A narrative essay is a form of essay writing that tells a story from the writer’s perspective. It typically includes a clear plot, characters, a setting, and a central theme. One can pour their ideas of creativity and personal experiences into this essay; however, it is important to follow the appropriate format and structure.
A narrative essay is a story told in the first person (active voice) to reconnect a chain of events by using suspense, emotions, conversations, and metaphorical language.
What are the elements of a narrative essay?
A narrative essay is written or derived from the mind of an author, and it consists of many components. The most important elements of a narrative essay are characters, motif (theme), and dialogue.
You can effortlessly take help from this template to write your narrative essay:
When Should I Write a Narrative Essay?
You should write a narrative essay in situations where you need to tell a personal story, convey an experience, or illustrate a lesson through real-life events
In most cases, the lecturer assigns you a topic for your narrative essay. However, sometimes, you would be required to develop an exciting one yourself.
Choosing a strong narrative essay topic is all about picking a meaningful, engaging, and well-structured story.
To find a perfect topic, focus on your personal experiences, like what moments changed your perspectives and look for emotional depth in that experience. Make sure that your story is linear and flows naturally, rather than going back and forth.
Here are some examples of narrative essay topics:
How to choose a topic for your narrative essay?
Here is how you can choose a perfect topic:
Colleges require the applicants to submit a personal statement or a narrative essay describing their achievements and ambitions along with their admission application. For instance, they can ask to write an essay on why you have chosen to apply to their college or university.
No matter what prompt you have been given, ensure that you write an excellent narrative essay and secure your sought-after admission.
Why write a narrative essay for college admission?
A well-written narrative essay is a key to standing out in competitive college admission applications. It reveals your personality beyond grades, and it demonstrates growth & self-reflection. In short, it answers why you are suitable for this admission.
We make sure our essays are:
Just like expository or descriptive essays, a narrative essay also follows a structure with an introduction, main body, and conclusion.
The introduction is the most important part of your narrative essay. The reader will determine if your essay is interesting and worth reading just by going through the introduction. Briefly explain why this topic is essential to you and how it has affected your life.
The main body paragraphs are where you will provide the details of the event you are narrating. As you do so, make sure to include all the exciting details like the characters, location, time frame, and describe exactly how you felt and the emotions of other characters.
Do not forget to add weight to the characters by narrating dialogues between them because, without the dialogues, characters lose their worth and vibrancy.
The conclusion should discuss the overall theme of your essay. Link your conclusion to the introduction and emphasise how this event helped you better understand the situation and the experience you gained.
Here is an example of a narrative essay:
Out of all the types of essays, only the descriptive and narrative essays allow you to use your imagination, creativity and personal experience. A descriptive essay is a detailed description of the event, place, idea, or object, while a narrative essay is a narration of a writer’s story of their personal experience.
Generally, the length of a narrative essay should be approximately 800-1000 words. Your instructor can also suggest the length of the essay, which may vary depending on who you are writing it for.
The narrative essay you write for the admission application should be longer than the essay you were assigned in high school.
A student is asked to write a narrative essay by his school, college, university, or admission committee to assess his creativity, composition and storytelling skills.
To choose a narrative essay topic, focus on your personal experiences that changed you, and seek emotional depth in them, as you will need that for your essay. You write a story that includes a lesson for the reader, an element of surprise and some plot twists.
You can build your story around a person or an experience that changed your view about the particular matter and affected your life immensely.
You May Also Like