writer" but you are most definitely a storyteller. Everyone is. And we're going to walk you step by step through getting those stories down in print. We'll help you write with simplicity and clarity. We will also help you include the details that add life, meaning, and interest to your photos. If you do these things, you really can't go wrong. We promise there will be no letter grades or red pencils. You don't even need to share your stories with the group if you prefer not to.
- Bullet Points - just expand on your list of memories by turning each memory into a complete sentence. Lists - Top Ten Things I Remember about this photo Headlines - Imagine a newspaper running a story about your photo(s). What would the headline be? Dialogue - recall or reimagine what the people in the photo are saying to each other Poetry - Sometimes the structure of a poem makes writing easier. Try a haiku or a limerick! It doesn’t matter how you write. What’s important is to get the information down on paper so it’s not lost.
- Verify facts, dates and so on with another family member or a genealogy database if you need to. Consider your audience - think again about who will read your stories, and what you want them to know. The stories you preserve will become a version of your family history. Tell the stories that are important to you, or that you think might be important to your audience in the future. Tell the truth, with the understanding that your point of view colors and limits your version of the truth. Write only what you're comfortable telling. Think carefully before concealing or withholding information that could be important to your family history. Guard against using this writing as an opportunity to settle old scores or expose family secrets. But don't shy away from writing about hard times. Some of our best life lessons can be found in difficult moments, and writing about them can be an effective means of dealing with negative feelings.
- Now that you have a rough draft, the next step is rewriting, or fine-tuning your draft. Ask yourself: Is anything left out of my narrative that I want to include? Am I certain that my facts are accurate? If not, double check the accuracy of your basic facts with family members or other sources. Does my writing contain detail and sensory images? Can you add in the other senses, or more emotions? Have I chosen powerful words? Check your writing for words like nice, good, pretty and see if you can think of stronger, more specific words. Check your verb choice for versions of "to be", such as: is, am, was, were, being or been. This verb is passive and makes your writing flat. See if you can find more descriptive and interesting verbs to use. For example, instead of saying "Grandma's fried chicken was good," try: "Grandma's crispy fried chicken tasted like heaven on earth." Find some tips on how to banish boring verbs here. Can I show rather than tell? Rather than saying "My mom was a good listener," try: "All my friends loved to spend the night at my house, because they could tell my mom all the things they couldn't tell their own mothers."
- Share Your Work: The rewriting phase is a good time to share your writing with a friend. Find a real life writing buddy, a friend or relative with whom you are comfortable. A good reader will: Offer constructive feedback, not just say everything is perfect as is. Ask questions when something is missing or unclear. Tell you what to leave out or where to write more. This class might be a good place to start sharing your work.
- The editing phase is less about content, and more about form. Although you will be automatically editing as you rewrite, rewriting is generally an expanding process. Editing is often a contracting one. Editing tasks include: Checking spelling, grammar and punctuation. Verifying spellings of names. Rereading for consistency of style. Checking your writing for coherence and flow. Making your writing concise by eliminating redundancies and material that does not contribute to the overall story.
- There are so many options for what to do next with your newfound Photo Story writing skills. The first thing we suggest is to just keep going. Write stories about as many photos or albums as you can. This is a big job for most of us, but now you know how to do it, and you can see how satifsying the result is. Once you have a stack of stories, you might: Combine your stories into longer pieces of work around a common theme. If a loved one is having a special birthday or anniversary try writing a mini life story of that person from your perspective to give as a gift. Create a family tree using photographs and write one story about each person on the tree. Copy and bind your stories to give as a holiday gift. Prepare a few stories for a school reunion and post them on the school website of Facebook page to stir up interest. Read your story aloud at a family event - a reunion, christening, birthday party, wedding or funeral