Writing a trip report
Trip reports can describe a single experience or be a retrospective summary that combines multiple experiences. Before posting a trip report, make sure you want the description of your experience to be made public. You have a lot of discretion in how you wish to write your trip report. The only mandatory elements are that your trip report must (1) have a descriptive title (see below) and (2) contain sufficient detail to provide the reader with a clear impression of the experience.
Feel free to write your story as a simple narrative and use whatever writing style is comfortable to you. It is understandable if you cannot remember all the details of your experience but try to provide as much information as possible. It is a good idea to write your report in a word processor and copy it into a new thread when you are ready to post. To make your report easier to read, use multiple paragraphs and include a separation line between paragraphs.
To help people create thorough yet interesting reports, here is a format guide that might be particularly helpful to those who are inexperienced with writing trip reports. There is absolutely no obligation to include all of these elements. Do not try to address each possible item one point at a time. Except for the title, this format is only meant to provide a little guidance while still leaving a lot of flexibility in what the writer wants to include or exclude.
Format guide
1. Title <--- mandatory
Format: Substance - Experience Level - Short Title
Substance: List of main substance(s) you used
Experience: Your level of experience with the substance(s)
Short title: Make the title as descriptive as possible
2. Description of drug(s): Try to describe the dosage (if known), appearance (shape, color, powder, markings, size, design/logo), purity (if known) and the route of administration (oral, smoked, snorted, IV, IM, plugged) as accurately as possible.
3. Background information: When did this experience take place? How is your general health and are you taking any medications or vitamin supplements? Had you prepared for this experience in any way (fasting, preloading, meditation)? What was your state of mind (tired, relaxed, happy)? What was your intent or purpose for the experience?
4. The experience: It can be very hard to describe an experience but one approach is to arrange things in roughly a chronological order. Some people separate events into paragraphs marked with times while others incorporate the passage of time into their story. If you were taking additional drugs, try to describe how far apart you took them from the original dose. The passage of time can be explained with three basic categories: when the drug is still taking effect (come up), when the experience is fully underway (peaking) and when the experience is coming to an end (comedown). As you consider each block of time, you can try to relate what you felt and what was happening around you:
Setting (the environment): Where were you? Were you in familiar surroundings? Was there music playing?
Setting (people present): Who else was with you? How well did you know them? How did you interact with them?
Effects (physical): How were your physical senses affected? How was your energy level or physical coordination affected? Did you feel energetic, thirsty or nauseous?
Effects (mental): What effect did the drugs have on your mind and emotions? What was your mood? What did you think about and did you have any insights?
5. Conclusions: After you have described your experience, it helps to finish with a few concluding remarks that put everything in perspective. Would you try it again or do you regret the experience? How did this experience compare to earlier experiences or other drugs? You can discuss how you felt during the next few days (afterglow, hangover, insomnia) or what you learned from this experience. You can also mention what made this experience memorable or how if effected you. Since other people will be reading your report, it would always be good to provide warnings or suggestions to anyone who might be considering trying the same drug(s).