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Narrative Essay: Definitive Writing Guide to an A+ Paper

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A narrative essay is a type of essay that tells a story about a particular experience or event, often from the writer's own perspective. The purpose of a narrative essay is to engage the reader and create an emotional connection through a well-crafted storyline.

Today we will learn how to write a narrative essay fast and easy. This type of paper requires you to share your experiences in an entertaining and creative way. A writer has to tell the original story and make it interesting to the reader. This task is not that complicated if you know the key points and the logic of the text.

In the present blog, we will learn how to write a truly powerful narrative paper starting from the initial concept and ending with a fabulous conclusion. So, let’s get down to business right away!  

What Is a Narrative Essay

According to narrative essay definition, it is a type of writing that requires telling a personal story. It can be either about your personal experiences, funny incident, or any other notable event. Teachers assign such tasks to test students' abilities in storytelling.

Firstly, a good story has to be interesting for a potential reader. Secondly, it has to be understandable to the general audience. Finally, it has to follow the regular structure of essay. In many other regards, it can be very creative and even experimental.

Unlike many other essay types, narrative essays are action-driven. The main goal is to tell the story in a creative way. In view of its purpose, a great essay requires the following elements:  

  • An intriguing personal story to tell
  • The right choice of words to highlight key points
  • Good hook to get the reader’s attention
  • Smooth flow and original style
  • Truly valuable experience to share

A narrative essay is widely regarded as one of the most creative writing essay types. A writer can afford more expressive language and a more unusual style of writing. Use some metaphors, figurative language, dialog or bold examples.

Also, the first-person perspective is appreciated in narrative writing. Which is not really typical for academic writing, as you probably know. However, it is not obligatory and you can tell a story from a third-person perspective as well.  

You may need a step-by-step guide for explanatory writing for your future assignments. You will find it in our database.  

Narrative Essay Outline

A narrative essay structure is very similar to that of other academic papers. It features 3 major parts - introduction, body and conclusion. Regularly, this essay is about five paragraph essay long - one for intro, 3 paragraphs in body and one to sum up your thoughts.

  • Introduction - introduces the story, explains the purpose of the story and attracts reader’s attention
  • Body paragraph #1 - developing action, raising the tension
  • Body paragraph #2 - the climax of the story
  • Body paragraph #2 - the climax of the story
  • Conclusion - in which way this story was cautionary and useful

However, this number of paragraphs is not fixed, and you can expand it if you want. Still, do not fill your essay with watery text, it will be regarded as a negative factor during the review.

How to Write a Narrative Essay Step by Step

Essay structure is an important thing to keep in mind when you are thinking over the outline of your future work. So it will be definitely helpful to see what it will be for the narrative essay format. So, let’s see how it should be done! 

How to Start a Narrative Essay

Narrative essay introduction is where you describe the setting, the characters and introduce the mood of the story. A good introduction always deserves a good hook in essay or even several good hooks. You can ask theoretical questions and outline the mystery that will be uncovered further in your story. Just like in other essay types, narrative essay thesis statements are featured in the intro section.

Thesis Statement

Many professional writers believe that a thesis statement is the first thing you need to come up when writing an essay. Your paper thesis always has to sum up the main points of your writing, so this writing tip actually makes sense. Make your working thesis clear, informative and short. The finest thesis can be no longer than a single sentence. Make it brief, attractive and meaningful. Sounds a bit mind-boggling? Buy personal narrative essay done for you from scratch to avoid any hassle.

Create Main Body

All the action in a good narrative paper happens in the body part. In most essays, you uncover your key points in the classic three body paragraphs. However, a more action-driven paper of this kind is more about facts, and emotions. That’s why it’s a rare essay type where your body part would probably require chronological order of narration. Think well about how to separate your story into logical segments and don’t get too much into detail. An essay is not about length but always about the quality of writing.

How to End a Narrative Essay

A narrative essay conclusion is very similar to any other paper ending. In this part, you sum up your experiences and the outcomes of the story. Indicate what exactly had changed in your life during its course. Because if nothing had changed, then it’s not an essay-worthy story after all.

Feel free to use quotations and examples to compare your experience. A narrative essay is a metaphor-friendly and figurative language-friendly format. So don’t miss your chance to enrich your text with additional expression.  

Tips to Writing a Narrative Paper

Now, when you know how to write a personal narrative paper, you are almost there. However, there are also several tips that we wanted to give you to facilitate success. So, here they are:

  • Read various personal narrative ideas.
  • Choose the best story that you got - choice of the story is essential to the success.
  • Think over how you spread facts and arguments along the paper.
  • Write an introduction with a strong hook and clear thesis statement.
  • Write an action-driven body part.
  • Make sure your conclusion includes really valuable experiences and implications.
  • Review and rewrite the parts that you don’t like.
  • Proofread the text, use special tools to save your time and effort.

If you follow all the steps mentioned above, it will be much easier to maintain control over your writing and create a powerful text.

Also, we have prepared several great writing tips. If you have some stylistic questions or you are puzzled about how reliable you need to be as a narrator, consider the following tips:  

  • Alter the story a little if it will make it more entertaining. Don’t stick to the facts so hard.
  • Write from a first-person perspective first. Change it if you want later.
  • Be a reader-oriented writer, don’t make it too subjective and personal.
  • Check out such texts by famous writers for inspiration.

This type of paper is a fun and creative form of academic writing. If you have enough time, you can easily enjoy this assignment and even learn something new about yourself. Just in case, a site that writes essays would also do great for your GPA.

Narrative Essay Examples

A good narrative essay example may be hard to find. Luckily, we have prepared it for you in advance. It will help you understand the style and flow of narrative writing and give some inspiration for your own masterpiece. Check out the top-notch narrative essay sample below.

Narrative Essay
English
Pages:
3
Level:
High School
Paper type:
Essay (Any Type)
Format:
MLA
2.23 MB
file-pdf

Narrative Essay: Bottom Line

Now you know how to write narrative essays. This type of paper is easy to write when you know the main aspects of it. So use this guide to make the essay writing process fast, interesting and fun! However, sometimes there is just not enough time to meet the deadlines. Many students face this issue on a daily basis looking for fast and practical solutions. Hiring a narrative writer is perhaps the optimal choice.

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Need Expert Help?

Our professional academic writing service may be a great idea! If you need some help with a paper, order a narrative essay or any other kind of academic writing from our finest writing team.  

FAQ about Narrative Essay

1. How to write a personal narrative essay?

A personal narrative essay is written from the first-person perspective. It should contain strong personal opinions and stories of the narrator. This type of writing is predominantly action-driven and narrates the writer’s personal experiences.

2. How to write a literacy narrative essay?

In a literacy narrative paper, you need to share your personal experience of language, reading and writing. In this paper type, the narrator has to detail the personal experiences and attitude towards language. It can be dedicated to a certain book, writer or part of the language.

3. How long is the narrative paper?

A regular narrative essay is between 500 and 1000 words. It features a standard 3-part, 5-paragraph paper structure.

Article posted on:Apr 27, 2022
Article updated on:Nov 23, 2023

Comments

Leave your comment here:
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Mark
6/20/2022 7:54 AM
Hi! My teacher asked me to write a narrative essay, and I want to come up with something interesting and unusual, or maybe even funny. Can you help me come up with a funny narrative essay topic?
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StudyCrumb
6/22/2022 7:04 PM
Hi Mark,

It is always a good idea to bring creativity and fun to class. If you use a unique approach, you will definitely impress your teacher and make your classmates listen to what you say. So we are happy to help you with this question! Check our list of funny and interesting narrative essay topics down below!

1. Cracks in the pavement.
2. If I were a magician, I'd be ...
3. The superpowers I would like to have.
4. A weird encounter with a stranger.
5. The most embarrassing moment of my life.
6. Where all the mismatched socks go.

Hope you will like one of these creative narrative essay ideas! Good luck!
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Frank
7/4/2022 5:26 PM
Hi there, can you please share some tips on how to write a descriptive narrative essay? And I also wonder if the narrative essay is similar to the descriptive narrative essay and whether I can use this article for my writing?
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StudyCrumb
7/4/2022 6:29 PM
Hi Frank,

Basically, both these types of essays are almost the same, so yes, you can freely use this article to write your descriptive narrative essay. And here are also some extra tips for you to make your writing process easier:

1. Try to remember an important situation in your life or the life of your friend, relative, etc.
2. Write down everything you associate with this occurrence.
3. Start your essay by creating a draft.
4. Shortly describe the situation, including all the important details.
5. Narrate the story.
6. Think of and analyze the story.

Hope these tips will help you with writing your descriptive narrative essay. Good Luck!