Whether you are writing articles about yourself or others, be careful not to come across as sounding too perfect. Make yourself vulnerable. Show your flaws, as well as the positive points. Paint a realistic picture when writing about other people too. Only then can your readers identify.
Before you write your personal experience story, decide what your market will be and write to that market. Read all of the magazines you have time for to become familiar with them. I’d suggest reading several issues of a periodical before submitting a manuscript to that magazine. Many of these have articles from recent publications and their guidelines on their websites. You can pick up freebies at writers’ conferences.
You must be comfortable with a magazine to write for it. For the Christian market, purchase The Christian Writer’s Market Guide. The personal experience markets are broken into subheadings such as adult, children, missions, pastors, young adult, and women. Also see the heading, “Interviews/Profiles” if you are writing other people’s stories.
This concludes the series on Writing the Personal Experience Article. Next week we will begin a series on Interviewing.