Write Life Experience Pieces with Feeling

Whether you plan to market your nonfiction writing or write for the joy of it, you'll want the reader to really feel your experience. Were you anxious, blissed out, energized, confused, devastated? Relive it in your mind and use the words and cadence (or pace) that will put the reader into the experience.

1. WORD CHOICE. Ordinary nouns and verbs provide your readers with bland, foggy impressions. Where's the "life" in those experiences? It's in specific words! The action part of the experience will primarily show in your verb choices. The mood of the experience shows in the detail.

These examples come from my  September 4, 2014 post "Jury Duty Write Up":

• I got popped in the bumper. She jumped out of her SUV
• and we surged forward as a friendly mob
• were beginning to get a little sassy and laughing

2. SENSORY WORDS. These introduce your reader to the sight, sounds, smells, feel, and taste. Such words can go a long way towards bringing your readers with into the scene with you.

If you enjoy travel writing, the sensory details become key aspects of your reader's "view." This example comes from The Many Faces of Journaling (2nd edition), pg. 160:

"Conner Prairie   Connor Prairie (Indiana). What a fantastic experience! This 'living history museum' is a reconstructed 1820's village on an immense plot of land just north of Indianapolis, and there life goes on the way it did in 1823. We could hear the clang of the anvil as we walked down the dusty road to the blacksmith's shop... The weaver was in the middle of making a beautiful, patterned red and cream wool blanket on his loom... He had bunches of aromatic dried herbs handing from a rough, smoke-blacked beam near the fireplace... the pungent smell of drying sage and thyme scented the air in the cozy cottage."

3. SENTENCE LENGTH. A writer can pack a lot of punch into a page or article by varying the sentence lengths. A medium-length sentence states the facts. A longer sentence becomes more lyrical. A short sentence is an exclamation, regardless of what punctuation you use. One, two or three word carry far more emotion and/or power than a longer one.  

Also from The Many Faces of Journaling(2nd edition), pg. 104:

"The Bombing of Baghdad   Wed., March 19th, '03 - all day watching CNN & MSNBC. This evening the countdown on the latter. Right now it's 5 minutes and counting. Counting towards what? Armageddon? I'm starting to cry. This countdown isn't exactly like the New Year's Eve ball. But the reverse timing sounds and looks the same. Even that's obscene. Too much like a happy, hopeful, traditional annual event..."

We can often bring more of our living experiences into a piece if we write it as though we were telling a friend or acquaintance about it. When you really want them to "be there" with you - write it that way.

Happy writing ~

Lin

Writing Your Reflections and Insights

The future value of your Writer's Journal entries grows exponentially by including both the facts and the insights of your life experiences. The details of both the event and the take-aways will provide you with rich material for future writings, large and small. Who knows? One journal entry may become the opening line of a book someday!

In the last post, I described my first experience of being summons for jury duty. Now it's time to share my reflections and insights after the fact.


First, what had seemed so anti-climatic at the end of the long day's waiting turned out to be a beautiful learning time in gentle ways. No, I wasn't called to serve on the jury for a high-drama court case. But for one who works (writes) in solitude, it proved to be a warm experience of people and processes.

POTENTIAL JURORS
That retired St. Louis policeman I sat next to was black. Either my family wasn't racially prejudiced or the subject just never came up. But that allowed me to form my own ideas: I've never understood why the color of a person's skin mattered. Our similarities and differences have to do with life values and interests, not pigmentation. OK, history has screwed that up quite a bit. But those remain our real sharing points.

When I was a child, the Supreme Court issued its ruling on equality of education. As I wandered around in our backyard, I thought - Everybody goes to school to learn the same stuff, so why would there have been a separation to begin with? It didn't make any sense to me. 

Back to our story, September 2nd wasn't very long after the emotionally charged events in Ferguson, a suburb or St. Louis County, Missouri. And many of us, it was a powerful time of wanting to reach out and connect with others. When it came time to find a seat in the jury waiting room, I consciously chose to sit beside a black person, whom I'll refer to as "Ed."

Ed and I talked about our work, including his celebrity-rich limo driving and my book writing, our families, life values - especially respect and education, and all manner of things. We spoke seriously, and we laughed about life together.We also found that we shared the same ideas of personal budgets - neither of us is a fan of extravagant spending. We didn't talk about Ferguson specifically, but we did get into other news issues. He'd brought his newspaper, and I had a book, so we'd alternate chatting for long periods with reading. And, yes, we did solve some of the world's big problems.

We shared so much with each other in an relaxed, mutually interested way over those 8+ hours. I may never see Ed again, but he will always be with me.

Since the 250 potential jurors had to wear highly visible JUROR badges all day, striking up a conversation with another of our "gang" never proved a problem. We generally opened by asking each other if he or she hoped to be called to serve on a jury or not and went on from there.

THE COURTHOUSE STAFF
The screeners, bailiffs, and jury room assistants, shared three lovely traits: they were all kind, unhurried, and welcoming. I felt OK being a clueless newbie. The experienced screening crew were all County Police for whom the job was routine, but who joked easily with each other as they worked. Each bailiff had his own blend of matter-of-fact attitude with a dash of humor, especially trying to pronounce the 170 names. (St. Louis has a fine mix of nationalities.) The women who run the juror waiting room are pleasantly efficient. Although by the time we were dismissed for the day, at least one looked like it'd been a long day!

MY FEELINGS
Even though I'd only waited, I came away with a feeling of being an active part of the larger community. We had a job to do and came to it willingly. No one was cranky or out of sorts, even if they, like me, had originally wished to be excused, although we all moaned together as the day stretched on and on. That feeling of working together surprised me, and to be honest, by the time we turned in our badges, I wouldn't have half minded being called to return the next day.

Have you started keeping a Writer's Journal yet?

Lin

Jury Duty Write Up

Some big adventures are smaller than others. Such was my first time as a potential juror at St. Louis County Circuit Court on September 2nd. But all life experiences offer new writing material. First, I'll share the day's events, and later, my insights and feelings about it.

From my Writer's Journal:

Wed., Sept. 3, 2014: [about jury duty] I was really curious, but you know me and my comfort zone. Then Sunday I realized I'd neglected to mail in the bottom half of the notice that said - Yes, I'll be there! So I thought I might be "found in contempt" or sumsuch when I got there. (They are some of the very nicest people I've ever met!) Good old rush hour traffic - about 1/2 mile from the parking garage, I got popped in the bumper. She jumped out of her SUV, I jumped out of my 23 year old Camry - no damage whatsoever, I hugged her and said - We're fine.

 

Found the parking garage, wandered down an alley behind it, and just happened to cross the street with a Bailiff :) who said - Walk with me. And he led me down a maze of sidewalks to where you enter the courthouse and go through screening. By then, nearly all the citizens wandering around were reporting for jury duty and we surged forward as a friendly mob. The bailiff had told me not mailing the confirmation form in would be no problem, and he was right - a total non-issue. In fact, the woman behind me had misplaced the whole packet, and they didn't bat an eye.

 

In the huge waiting room, I sat down to a slightly built man who turned out to be a retired St. Louis policeman, who then worked for a while at [large corporation], before starting his current job as a limo driver. And, man, did he have stories. I know pretty much his life story - born in [in the South], mom moved her and the kids to St. Louis (dad didn't want to move), his wife died of MS. Since that's almost what [my daughter] has, we shared a lot about that, and about life and the news and so many things.

We met another juror at Panera's and chatted there and after we got back. Waiting to be called is soooo boring, even if you alternate between chatting and reading. (My copy of Charlotte Kasl's if the Buddha got stuck didn't address jury room boredom!) They called a 4th list of jurors at 4:30, which brought the total to 170 out of about 250 originally in the room. We were told that trial would probably begin immediately, so jurors might be there as late as 10:00! We all held our collective breath and were beginning to get a little sassy and laughing. (Poor Bailiff was pretty pooped himself by then.) Then at 4:45, the rest of us were dismissed and told we didn't have to come back today. We turned in our juror badges, and that was that. Wait! What?

 

After all my fretting about the unfamiliar, it was truly an anti-climax. But ... I was exhausted when I got home, sore from sitting in a chair all day, and yet, overstimulated :) I went to bed a little early, and slept around the clock! So I'm pretty sure it was a growth experience.

STAY TUNED: In my next post, I'll share my reflections on the whole experience.

Happy writing ~

Lin