Writing from experience
Forget about echoing other people. Tell your story and tell it proudly!
Gary Bloomer | SHAKING THE TREE # 215
I once met a man who had lived behind enemy lines in northern France during World War II. He had worked with the French Resistance as a member of the SOE, (the Special Operations Executive) of His Majesty’s Armed Forces.
A friend of a friend used to live next door to the film director Ridley Scott.
My cousin’s husband served for 25 years in the United States Marine Corps. He ended his career as a Lieutenant Colonel and his last job in the Corps was as the pilot of Marine One for President Reagan.
My point here is that everyone has personal experiences to draw from in terms of creating content.
As writers and communicators, we’re often told to stick to the facts, or be objective, or, and even worse, “you’ve got to appeal to a broad audience.”
But in all human interaction and experience, the most compelling, memorable, and persuasive writing of all comes from a deeply personal place—your own experience.
Because you’ve lived it. Because you’ve trudged through it. Because your story is uniquely yours.
Writing from personal experience isn’t just about sharing anecdotes; it’s about leveraging your unique perspective to connect, teach, and influence.
Here’s why it works—and why it’s worth doing.
1. Authenticity builds trust
Your readers are not idiots.
They can sense a sales pitch or smell a cliché drenched listicle from a mile away.
But when you write from firsthand knowledge—when you share your successes and failures, when you show your cuts and scrapes and your bruises and your scars from real life lessons learned the hard way—you offer something no one else can replicate.
That authenticity resonates. People trust real stories more than abstract theories because they recognize truth in the details.
2. Experience makes you a better teacher
Have you ever read a how-to article written by someone who’s clearly never done the thing they’re explaining? It’s frustrating.
When you write from experience, you anticipate the pitfalls, the nuances, and the unspoken challenges. Your advice isn’t just theoretical—it’s street-tested and valuable.
That’s why the Know-How Exchange of MarketingProfs.com thrives on real-world insights, not textbook answers.
3. Emotion drives engagement
While facts and figures inform, it’s stories and anecdotes that persuade.
Personal experiences come with a whole list of built-in feelings and emotions—frustration, triumph, surprise—and it’s those things that stick with readers.
Any case study about customer service is forgettable, but a story about the time you lost a client because of a tiny oversight? That’s a lesson people remember.
4. Your voice becomes distinctive
In a world of AI-generated content and SEO-driven fluff, personal perspective is your differentiator and your magic wand: it’s the thing that sets you apart from everyone else. No algorithm can replicate your specific blend of expertise, humor, and insight.
The more you write from your own journey, the more recognizable—and valuable—your voice becomes.
5. It clarifies your thinking
Writing from experience isn’t just for the reader’s benefit; it’s for yours as well.
Putting your thoughts into words forces you to examine what you really know—and often reveals crucial gaps in your understanding, gaps you can fill in with the insight you’ve gained.
Some of my best insights have come from realizing, mid-sentence, that my own experience contradicted my assumptions.
The caveat: it’s not about you
Here’s the key: writing from personal experience doesn’t mean making everything a memoir. The best communicators use their stories as a bridge, not as spotlight. The question isn’t “What happened to me?” but “What can others learn from this?”
So the next time you sit down to write—whether it’s a blog post, a presentation, or a marketing email—ask yourself: Where have I lived this? Your most powerful material might already be in your own history.
Now, over to you.
What’s a lesson you’ve learned only because you lived it?
As always, thanks for reading.
—Gar
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P.S. Next time on Shaking the Tree: If you write, you’re a writer
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Originally from the U.K., Gary Bloomer is a writer, branding advocate, marketing specialist, and an award-winning graphic designer.
His design work has been included in Creative Review (one of the UK’s largest design magazines). Since 2009, he has answered over 5,000 marketing and business questions in the Know-How Exchange of MarketingProfs.com, placing him among the top 3% of contributors. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.
Thanks for your kind restack.