How do you write a narrative essay? A narrative essay requires you to write a story about yourself, whether it’s about your past experiences or your future goals. This article gives you a guide on how to write a narrative essay.

Writing a narrative essay paper requires you to describe your personal experience, traits, values, or plans. You should be creative enough when describing your story thus engaging the reader all through the essay. A narrative essay is written in various incidences: students can be assigned to write a narrative essay as a composition assignment, award nominees may be required to write a narrative essay and when applying for college you may be required to write a narrative essay.

How to start a narrative essay

How do you start writing a narrative essay? Below are tips you consider before starting a narrative essay:

1. Choose a good topic

You should choose a topic that is meaningful to you personally and it’s interesting to the reader. For instance, you can choose an experience that had an impact on your life that taught you a significant lesson. Choosing an experience that you are interested in will keep the readers interested all through the essay. If you are given a prompt research it and write a topic about it.

2. Identify the purpose of the narrative essay

Identify the purpose of the essay by deciding what you want your narrative essay to accomplish. Are you attempting to amuse, educate, or impart a valuable lesson? Identifying the goal of the essay can help you organize ideas well. If your goal is to entertain, concentrate on developing compelling tales and vivid explanations. If your narrative essay is on educational purposes, offer insightful observations and lessons learned for an educational story. Whatever your essay’s goal, you should ensure it has a distinct and well-coordinated message.

3. Start with a hook

When writing the introduction, you should start with a hook that draws the reader’s attention. It might be an interesting quotation, a perceptive query, or an engrossing narrative associated with your subject. Your introduction should be intriguing enough to pique readers’ curiosity in reading further.

4. Create the scene

After you have captured your reader’s attention, you should establish the scene and give background information. Set the scene for the story by describing the location, period, and how the event happened. You should describe yourself and the other characters.  In addition, you should include all the crucial information that can aid readers in picturing the scene and developing a sense of emotional connection to the characters of the essay.

5. Develop the plot of the story

A compelling plot is necessary for a narrative essay. You should develop a plot where things happen, and tension builds. Use sensory elements and vivid language to fully engross your readers in the story. As the plot develops, create anticipation to keep readers interested and wondering what will happen next.

6. Include the climax and a resolution

The story’s high point is encountered in the climax which is the turning point of the narrative. This is the section that is the most interesting where the conflict of the narrative is in the peaks drawing the attention of the reader. A resolution that wraps up the story and ties up any loose ends should come after the climax. This is the time to teach the lesson if your essay has one.

7. Conclude

Pause to think about the experiences in the essay. Share your thoughts, feelings, or takeaways from the event. The conclusion should leave the reader with a strong impression and offer a sense of finality.

Using the above tips, you can now start writing your narrative essay. A narrative essay can either be a long essay like a 3000-word essay or it also be a short essay. Read and understand each tip above and you will be able to compose a good narrative essay. If you need further assistance with your narrative essay, you can place a ‘write my narrative essay’ order with us.

What are the 5 steps to a narrative essay?

Below are the 5 steps to writing a narrative essay:

1. Select a topic

Before you start writing a narrative essay, you should select a topic on the personal story that you will narrate in your essay. For example, if you are writing a narrative essay for a college application, you should focus on your academic achievements or memorable experiences that brought up your interest in pursuing a particular course. Do not write a too long or complex topic.

Selecting a topic that is interesting to you helps have a proper flow of information throughout your essay. Always select a topic that sheds a positive light on you as a candidate or student. If you are given a prompt to write your essay on, conduct research on it and write a good topic about it that reflects your life.

2. Create an outline

Creating an outline helps you to properly strategize your ideas for the essay from the introduction through the body to the conclusion. Write the main key points of your essay in the outline. The outline acts as a guide once you start writing the essay hence you don’t miss any important information.

3. Use first person point of view

A narrative essay is mainly a narration about yourself. When writing the essay, you should use first person point of view for example I, me, or we. You should include emotions while writing the narration to provide more context thus engaging the reader in the story

4. Use creative language

When writing a narrative essay, you should use creative language. Be creative in your writing by using sensory elements and descriptive language to give your readers a clear picture. Always ensure you hook the reader throughout the essay by being creative.

5. Proofread your essay

Once you complete your essay, you should proofread it severally to remove any wording, punctuation, or grammar mistakes. Preferably, proofread it a few hours or a day after writing it. This enables you to easily spot the mistakes and correct them.

Narrative Essay Format

The narrative essay format helps you to properly structure and analyze the ideas for your essay. When writing a narrative essay, use the format below:

a) Introduction

Start the narrative essay with an interesting introduction. Use a hook to attract the attention of the reader. Give a background of information on the topic of what your essay will entail. Finish the introduction with a thesis statement that describes what you will talk about in the essay.

b) Body paragraphs

The body paragraphs describe the essay in detail. Each body paragraph should have its idea. If two body paragraphs describe the same idea, you should use proper transition words like additionally or furthermore.

When writing the body paragraph, you can start the first body paragraph by introducing the characters and introducing the scene. In the second body paragraph, you should describe the development of the plot and build tension by describing the story in-depth. In the third body paragraph, give the climax and the resolution. Your story should have a proper flow throughout the body paragraphs.

c) Conclusion

The conclusion sums up the whole narration. You should restate the thesis statement and share your lessons from the narration. You should not bring new ideas to the conclusion. You should end the conclusion with a memorable statement or a call to action

d) Proofread and edit

After completing the narrative essay, you should proofread it twice to remove any mistakes. You should also run it on Grammarly to remove any mistakes you missed when proofreading. Edit your essay and submit it.

Using the narrative essay format above, you will be able to compose a good narrative essay. If you need more information on narrative essay writing you can research various narrative essay samples or narrative essay examples.

What is an example of narrative essay?

An example of a narrative essay is a complete written narrative essay that helps you to learn how to write a narrative essay. The example has proper structuring of information from the introduction through the body to the conclusion. It is also the correct narrative essay format. In addition, it is written using a first-person point of view, and creative language is used in the essay.

Narrative Essay topics

Below are narrative essay topics that you can use in your essay:

1. My greatest achievement
2. The day my dream come true
3. My most challenging experience
4. An adventure I will never forget
5. My favorite vacation memory
6. How I survived a terrible experience
7. My best childhood memory
8. Why I choose my career
9. My first day in college
10. How I showed kindness to a stranger

To sum up

A narrative essay requires you to describe an event in your life using vivid descriptions and creative language to keep the reader hooked throughout the essay. You can use this article as a guide when writing your narrative essay. If you need help with your narrative essay, we provide essay writing help.