Submit Article to The Edge / Featured Topics for 2012 (sidebar)
We are living in magnificent times. We believe each human being is magnificent and has an incredible part to add to the tapestry that is life. By removing labels — rich and poor, educated and uneducated and even leaders and followers — each individual has the opportunity to reclaim his or her place in the whole, and to unfold and bloom and share the wonderful gifts each possess.
We exist within a field of synchronicity, where the many attributes of each individual can combine with those of others, to create something new. But for any of this to happen, each of us must show up, take our places, unfold and begin to experience our potentials with others. Truly it is time to immerse and indulge ourselves in experience.
It’s about experience as you weave your way through a never-ending string of ah-ha! moments. It’s about the healing you’ve endured to become whole again, and the amazing insights and wisdom that were left in the wake of your struggles.
Experiential writing is a style that simply shares an experience you had. It’s ripe with detail and emotion. It describes how something felt, to you. It inspires people not by suggesting what is, or what might be, but by sharing what was, for you, and the magic or inspiration or illumination that resulted from it.
Experiential writing is a surprisingly powerful way for readers to open and illuminate their own, personal inner wisdom. There’s something magical that happens when we read about the experiences of others like us, and then find tremendous resonance with the story. Not only do we feel authentic inspiration, but more importantly, the fact that we perceive the author to be more like ourselves removes the self-defeating barrier we tend to keep that says, “I’ll never be like her,” or “I’ll never be as wise as he is.”
While there’s value in all things, we believe there are enough people out there teaching. Teaching is fine and teachers have their place, but the teacher/student polarization requires that students remain students in order for teachers to remain teachers. It is inherently flawed in terms of its potential to reach a student’s inner wisdom. Here at The Edge, we have neither teachers nor students. We have a beautiful ocean of vibrant souls sharing powerful stories about their journeys so that others may realize the power of their own experiences and one day come to share them as well.
Perhaps the best way to explain what experiential writing is, is to read a great example of it. In her article The Awakening, author Devrah Laval shares what came to be an amazing, life-changing experience. The way she wrote the article describes the experience from her perspective. It’s rich with emotion, imagery and humor, but never once does she suggest to you that your experience should be, would be or could be the same. It’s simply a story about a life-changing experience she had, and how it impacted her life from that moment on.
This is what The Edge seeks in submissions. Experiential writing is about you . It’s about you as you travel through your own story, unfolding the magic and how that magic impacted your life.
Tips & Guidelines
- Experiential Writing Describes an Experience You Had
Each time you intend to write for the magazine, ask yourself, “Is this about an experience I had?” An honest answer to that question will be your greatest guide. - Write from The First-person Perspective
Experiential writing is written from the first-person perspective: I thought, I felt, I experienced. If your writing is filled with the words you, she, he or we, for example, you should, we should, then you’re probably not writing experientially. - Use Simple Language
Even though the site’s default language is English, we intend our articles to be accessible to people all over the planet. Use simple words to describe your experience so that the greatest number of readers have a chance to truly understand your story. - Use Analogies and Metaphors Rather Than Labels
When describing your experience, you’ll spend a lot of time explaining how something felt. Use analogies and metaphors to assist with this rather than labels or “coined” terms. Writing “I felt a tremendous sense of peace, love and joy,” is more meaningful to the reader than writing, “I reached nirvana.” Not all readers will share your interpretation of a given label and therefore, the label may draw boundaries between you and the reader rather than illuminate common ground. - Let Readers Draw Their Own Conclusions
When sharing your experiences and stories, stop short of summing things up for the reader, or writing the moral of the story was… These are signals that you’re attempting to teach, or suggest how the experience should be perceived. The power of experiential writing comes from how much the reader relates to your experience, not whether they agree with your analysis of it. - Let Readers Decide Whether to Act
The best experiential writing always allows the reader to take action in his or her own way. Your experience was moving to you because you chose steps for yourself. Readers will not have the same experience merely by following you or adopting your philosophy so avoid prescribing a new perspective or number of steps for success. Encourage your readers to seek the joy you experienced, not the method you used to achieve it. - Always Write from The Positive
One of the greatest secrets one will ever learn is to always speak and write from the positive, compassionate frame of reference, no matter how upset or angry or frustrated you might be. This will likely be the hardest aspect of experiential writing to achieve. There will inevitably be experiences in your life where great strife or trauma took place, and where it would be nearly impossible to describe without passing judgment or casting a critical light on those involved. There’s no rule that says you can’t express anger in your writing. In fact, expressing your anger can be a powerful doorway that reaches others struggling in similar ways. But to do so in a genuinely positive manner could be the difference between getting people to relate and inspiring your entire audience to change their own lives. Negativity is like a black hole where the power of your story quickly leaks. It can cause the reader to feel judgment even when they aren’t the ones being judged. It may feel therapeutic to write it, for that moment, but it will not have the kind of impact on others that a gentler, and wiser description of an experience will have. Judgment separates. Love unites. Always try to find the loving path to share your story if you can.
Here’s a recap of the guidelines. You might want to check this list every time you write something for The Edge:
[ • ] Experiential writing describes an experience you had
[ • ] Write from the first-person perspective
[ • ] Use simple language
[ • ] Use analogies and metaphors rather than labels
[ • ] Let readers draw their own conclusions
[ • ] Let readers decide whether to act
[ • ] Always write from the positive frame of reference
We encourage you to share your experiences with us, and hopefully you’ll inspire many others to follow and trust their own paths and share their stories, too!
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