Using Journaling Prompts to Add Meaning to Memories

When I pulled out the very first scrapbook I ever made — my college scrapbook — I expected it to look… well, dated. What I didn’t expect was how little journaling was in it.

My later books are filled with paragraphs and reflective stories. But this one is mostly photos, labels, and a lot of ephemera: parking tags, letters, newspaper clippings, programs, meal cards. It feels like a time capsule from a different world (the 20th century 😆).

There’s something charming about that simplicity, but it also reminded me how different my storytelling style was back then. I was documenting the experience, not interpreting it.

That’s where prompts come in.

Why prompts help with old memories

Prompts give you a way to approach an old moment from a new angle.  You don’t need to write a lot — even one sentence can add depth.

I scanned a couple of photos and one or two pieces of ephemera, and used three prompts to create a modern layout that reflects who I was becoming back then:

• Theme: Rites of Passage

• Story: Advice to Your Past Self

• Technique: Stickers

It’s the same moment, but now the story feels fuller and reflective.

Watch the Before/After

I walk through the process in this week’s video — including a flip-through of the original scrapbook and the “Story-First” update.

https://youtu.be/D3eFEo3yJeA

Try it with your own albums

Think of an older scrapbook you haven’t looked at in a while. Choose one moment and pull a single prompt (Story works great here), see what comes up, and reflect on it from where you are now.

Let me know in the comments what you chose to revisit and how it turned out!