How To Write A Narrative Essay Step-By-Step?

One of the most enjoyable tasks a high school or college student may receive is writing a narrative essay. It allows one to be creative, expressing one's ideas and sense of humor virtually unapologetically — with frequently stunning and moving outcomes. You can break the conventions of academic writing with abandon; the only stipulation is that it should be as enjoyable to read as possible.

Are you ready to have a good time writing your narrative essay? Let's roll.

What Is A Narrative Essay?

Let's start with a definition of a narrative essay to better grasp this task. A narrative essay is a short piece of writing (shorter than a tale or novella) in which you describe real-life events in your own words. In other words, it's a true-to-life short narrative.

 

A narrative essay is a type of creative writing that is based on real-life events. That means you may – and should – utilize literary methods, emotionally charged language, and personal pronouns to express yourself, build a vivid image, and leave a lasting impact on your reader.

 

Tips For Writing A Narrative Essay

Essay topics may invite you to tell historical events from the perspective of a modern spectator, envisage alternate outcomes of events, create stories from the perspective of inanimate things, and so on. Writing prompts for narrative essays, on the other hand, usually encourage you to write about a personal experience, making your piece autobiographical. Consider the following scenario:

• What is the most difficult decision you had to make?
• Have you ever cried with happiness? What brought that about?
• Tell about the toughest week in your life
• Your first crush and how it ended
• The perfect day
• Have you ever met with big disappointment?
• Have you ever changed your opinion about something important? What made you?
• The most incredible journey
• Have you ever wanted to turn back the time? Why?
• Tell about the time you had to face your fears 

 

How Long Should A Narrative Essay Be?

Typically, narrative essays are like any other sort of college essay and range in length from 500 to 5,000 words. The word limit specified in your assignment specifications is the most crucial. If there isn't any, maintaining it between 650 and 1,000 is a safe bet.

 

Should I Write An Outline?

In most cases, a formal plan isn't required for a narrative essay. It is, nevertheless, preferable to construct a workable outline to plan a coherent tale with proper pace. Keep in mind that you're creating a story that's meant to be entertaining. Use a traditional tale arc, which includes an exciting start, action that builds to a dramatic peak, and a satisfying conclusion.

 

Decide on the main events of your novel and their order - it doesn't have to be in chronological order. Although writing in chronological sequence is easy, a non-linear storyline might have a greater impact on your readers.

How Does Narrative Essay Structure Look Like?

Even if the events you tell in your essay are not in chronological sequence, you should keep a clear compositional structure:

1. Begin with an introduction that sets the tone for the rest of the tale and introduces the primary characters. This section should be no longer than a paragraph long.
2. Proceed to the major body of the tale, which is where your plot takes place. This should be the longest section. Three to five paragraphs are appropriate for short articles.
3. Finish your tale with a conclusion in which you reflect on what has happened. A smart technique to finish a narrative essay is to analyze the events, reflect on them, and draw a lesson from them, or simply to make the meaning of your tale plain to your audience.

 

How To Start A Narrative Essay?

A narrative hook is a terrific technique to start your essay. A hook is a literary device used in the first paragraph of a book to pique the reader's interest and entice them to continue reading. A novel's hook can be many pages long, although most hooks are merely one phrase long.

 

Great examples of narrative hooks may be found in the following works of literature:

• Shocking and abrupt introduction of important events without giving any specifics: “Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.” (One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez)
• Intriguing inconsistency: “Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know.” (The Stranger by Albert Camus)
• Provocative or ironic statement: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” (Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen)
• A statement that contradicts reality as most of us know it: “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” (1984 by George Orwell)
• A thought-provoking statement: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” (Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy)

Do I Need A Thesis Statement For Narrative Essay?

Before you begin writing your tale, you need to decide on its meaning, which would be the thesis statement in a traditional academic essay. Creating a working thesis statement is a useful way to figure out where everything is headed, even if you don't have to directly declare it in the writing. What are you attempting to convey with your story? What is the point of it?

 

For instance, suppose you're writing about a time when you and your closest buddy had a dispute and were estranged for a while. You can do the following:

• Turn it into a humorous narrative on how readily people misunderstand and misinterpret one another's meaning. The necessity of excellent communication would be the theme of your message.
• Describe how it feels to lose a close friend's positive opinion and esteem, even if just for a short period. Your message would be about the value of interpersonal ties.
• Describe how you or a buddy took the first step toward reconciliation. Your message would be on the value of admitting to errors.

And so on. When you know why you are telling your story, you know how to write it better.

 

Narrative Essay Format

In a strict sense, the format has no bearing on the quality of a narrative essay. It's up to you whether it has a specified title page, running head, or page numbers as a piece of personal and creative writing. Because a tale is unlikely to contain any citations or lists of sources, you may safely disregard reference style requirements (APA vs. MLA vs. Harvard).

 

If you're concerned about formatting, though, you can follow the basic guidelines provided by your institution or the class for which you're doing this project. If you're unsure, ask your professor what is permitted; you could even be able to employ typeface and font size creatively!

 

However, editing and proofreading your essay is usually a good idea to ensure that:

• It is grammatically correct and has decent spelling.
• The text is rationally divided into paragraphs, without interfering with the flow of your tale.
• Your essay is formatted consistently. Decide how to write dialogue in a narrative essay, for example, and stick to one of two styles: use quote marks or em dashes to set off a conversation, but not both at the same time.
• Your article has a constant tone: it's lighthearted, neutral, or melancholy, but there are no abrupt contrasts or tone shifts (except when they are intentional and serve an artistic purpose).

Writing a narrative essay, as you can see, can be a lot of fun. If this isn't your cup of tea and all of this "exploring your creative side" is making your teeth hurt, you can always buy narrative essays online.