In writing instruction, teachers often struggle with developing engaging and interactive activities given constraints such as large classes and packed teaching schedules. A purposeful and appealing pre-task can energize the writing process and set the context for the subsequent writing task. With this purpose in mind, the author designed the activity presented in this article as a pre-task for teaching students to write descriptions for a photo diary--a diary that includes or is based on photos. This Teaching Technique explains what the author describes as a pre-task for teaching students to write descriptively about a photo diary that students create themselves.