Tips for Writing a
Personal Narrative
Purpose and Audience
Structure
Methods
Purpose and Audience
Personal narratives allow you to share your life with others and vicariously
experience the things that happen around you. Your job as a writer is to put the reader
in the midst of the action letting him or her live through an experience. Although a
great deal of writing has a thesis, stories are different. A good story creates a dramatic
effect, makes us laugh, gives us pleasurable fright, and/or gets us on the edge of our
seats. A story has done its job if we can say, "Yes, that captures what living with my
father feels like," or "Yes, that’s what being cut from the football team felt like."
Structure
There are a variety of ways to structure your narrative story. The three most common
structures are: chronological approach, flashback sequence, and reflective mode. Select
one that best fits the story you are telling.
Methods
Show, Don’t’ Tell
Don’t tell the reader what he or she is supposed to think or feel. Let the reader see, hear, smell,
feel, and taste the experience directly, and let the sensory experiences lead him or her to your
intended thought or feeling. Showing is harder than telling. It’s easier to say, "It was incredibly
funny," than to write something that is incredibly funny. The rule of "show, don’t tell" means that
your job as a storyteller is not to interpret; it’s to select revealing details. You’re a sifter, not an
explainer. An easy way to accomplish showing and not telling is to avoid the use of "to be" verbs.
Methods
Let People Talk
It’s amazing how much we learn about people from what they say. One way
to achieve this is through carefully constructed dialogue. Work to create
dialogue that allows the characters’ personalities and voices to emerge
through unique word selection and the use of active rather than passive
voice.
Methods
Choose a Perspective and Point of View
Point of view how your story is told. It encompasses where you are in time, how much
you view the experience emotionally (your tone), and how much you allow yourself into
the minds of the characters. Most personal narratives are told from the first-person
limited point of view. If you venture to experiment with other points of view, you may want
to discuss them with me as you plan your piece.
Methods
Tense
Tense is determined by the structure you select for your narrative. Consider how present vs. past
tense might influence your message and the overall tone of your piece.
Tone
The tone of your narrative should set up an overall feeling. Look over the subject that you are
presenting and think of what you are trying to get across. How do you want your audience to feel
when they finish your piece? Careful word choice can help achieve the appropriate effect.
NARRATIVE ESSAY PROMPTS
1. [Being Unprepared] Because you have been sick, out of town, busy at work, or
working on other homework, you didn't have as much time to study for an important test as
you needed. Everyone going to school has been in this situation. Think of a specific test
that you took that you felt unprepared for and narrate the events. Tell your readers about
the preparation that you were able to do, the reasons that you didn't get to prepare as well
as you wanted, taking the test, and any significant events that happened after you took the
test. Your paper should help readers understand what it felt like to be unprepared.
NARRATIVE ESSAY PROMPTS
2. [Lightbulb Moment] Think of an experience when you realized that you suddenly
understood an idea, a skill, or a concept you had been struggling with -- it might be
something related to a class that you took or a specific athletic skill you were trying to
perfect. For instance, you might consider trying to perfect your free throws and suddenly
understanding how your follow-through was affecting your success. Write a narrative that
tells the story of your movement toward understanding. How did you finally come to
understand? What changed your perceptions and gave you a new understanding? Your
paper should help readers understand how you felt to struggle with the idea or skill and then
to understand.
NARRATIVE ESSAY PROMPTS
3. [Childhood Event] Choose a vivid time from your childhood -- You might think of the first
time that you rode a school bus, of a time when you went to the principal's office, the first A
you earned on a test or paper, earning money to buy something that you really wanted, and
so on. Narrate the events related to the childhood memory that you've chosen so that your
readers will understand why the event was important and memorable.
NARRATIVE ESSAY PROMPTS
4. [Achieving a Goal] Think of a time when you achieved a personal goal -- you might
have bettered your score on the SATs or another test. Tell your readers about the story of
how you met your goal. Be sure that your readers understand why the goal is important to
you.
NARRATIVE ESSAY PROMPTS
5. [The Good and the Bad] Think about an event in your life that seemed bad but turned
out to be good. What makes the event change from bad to good may be something that you
learned as a result, something that you did differently as a result, or something that
happened that wouldn't have occurred otherwise. Tell the story of the event that you
experienced and help your readers understand how an event that seemed negative turned
out to have valuable consequences.
NARRATIVE ESSAY PROMPTS
6. [Being a Teacher] Teaching someone else how to do something can be
rewarding. Think of a skill that you've taught someone else how to do. Perhaps
you taught someone else how to swim, or helped someone learn how to study
more effectively. Think about the events that made up the process of teaching the
skill, and narrate the story for your readers.
NARRATIVE ESSAY PROMPTS
7. [Changing Places] Every place has things that change -- sometimes as the
result of economics, sometimes because different people are involved, and
sometimes for no clear reason that you know about. Think of a change to a place
that you know well. Perhaps an older sibling moves out of the house and your
family changes the room to a guest room or an office. Think of a specific change
and narrate the events that occurred. Readers should know the details of the
change, and they should know how you feel about the changes that occurred.
NARRATIVE ESSAY TOPICS
1) Choose 3 different topics about which you may want to write your
personal narrative.
2) Recalling the Event or Person. If you have chosen to write about
an event, begin by writing for five minutes, simply telling what
happened. Do not worry about telling the story dramatically or even
coherently.If you have chosen to write about a person, begin by listing
anecdotes you could tell about the person. Then choose one anecdote
that reveals something important about the person or your relationship,
and write for five minutes telling what happened.
3) For each of the 3 topics I want you to write down in a single
sentence how you want your reader to feel after reading your
narrative.
NARRATIVE ESSAY (Feeling/ Emotion)
Recalling Your Feelings and Thoughts. Write for a few minutes, trying
to recall your thoughts and feelings when the event was occurring or
when you knew the person. What did you feel—in control or powerless,
proud or embarrassed, vulnerable, detached, judgmental? How did you
show or express your feelings? What did you want others to think of you
at the time? What did you think of yourself? What were the immediate
consequences for you personally?
NARRATIVE ESSAY TOPICS
Take one or two of your stories and try to explain it to your neighbor.
After telling them your story have them answer these questions:
·What feeling were you left with after hearing the story?
·What, if anything, was unclear about the story?
·Write a brief summary of the story you heard.
NARRATIVE ESSAY TOPICS
Look at your partners comments and evaluate how well you
communicated your narrative. After reading the comments, you may
want to try a different topic with another person on your own.
NARRATIVE ESSAY (Purpose)
Considering Your Purpose. Write for several minutes exploring what you want your readers to
understand about the significance of the event or person. Use the following questions to help
clarify your thoughts:
• What will writing about this event or person enable you to suggest about yourself as an
individual? What will it let you suggest about the social and cultural forces that helped shape
you—for example, how people exercise power over one another, how family and community
values and attitudes have an impact on individuals, or how economic and social conditions
influence our sense of self?
• What do you not understand fully about the event or relationship? What about it still puzzles
you or seems contradictory? What do you feel ambivalent about?
• What about your subject do you expect will seem familiar to your readers? What do you think
will surprise them, perhaps getting them to think in new ways or to question some of their
assumptions and stereotypes?
NARRATIVE ESSAY (Reflection)
Exploring Your Present Perspective. Write for a few minutes, trying to
express your present thoughts and feelings as you look back on the
event or person. How have your feelings changed? What insights do you
now have? What does your present perspective reveal about what you
were like at the time? Try looking at the event or person in broader,
cultural or social terms. For example, consider whether you or anyone
else upset gender expectations or felt out of place in some way.
NARRATIVE ESSAY (Setting)
Describing Important Places. Identify the place where the event
happened or a place you associate with the person, and detail what you
see in the scene as you visualize it. Try to recall specific sensory details:
size, shape, color, condition, and texture of the scene or memorable
objects in it. Imagine the place from head-on and from the side, from a
distance and from close-up.
NARRATIVE ESSAY (Dialogue)
Reconstructing Dialogue. Write a few lines of dialogue that you could
use to convey something important about the event or to give readers an
impression of the person you have chosen to write about. You may use
direct quotation, enclosing the words you remember being spoken in
quotation marks, or you may use indirect quotation, paraphrasing and
summarizing what was said. Try to re-create the give-and-take quality of
normal conversation in the dialogue.