Tips for writing narrative essays. Writing an effective narrative essay
involves drawing the reader into the experience you are narrating,
recreating it.
by Katharine Hansen, Ph.D.
A narrative essay essentially tells a story. A good way to think of a narrative essay is to consider
a variation on the word "narrative" -- narrator -- and think of yourself as the narrator of a story of
someone's experience –- probably yours. Professors often assign students to write narrative
essays about their own experiences. Some students find writing about themselves quite easy and
natural, while others become unhinged at the idea of having to chronicle their own experiences.
Students often think nothing in their lives is story-worthy; if you are one of those consider these
prompts for narrative essays:
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My most memorable ...
How I got interested in ...
How I achieved ...
How I failed at ...
How I realized ...
My most frightening experience ...
My best experience with ...
My worst experience with ...
My happiest time ...
My first experience with ...
The weirdest ...
My favorite ...
How I handled ... (for example, change, conflict, danger, uncertainty)
As you can see, thinking about firsts, bests, worsts, and mosts will help you develop a topic if
your professor hasn't assigned one.
Since most narrative essays are written in first-person (I), another way to jump-start your thinking
about your topic is to write "I" followed by a verb ("saw," "felt," "wept," "went," "smiled," "wanted,"
for example) and see if that simple phrase sparks any thoughts of experiences to write about.
One more way, not only to find narrative-essay topics, but also to see excellent examples of
narrative essays is to scan Reader's Digest, a magazine that your parents or grandparents may
subscribe to and is probably available in your library, or go the Reader's Digest Story Website.
Another source for examples is the radio show "This American Life," which you can hear on
National Public Radio, download from the official site, watch in video form on Showtime, or
purchase from iTunes.
Like a descriptive essay, a narrative essay should draw the reader into the experience you are
narrating, essentially recreating the experience for the reader. It should also contain sensory
details the way a descriptive essay does. Finally, like the descriptive essay, the essay offers a
central theme, point, or purpose, creating for the reader a dominant impression -- often an
observation, insight, or universal truth about human nature or the human condition. Sometimes
the story's purpose is even a lesson learned or moral (as in, "the moral of the story is ...").
Beyond what you would find in a descriptive essay, however, a narrative essay contains the
elements you find in story-writing: plot, character, point of view, climax, and ending. Often an
element of conflict is also present, and the narrative essay may include dialog. Weaving together
these experiential elements are details that support the point of the story and move it forward.
Because narrative essays usually involve personal reflections, emotions, and experiences, they
especially lend themselves to prewriting. If you have a topic for your narrative essay but still feel
uncomfortable about writing about yourself, think about the many ways you tell stories in
everyday life by talking on the phone and in person with friends and family. You probably also
write stories regularly through e-mail, instant-messaging, and even texting. If thinking about those
experiences still doesn't loosen you up, consider telling your story into a tape recorder before you
write it. Or write about the experience in a stream-of-consciousness manner until the story
structure begins to emerge. Because stories unfold in a specific sequence, your narrative essay
also will benefit from your having constructed an outline before you write.
An effective way to structure a narrative essay is as follows:
1. Introductory paragraph setting up the type of story you will be telling and hinting at the
purpose or point of the story. Setting and characters may be introduced in this paragraph
or in one that follows shortly.
2. Middle paragraphs offering event-driven and/or character-driven description and details
that move the plot forward and build toward the climax.
3. Climax.
4. Conclusion explicating the purpose or point of the story.
Final Thoughts
Experts caution that not all narrative essays are written as stories, citing book reports as prime
examples of narrative essays not written in story form. If your professor assigns a book report,
you can be fairly certain that it should not be written as a story. But if you are assigned another
type of narrative essay, be sure to ask if it's not clear that your professor wants a story format.