The Art Of The Narrative Essay

Narrative essays are about telling stories to your readers. It’s their fundamental purpose. You, the writer, tell about the personal experience but also make a point for readers to understand why you tell about it and why your story is important to share.

What is a Narrative Essay?

According to Purdue University, when writing a narrative essay, one might think of it as telling a story. These essays are often anecdotal, experiential, and personal—allowing students to express themselves in a creative and, quite often, moving ways.

The 10 Elements of a Narrative Essay

1. Characters. These are the people in the essay.
2. The plot. What happens in the story and the sequence of events.
3. The setting. When did it happen and where did it happen?
4. Theme. Theme is something that is very important and you’ll find that every piece of writing has a theme to it. The theme must be introduced in your introduction and follow right through the rest of your piece of writing as well. The theme is the main ideas that will be shown throughout the essay. An example of theme is love or tragedy.
5. Structure. All your paragraphs must be clearly identifiable: an introduction, a main idea in each paragraph, a conclusion.
6. Creative use of writing. Use similes, metaphors, and add creativity into your writing
7. Ideas. With ideas, you want to keep in mind of five Ws: who, what, when, where, and why. Adding an H for how is also a good idea.
8. Organization. Your narrative should be enjoyable and easy to read, with a beginning, middle, and end. Check to see if you are using transitions effectively, and have included sensory details.
9. Voice. Does your narrative sound natural? Make sure to include dialogue, showing thoughts and feelings.
10. Word choice. Use exceptional words that capture the experience. Make certain you are using adjectives and adverbs well. Use specific nouns, vivid verbs and well-chosen modifiers. Additionally, check for overused words. Revise and replace the ones you find.

Be sure to use a checklist to ensure you’ve incorporated these elements. Having a peer review your writing is another great idea. 

How to Write a Good Narrative Essay

A narrative essay is a story about your experience, either imaginary or real. It can also tell a story of somebody’s life. A good narrative essay tells specific stories. A narrative essay follows the storytelling linear plot exposition: rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. They are also called as the beginning, the middle, and the ending.

The beginning introduces and describes the people, place and time of a story. In the middle you can have several paragraphs, describe more action, and write about activities and events involving your main characters. The end is to resolve the complication or problem. You can also end a story with a twist; leave the reader with a question or mystery or remind readers of the central message. The sequence of events must be in logical order. Don’t forget that the story or the sequence of events has to be coherent and it must be expressed or written in a logical way.

The point of view describes from which character’s perspective the story is presented to the audience. When you write a narrative essay, you can write it in the first person or you can write it in the third person. When it comes to writing in the third person, you are referring to other people. Don’t be afraid to use dialogue or direct speech, because you are telling what happens and you have characters. Don’t be afraid to use the direct words of the particular characters. Don’t forget your quotes, because it is direct speech and you can also put in a dialogue. Can you start a narrative essay with a quote? As long as the quotation perfectly suits the essay’s theme, it can be used. The quote can be used to lead the reader towards the essay’s message.

When writing a narrative essay, always use past tense. Describe events chronologically. A narrative essay tells a story or describes a sequence of events. If you choose to write a narrative essay, you’re going to tell a story. So, you’re going to be using words like ‘last week’ or ‘yesterday’.

Use sensory details. You need to plan your essay: you need to think about the essay topic, then think about your characters, setting, and events for your story. Next, write an outline of the plot. You can use a flow map or the linear plot. Then write your essay. After you finish writing, first you need to revise your essay. Finally, you need to check the grammar and sentence structure.  

Questions and Answers

1. What do you consider before choosing a narrative writing topic and why? Ensure that you are conversant with the topic you choose. Be well versed in the information required in writing. Choose an exciting topic that is both easy to read on the side of the reader and the author.
2. What is the difference between academic writing and narrative writing? In narratives, you get personal and creative. The writing could involve personal history and academic background. However, for academic essays the script is usually written in the third person and involves a particular subject. Narrative writing involves just a sequence of events that occurred.
3. How do you write the introductory section? Ensure your introductory section contains a glimpse of what the narrative will cover. Do not be too wordy in this section but ensure you summarize the subject matter in a paragraph of a few lines.
4. How to ensure all details are included in the narrative? Ensure you read widely from the source of such narratives. Develop a plan that will help you include all the essay’s main points. To ensure your energies flow systematically, structure your arguments in the way that captivates the reader’s attention. Ensure the introduction, body, and conclusion sections are clear.
5. How do you reference your essay? Several factors determine the nature of your reference. For instance, you can use APA style because you are familiar with it. You can pick the Harvard style, just because your instructor provides the format. Whichever you choose, ensure you get acquainted with the various types of referring styles, since many times the instructor determines the form to be used in a class for uniformity.
6. What are some of the don’ts in writing narratives? Ensure you are not too wordy to hit the word count outlined by your professor. If you must be wordy, ensure that nearly all the words are not out of context; otherwise, write short sentences, easy to understand. Ensure you remained focused on the subject matter to avoid becoming irrelevant. Don’t add rich vocabularies to surprise your professor so that you score high, but ensure you use words simple to understand and no need to seek their meanings.

The Methodology of a Great Narrative Essay

1. Introduce your characters and also introduce the setting. Who are the characters, who is involved in the story? The reader also wants to know when this happened, what time of day it happened, where it happened etc.
2. After you’ve introduced the setting and your characters, the second step is your plot. The plot is what actually happens. Make sure you make it as interesting as possible, because we want to know what happened to the characters, we want to know what happened. In the plot give us the story.
3. When you end off in your conclusion, wrap it up and end it off in a very nice conclusive way, that’s still interesting to the reader.
4. Describe what things look like. Use your adverbs and your adjectives, these are really going to help.
5. When it comes to sentences, use a variety of sentences, as it will help with the flow and will really get the reader involved. Use some short sentences, use some compound sentences, use some longer sentences, show variety in the way that you understand the language and how you choose to express it.
6. Use words that are really going to express time, like ‘early in the morning’ or ‘late in the afternoon’. It gives the reader some type of visual as to which part of the day you’re talking about.
7. Harmonize plot and theme. When you write your narrative essay, your plot and your theme should complement one another. In other words, these two elements must make a good pair to make a harmonious story. Plots which diverge from their theme or vice versa will cause confusion for your readers.

Bad writing is unforgettable for all the wrong reasons. A poorly organized incoherent and badly-written story stands out. Good writing is also memorable but for all the right reasons. A well-organized, logical, and perfectly crafted story is like harmonious music for the mind. Good writing flows beautifully and makes an impression on your reader.

Most great writers start from a small beginning. One of the great values required is patience and hard work. You must also have an ever-learning attitude. Work hard towards each requirement.