How to Write a Narrative Essay Easier With Our Guide
When students face difficulties with assigned tasks in writing, they often get stuck and don’t know where to start. Indeed, especially a task on writing a narrative essay is not as easy as it seems. Having no experience in creating a story about your own life is not actually a problem. Telling the right details could turn into a piece of art, and the anecdotes of your life are no exception. With our recommendations and essay example, you can level up your writing skills and boost your inspiration!
Definition of Narrative Essay
Usually, narrative essay writing means telling a story through text by precisely depicting all events, characters, and conflicts. Reading this type of composition, people should understand the main idea that the author tries to convey. Many aspects play a significant role in creating a good narrative essay: topic, plot, the personal outlook of the story, and writing style. Considering these elements, you can develop an engaging subject for the narrative essay and gain enough material to write about.
How to Write a Narrative Essay
When coming up with an idea on what to write in this type of essay, students brainstorm for personal narrative ideas. When remembering interesting facts from your life, don’t forget to note them. Later on, you can run through these notes to come up with an exciting topic and prompt.
Meanwhile, every writing process has a chain of logical actions. Luckily, we’ve chosen the most important ones so you can follow them and not get lost on your path. So, start the task on narrative essay writing with these steps:
1) Read narrative essay examples
Knowing what others write in their essays could bring you many new ideas. Get acquainted with the genre of narrative essays online or use book sources to develop your approach. This inspires newbie authors and helps to remind them of many exciting stories from their past.
2) Choose a topic
There is a wide range of narrative essay topics to select from for your project. Find for yourself what you want to tell your readers, and proceed with them. Write several ideas and read them aloud. Do you like how they sound or not? Help yourself choose the suitable theme to reveal because the narrative essay is like a conversation without interruption.
3) Define what your prompt is
With the prompt, you will start with a crucial concept while writing a narrative essay. Depending on which prompt you have, the topic will vary. Still, it is a short overview of your future essay, so you need to deal with it. A teacher can assign prompts, so it is vital to understand them clearly.
After you’ve selected the topic, try to match it with the prompt. Indeed, you can always turn on your imagination to write about anything you want, but also, there are rules to follow. Especially, you should consider the prompt when writing a narrative essay for a college or university admission task.
4) Think about what to add to the plot
When it comes to narrative essay writing, you should avoid unfair stories. Leave your fantastical plot for the sci-fi literary contest! We are sure you have a great story from real life.
Simply, you need to sit and write down ideas related to the topic. For instance, if your prompt is, “Your perspective on a sport,” you can add such points for your narrative essay as:
- How did I come to the sport?
- How was my first play pass?
- What were my failures and how did I deal with them?
- What does the sport mean to me in my life?
The plot is a core element of a story. This makes a narrative essay meaningful. Basically, the plot is a narrative essay outline that you enrich with specific facts, people, and outcomes in a further step.
5) Fill the story with details
When you go closer to managing a narrative essay outline, you should pick interesting events and people related to your experience and then make them engaging for the audience as well. It is not necessary to add controversial moments from your life or number all your friends and relatives from the past. Instead, you can include piquant elements to make readers believe in the narrative.
6) Organize the text
Every academic writing has an introduction, body paragraphs, and a summary, and a narrative essay is no different. Put the elements for your story together and see how they look. Hook your reader in the introduction with a phrase that comes up first to your mind concerning the topic. For instance, if you write about being rich, write what you felt when you first had a lot of money. It may have happened when you found a banknote on the street or received a present from your family.
An introduction usually consists of a thesis statement that extends the topic. Three key elements at the end of the starting paragraph are enough for readers to understand the story. You can add descriptions, quotes from dialogues, funny actions, and the behavior of specific characters in body paragraphs. Concluding your essay, remember to keep personal narrative ideas open to your reader. Ensure they can easily understand the main lesson in your story and how you teach it.
7) Write the first draft
Find the conflict to reveal the plot and let your essay dance around it. Remember that the first draft is not always perfect, so you need to avoid judging yourself at this stage. Take your time to answer all the questions about your lifetime adventure or experience and reveal to the audience how it affected you and transformed your mind.
8) Be accurate with the style
The style you use in narrative essay writing defines your creativity as an author. Use literary devices wisely, and try not to overwhelm your essay with complex sentences. Write as you speak to your close friend. Indeed, keep in mind that you are telling your story to people unfamiliar to you, so be polite and censored with your phrases. Remember the general academic writing rules, and try to follow them even if this genre is non-fiction. Don’t copy other people’s style of expression. Style is what makes your essay outstanding!
9) Share your story with a friend
Discover whether your narrative essay writing is interesting not only for yourself but for a potential reader. Sharing a story is an essential part of effectively upgrading your writing skills. Another person can give you honest feedback about your strengths and weaknesses in the text, and you can follow their recommendation to improve the details of your story.
10) Edit to perfection
Actually, there are no limits to writing a narrative essay, but you should follow the main academic principles. First of all, pay attention to the logical structure of the essay. It should consist of an introduction, body, and conclusion. The plot should be opened gradually. Also, you should format your narrative essay according to the formatting standards. Find out which type of citation style you should use: MLA, APA, Chicago/Turabian, or Harvard.
Remember to check your essay for punctuation, grammar, and spelling issues. Ask someone to help you with improvements. It works effectively because another person’s outlook can help you find out how to make your text better. Otherwise, you can edit your work independently with a manual check-up or online editor.
Hopefully, these ten steps are useful not only on how to start a narrative essay but also on finishing it painlessly!
One of the Most Inspiring Narrative Essay Examples
I Gained Respect, Something That Money Cannot Buy
The generally accepted sentiment is that money makes life easier for people because of the purchasing power it yields. However, while essential for survival, money cannot buy all things that matter in life. It cannot buy respect, a vital part of an individual’s life, which needs to be earned through character.
When I was a freshman, my class held an election for a class representative. The teacher in charge gave the interested students a week to campaign for the position. While it was termed an election, the educator made it clear that a win would not be an automatic win because he would have the last say as to who would take the position. Therefore, the students would only help shortlist two of the best candidates. Five students, including myself, participated in the campaigns and the subsequent election. Jason, one of the contestants, seemed like the most probable winner because of his popularity. He also came from a wealthy family and dished out presents to the rest of the class to have them vote for him.
On the election day, Jason and I tied as the top contestants, to my dismay. We were called to the front of the class and asked if either of us was willing to step down for the other. Having considered that Jason was more popular than I was, I decided to leave the position to him and went on to take my seat before the teacher stopped me. Jason was already celebrating. When I went back to the front of the class, the teacher gave the students a talk on servant leadership, character, and earning respect. He said that while Jason was famous, he did not have the respect of the class, which was paramount in leading the class. He added that he knew that Jason had bribed some classmates, which was a ground for disqualification, and for that, I was the legitimate candidate because I earned my votes without undue influence. From experience, I gained the teacher’s and the class’s respect, something that Jason himself, with his money, could not buy.
My win as the class representative emphasized the importance of a good character to earn respect. Despite the money that Jason used to garner support for his candidature, it would not buy the students’ and the teacher’s respect because everyone needs to work hard to gain it from other people.
Reach Personal Narrative Ideas With Our Service’s Help
While writing a narrative essay, students should overcome many challenges. First of all, they need to write this essay thoroughly and meet the deadline. At EssayBulls, we know that it is not easy if you are writing this type of academic assignment for the first time. Luckily, you’ve found the right webpage to deal with your task! After reading our article, you can come up with a breathtaking story and use a step-by-step guide to write a great narrative essay!
Still, if you hesitate about your writing skills, you can ask one of our experts for help! Simply write your requirements in the order form and get proposals from writers to assist you in writing a narrative essay and pay for an essay when you are completely satisfied with it. Moreover, you can always find valuable prompts not only for narrative essay topics at our blog.
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