A Helpful Guide to Writing a Narrative Essay
The goal of a Narrative Essay is to tell a story or a part of a story. Narrative writing is a type
of essay writing that recreates an experience. This experience can be one which you have
personally experienced yourself, in the past or the present, or it can be something that was
experienced by someone else. Narrative essays also convey an important central idea or valuable
lesson. These essays are often anecdotal, experiential, and personal—allowing the student to
express herself in a creative and, quite often, moving way.
Here are some guidelines for writing a narrative essay:
If written as a story, the essay should include all the parts of a story.
This means that you must include an introduction, plot, characters, setting, climax, and
conclusion.
Be sure to create a plot structure that includes:
• Introduction
• Rising action
• Climax
• Falling action
• Resolution
Make sure your narrative has:
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Conflict
Characterization
A Setting
Theme
Sequencing
Transitions
The essay should have a purpose.
Make a point! Think of this as the thesis of your story. If there is no point to what you are
narrating, why narrate it at all?
The essay should be written from a clear point of view.
Use clear and concise language throughout the essay.
Much like the descriptive essay, narrative essays are effective when the language is carefully,
particularly, and artfully chosen. Use specific language to evoke specific emotions and senses in
the reader.
Structure of Narrative Writing
There are many different ways to structure narrative writing. However, 3 types of structures are
most commonly used. This includes:
1. Chronological Approach
2. Reflective Approach
3. Flashback Approach (With a sequence order)
You must choose the narrative writing structure that suits best to your story.
Method of Narrative Writing
Show It Rather Than Telling
Avoid telling the readers what they must feel or think. The readers should be made to see, hear
and feel the entire experience on their own. And, these sensory touches should help take them to
the feeling or thought felt by you. Remember, that it is difficult to show, but easier to tell. But
the later wouldn’t create the impact that the former can.
So, narrative writing is at its best when you are not interpreting the story, but when you are
illuminating the details. You are going to work like a sifter and not like any explainer. One of the
best ways to show and not to tell is to eliminate verbs like “to be.”
Let the Talking Be From The People
An interesting point to keep in mind when writing narrative writing is that one can learn a lot
about another person from what they say. So, what you would have to say would tell people a lot
about you. Use properly constructed dialogues to achieve a good effect. You must try to build
dialogues that would create harmony between the personality of the characters and their voices.
Choose unique words and try to use active voice and not passive.
Tense
The tense of the narrative writing is determined from the structure chosen. You must consider the
way the use of past or present tense can have an impact on the message and the general tone of
the writing.
Tone
Use such a tone for your narrative writing that it would create a singular feeling for the entire
work at a general level. Consider the topic that you are writing upon and it should be clear to you
what the message you want to send across. The tone of the narrative writing can be determined
from the way you want the audience to feel once they have read the writing. Choosing the words
carefully can help you in achieving the right effect.
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Prompts for Narrative Writing
If you are finding it difficult to come up with an interesting experience for your Narrative
Essay and need some essay help, take a look at some of the following prompts for narrative
essay writing. These prompts may jog your memory and help you remember an interesting
experience from your past.
1. A childhood event – Try and remember an incident where you learned something for the first
time as a child.
2. Achieving a goal – Identify a very significant or meaningful achievement in your life. This
should be something that was significant enough to make an impression on your life.
3. A failure – Failure is not always a bad thing. Sometimes a failure can lead to one of your
biggest learning experiences. You can write about an experience where you failed at something
and what it taught you.
4. A good or bad deed – Good and bad deeds make for very interesting narrative writing! Think
about an unselfish act that you carried out or write about a time when you did the wrong thing.
5. A change in your life – Think about a huge change that occurred in your life. It could be
anything from shifting houses to falling in love to the loss of a loved one.
Steps to Begin Your Essay
1. Decide on the experience that you want to relate.
2. Identify the significance of this experience.
3. Note down everything you remember about the experience.
4. Create an essay outline of the basic parts of your story.