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