How to write a narrative essay

Narrative essay is a type of essay that describes any interaction, event and experiences of the author during a particular time in the past. Hence, this is basically a story which is based on personal experience of the author and that experience is presented or narrated in the story in an inspirational way.

The narrative essays are quite interesting to the readers as those present the personal experience of the authors in a compelling manner. Hence, it is highly important to develop a very good and effective structure for the narrative essay that would grab the attention of the readers. There are some specific guidelines for writing a good narrative essay. Those must be followed by the writers.

Guidelines for writing a good narrative essay

• Brainstorming and considering the topic: A writer must be involved himself or herself in the story for an effective narrative essay. The truth or experience of the writer must be weaved into a compelling story to grab the attention of the readers and unless the writer is involved himself or herself, the strength of the story does not stand. The topic should be such that it evokes emotion among the readers. The topic should also has the aftermath of the event or experience, so that it is valuable for the readers. Hence, the first stage of writing involves brainstorming to get the right topic.

Once the topic is decided, a substantial amount of time should be spent on writing down the recollection of the events and as many details as possible. Even the date of the event, time of the year, people who were present or involved, significant objects or happenings are significant for a narrative essay. The more precise the timeline created, the more impactful will be the narrative essay.

• Drafting the narrative essay: Drafting the essay writers before publishing the final one is highly important. A writer must make a draft of the paper based on the outline created earlier. This is the step to make the story come alive. In this step, the writer must use the first person form, that is, ‘I’ to engage the readers and give a feel of the personal experience. Secondly, the draft is a useful method to review the writing again and again and make the writer a storyteller. It should contain small details for developing a picture of the plot for the readers as if the things are just happening in front of the readers. Thirdly, the essay should start with a provoking statement for the readers, so that it instantly catches the interest of the readers and they continue to read. Fourthly, for creating an effective visualization of the narration, descriptive adjectives should be used in plenty. This helps in creating a good picture in the mind of the readers and make them more engaged. Lastly, the draft is helpful for creating an engaging and informative text for the readers with scopes for repeat edits.

• Revision of the narration: This is important and required to modify the draft and create the best form of the essay. Revision helps the writer to identify the loopholes in the story or ways to improve the presentation or adding new elements for enhancing the quality of the story. Revision of the draft is required to understand if the essay is comprehensible or if it is creating the best picture to the readers as desired by the writer. Accordingly, modifications are made to increase the quality.

• Editing of the essay: revision of the draft is useful for editing the paper to its best form. Through revision, the writer must understand the exact point to reveal important information regarding the event or the experience. While some essays reveal it in the beginning, others choose to present a dramatic climax. Editing helps in getting the narration right with proper grammar, structure, spelling, and if possible a fresh view from another reader before publishing the final version.

• Creating the final copy: once the revision and editing is done, the final copy is created and shared with the readers. The final copy must have the personal touch with experiential, personal, circumstantial and factual details presented in an interesting form with a value for the readers.

Narrative Essay Format 

As seen from the above guidelines to write a good narrative essay, the writers should follow a proper format. That includes the following:

• A narrative essay help must contain all the main components of a good essay, such as, the introduction, the plot of the story, appropriate character profiles, context or setting, the climax, followed by a conclusion containing the aftermath of the event and the lessons learnt in personal life for the writer.
• The topic and the story must be well connected so that the readers can get the relevance of the narrative essay.
• The essay must be written in the first person, so that the readers can also get connected while going through the story. It will not only engage the readers from the beginning, but sometimes will also help in establishing the personal connection with the readers. The more the connection is, the more will be the success rate of the narrative essay.  
• Language should be crisp and clear along with usage of descriptive adjectives and phrases. The main point of this essay is to present a story and usage of words and language should be such that it makes the readers feel that they are also part of the story.

Thus, it can be said that writing narrative essay is a tricky job. Not only it should have a good narration of the personal story of the writer, but it should be done in a manner that would engage the readers also at a personal level. The more the details in the story, the more is the connection with the readers at a personal level.