Captions & messages
A caption is not a description of the photograph — it is what the photograph cannot say. That one distinction fixes most of the writing in a book.
- Avoiding Generic Caption LanguageTwenty phrases that appear in almost every photo book, why each one fails, and a specific replacement for every single one. Plus the test that catches the rest.5 min read
- Handwritten or Printed?Handwriting is not automatically warmer, and printing is not automatically lazy. Which one suits which message, and the case for using both in one gift.3 min read
- Quotes: When to Use One and When Not ToBorrowed lines from songs, poems and films are the default and usually the weakest choice. The three cases where one earns its place, and the copyright limit.4 min read
- What to Write for Someone GrievingMost condolence messages fail the same three ways. What to write in the first week, what to send a month later, and the sentence never to begin.5 min read
- What to Write in a Farewell MessageFarewell messages fail by being about the leaving rather than about the person. A structure, what changes by relationship, and what to write in a group book.4 min read
- What to Write in a Thank You NoteA four-part structure, the line that makes a thank you specific, and how long you actually have before it stops counting. With templates you can adapt.4 min read
- What to Write in a Wedding CardYou are writing to two people, one of whom you may barely know, and it will be read in a pile of two hundred. A structure, lines that work, and what to skip.4 min read
- What to Write to a TeacherTeachers receive thirty near-identical notes in one week. The one sentence that makes yours the kept one, and what parents should and should not write.3 min read
- Captions for a Baby BookThe only book where the subject cannot remember a single page of it. That changes who you are writing to, and almost everybody writes to the wrong reader.3 min read
- Captions for a Travel BookThe one subject where factual captions beat clever ones, because in five years you will not remember which town it was — and nobody else ever knew.3 min read
- Captions for a Wedding BookFour hundred guests, and in thirty years nobody will know who most of them are. The one caption job a wedding book has that no other book has.3 min read
- Captions That Make Sense in Thirty YearsWrite for a reader who has never met anybody in the photograph. Four things they will need, and the shorthand that is invisible now and useless later.4 min read
- Inside Jokes That Still Work in PrintA joke that needs explaining is not a joke, but a joke nobody outside understands is the whole point. Where the line sits, and how to write one down.3 min read
- Short Captions and Long OnesSix words or sixty. The choice is not style but how much the reader needs — and a book that uses only one length is the mistake, whichever length it picks.3 min read
- What to Write in a Birthday CardFour lines, and the middle two are the only ones that matter. A structure that works at any age, plus what changes when the card goes with a gift.3 min read
- What to Write in an Anniversary CardThe card written to somebody who already knows everything in it. What that rules out, what a year actually gives you, and the one line worth repeating.4 min read
- What to Write on the First PageThe page that decides how the rest is read, and the one people write last and worst. Four things it should do, in about a hundred and fifty words.4 min read
- What to Write on the Last PageThe page read when there is nothing left to look at, which is the only quiet moment the book has. Why the letter goes here and not at the front.3 min read
- When to Leave a Caption BlankSilence is a caption choice and it is the most under-used one. Five photographs that are better unlabelled, and why a fully captioned book reads flat.3 min read
- Writing a DedicationOne line, on its own page, addressed to somebody who may not be reading. What separates a dedication from a message, and why brevity is the whole form.4 min read
- Writing About Someone Who Has DiedPresent tense or past, how much to say, and whether to mention it at all. The captions that work are smaller and more factual than people expect.3 min read
- Writing Captions for Someone Else's PhotographsYou are making a gift from a life you were only partly in. What you can honestly write, what you must ask for, and the register that goes wrong.3 min read