What is a Narrative Essay?
If you have ever tried to relate an experience to someone else, you have tried some form of narration. A narrative essay tells a story, only in a written form and usually from the perspective of the writer. Often, narrative essays make use of the first person singular pronoun- ‘I' and in some cases, it may employ the third person singular pronoun- ‘He' or ‘She'.
The essay should be able to convey not just the narrator's experience; it should be able to engage the readers. The readers should have the feeling that they are part of the story, the should be able to see what the narrator sees, hear what he hears, feel what he feels and tastes what he tastes. Being able to do this depends largely on the narrative format that the writer employs. Also, knowing how to write good essays is a skill you should seek to build before going to college.
How to Write a Narrative Essay
Just like every type of essays, there is a pattern to follow to write a compelling narrative story. This kind of essay has a structure and style that differs from others. So how should you go about developing this essay?
- Write the story based on a plot. A story is not made up of a disjointed piece of events, but one with a series of related events. Know the events that are related to your story, then, link them beautifully and progressively.
- Although you are relating an event, you can make your audience relive the story by engaging their senses. Did you hear a loud booming noise, write it down, was the food salty, write it down too. With this, your audience will feel exactly what you are feeling.
- Use proper tenses. This cannot be overemphasized. No one will be able to follow along with your story if you jumbled the tenses up.
- Watch your grammar. Wrong spelling, improper use of pronouns, nouns or verbs will distract your audience from your story and may even discourage some from reading on. Try to be terse in your descriptions too.
- Know your audience. This will determine the style that you will employ. Whether your narrative form will be formal, informal or semiformal will depend largely on the audience you are writing for. A formal style for an informal audience will be tantamount to forcing a square peg in a round hole.
- Know when to conclude. Every story has a beginning and should, therefore, have an end. However, there is a big difference between an anticipated end and an out-of-the-blue end. You can achieve this by giving prior thoughts to how you develop the plot.
- Do not exaggerate. Hyperboles are good but do not blow things out of proportion. A good story should be relatable, not unbelievable.
Narrative Writing Tips
- Mentally develop the plot, link the plot form the body and then the conclusion. If you do this, your thoughts will flow easily when you start the actual writing.
- It will be helpful for you to write an initial draft. Write as many drafts until the plot of your story is seamless and the grammar correct.
- Proofread your work. To do this you may need the help of another person as you may be blind to your errors. Do not forget to use online tools for proofreading and editing, they can be very handy.
- Practice they say makes perfect. In reality, it is necessary to practice in the right way, using the right tools. You can only improve in writing when you take advantage of examples of narrative essays. There are a lot of narrative essay examples available on the internet.
- Search for narrative essay topics on the internet and try to build your skill by attempting them.
With the bulk of writing examples available on the internet, you can learn how you can go about writing yours or even how the proper narrative should be structured. Still, you may ask yourself 'are there capable hands that I can trust to write my narrative essay for me? You can find help, visit mypaperwriter.com to get a plethora of samples of essays and help for your essay too.
