Whether you’re more confident with words or pictures, the two things in combination can help you.
It’s true that pictures can sometimes be used merely as decoration, or to illustrate what a story has already told us.
But a good picture, displayed well, can add something that words alone won’t manage.
And together, words and pictures create meaning that neither can achieve alone.
Here’s an exercise: simply describe what is in a picture and you’ll become instantly clearer about why you want to show it, and what elements in the picture you want to highlight.
Master this combination of words and pictures, and you’ll transform your micro-memoir from a photo album with notes into a compelling narrative.
I go into more detail about this in lesson 18 of my course about writing, illustrating and printing a micro-memoir in 30 days.
I wrote a thread on Bluesky going into more detail:
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🧵1 The difference between a photo album and a compelling micro-memoir?
Captions.
Master the skill of caption-writing and you'll make every photograph work twice as hard, showing one thing while revealing another.
Here's how to write captions that transform your images:— John-Paul Flintoff (@jp.flintoff.org) 16 October 2025 at 12:38