Experience articles allow readers to learn through the writer’s perspective on a situation. These articles include personal testimonies, experiences and reflections. It can be an experience that happened to you or to someone close to you. Try to do more than just relate the incident – where appropriate, try to work in a larger theme or make the piece universally meaningful for readers.

Fundamentals of writing experience articles:

1. Share experiences that readers can relate to and learn from.
2. Focus on the topic at hand. Don’t try to tell your life story in 1,500 words or less.
3. Engage the reader. Show, don’t tell.
4. Leave out superfluous details not central to your theme.
5. Don’t write a fictional (or fictionalized) account. Experience articles are about real life. Use the first person point of view (“I”) – but try to be sparing with the pronoun.
6. Paragraphs of sentences that begin with “I” read like a diary, not an article.

Theme

Personal accounts work best when there is an overriding theme that helps readers connect with your experience as well as provides a focus to your article. For example, an article about gardening could have a theme of life and rebirth. What do you hope the reader comes away with after reading about your experience? That’s what you write about.

The devil’s in the details

Details in an experience article should focus on helping the reader engage in your experience. Do share details that can help the reader see the experience through your eyes. Don’t go off on tangents or add superfluous elements that don’t relate to your topic or theme – this can distract the reader. You may think that a detailed list of everything you ate for lunch the day you got your driver’s license is relevant to your story. Unless your theme is boredom, it’s not.

Writer resources

• How to effectively share personal experiences on Helium.
• The ultimate guide to writing (and selling) personal experience articles.
• Show, don’t (just) tell.