A narrative essay allows us to write a personal story and reflect on it. It is always pleasant to compose such essays because they boost our imagination and make the reader feel our emotional state. And even though narrative essays aren’t the most frequently assigned task in academia you have to know how to write such papers correctly and preserve the proper structure and passages. This article delves into narrative essay writing and reveals the most efficient tips.
A Narrative Essay: Definition
A narrative essay is usually a story from your perspective. We tend to tell stories daily. We describe our days to family members, friends, and colleagues. However, we use random structures and can talk for a long time. But how to put the same story you told your friends yesterday and spent twenty minutes in a two-page narrative essay? Indeed, writing an essay can be challenging in this way. But don’t worry, it is more than doable. You don’t have to think about accuracy but engagement. Even the shortest story can be incredible and moving!
Decide On A Sub-Genre
Narratives are diverse. You can write about nearly anything your heart desires. However, if you want to write a good narrative in a short time, you must decide on the sub-genre you will follow. Many narratives are existing these days, but the most prevalent are:
- Tragedy
- Comedy
- Fable
- Fantasy
- Science Fiction
- Legen
- Love Story
- Drama
- Fairy Tale
- Myth
- Adventure
- Mystery
Structure Your Time Wisely
An essay is not only about writing. An excellent and thought-provoking essay requires time. Therefore, make sure to invest some time understanding the teacher’s instructions, coming up with the topic and sub-genre, brainstorming ideas, outlining the paper, and writing the first draft.
We all know that a good essay comprises an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. Indent every paragraph to make your paper visually coherent. Besides, don’t forget about editing and proofreading your work before you submit it. It also requires time, so make sure you have it.
Preserve The Chain
While the mentioned is a typical structure for every paper, there is also an authentic structure characteristic to a narrative essay. Your piece has to:
- Set the scene: Ensure setting the scene and provide the readers with the protagonist, setting, background information, and other crucial details. Place this in the essay’s introduction and move toward the body.
- Problem: Every story has a problem, and you must describe it. Ask yourself the why and what questions and try to find out the main problem existing in your plot. If you are unsure about this step, check how Cinderella evolved.
- Rising Action: The pre-culmination prepares the readers for something vitally important. It is usually placed around the middle of a story. Create a tense situation and proceed to the next stage.
- Climax: The climax is the most critical point of the action. It usually decides whether the story will have a happy or tragic ending. As the climax gets more vivid and intense, the suspense skyrockets and puts readers on the edge of their seats.
- Resolution: The climax often leaves many questions unresolved. The resolution answers those questions and makes a conclusion clearer. A model example of a resolution is the phrase, “and they all lived happily ever after.”
Outline the Essay
An outline is an underestimated element many students eschew. Although professors don’t usually assign it, students should use it for many reasons. First and foremost, it saves a lot of time. You don’t have to mull over the essay’s structure and the flow of ideas. You simply brainstorm and enlist your main points, outline a paper, and start writing. If you want to sprint your writing process, consider using the following outline:
- Sets The Scene
Goal: Sets the scene and mood, introduces characters.
Poses when/who/what/where questions.
- Problem
The problem that sets off the events
It usually disrupts an ordinary life or character’s comfort and sets a sequence of events.
- Rising Action
A description of succeeding events that occur first, next, later, and after.
A depiction of events that relate to one character.
A tense situation and a pre-culmination stage.
- Climax
A raised suspense, lots of questions appeared from the readers.
- Resolution
A description of the final outcome. Answering the questions, and lowering the suspense.
This is a standard outline for a narrative essay. You may want to modify it, adding more body paragraphs to raise action or increase the climax length.
Include A Morale
When finishing an essay, think of a lesson the readers can learn from your story. Don’t leave the paper unfinished. Lewis Carroll said that every story has a moral. Make sure to add one to your essay.
Perfect Your Story
Thankfully, we can now benefit from technological development. Once you finish writing, edit your paper by using helpful tools, such as:
- Hemingway Editor: This app checks whether your paper is readable or not. Hemingway helps you make your writing bold and clear. It highlights hard to read sentences, adverbs, and passive voice. Overall, a must-have tool for writers.
- Grammarly: Although it is great to have a unique writing style, it doesn’t mean you can commit severe grammatical, lexical, and punctuation errors. This tool makes your text refined and accurate.
- OneLook: English is a rich language with millions of words. Many words are forgotten. However, they shouldn’t be, mainly if you write a narrative essay and want to convey an emotional message. It is a top-notch dictionary for every author.
The above apps are free and easy to use. You can use them daily to bolster your writing and make it diverse and flawless.
Encapsulation
Narrative essay writing is fun. Not only can you write about any topic, but you can also use personal pronouns, colloquial language, and contractions. However, it might be hard to adjust your paper to a standard structure. Plus, writing a narrative paper may well be time-consuming. If you face any of those difficulties and seek valuable help, this guide shares handy tips on how to write a splendid narrative essay real quick.