Easy To Follow Tips For A Triumphant Narrative Essay

There is nothing like reading a thrilling narrative piece of writing. Though most students find it difficult to draw a clear line of distinction among different types of essay writing, such as persuasive, narrative or descriptive essay writing, each one has its clearly distinguishing characteristics that separate one from the other. Narrative essays are in a way the hardest to write as they require unique writing style with fantasy. Instead of summing up everything for the reader, the writer shares his experience and leaves the conclusion part for the reader to draw depending on his sense of imagination and analysis.
Here we will come across all the necessary steps and prewriting suggestions that will help you to draft a successful piece of narrative essay writing. But before going into the details, you must be aware of what a narrative essay actually is. A narrative essay is basically a form of academic writing which involves narration of a specific situation or event. The primary motive behind writing a narrative essay is telling the reader about any experience, interaction or event that the writer might have gone through. It includes a lot of descriptions but is not presented in an argumentative manner. The writer need not have to prove anything right or wrong.
Some of the essential elements to develop a compelling narrative essay are as follows –

The prewriting phase of narrative essay

This is the most critical part of writing a narrative essay. It includes the following steps:

• Choose a topic - Identify the experience you want to write about and relate it to the theme of the assignment. When choosing an experience to write about, remember that even a small incident can transform into a masterpiece if it has significance in your life. If an emotional attachment can be established with the topic then that will automatically show up in the essay content.
• Match the topic with the prompt – Many students are so excited that they proceed straight to writing without reading the prompt. You might have the requisite skills and knowledge to write quality essays, but if you are not aware of the proper instructions, you are likely to struggle in getting higher grades.
• Ensure the story has vibrant details – A good narrative essay should be completely filled with specific images, particular details that make the story seem real. When you are developing a plot in your mind make sure that the story is rich with this type of details. Since a narrative essay is a non-fiction, you need to include as many true incidents as possible while keeping the interest level intact.

Writing the draft

• Create a structure
  Segregate the entire content into four distinct parts, i.e., a setup, the main plot, a climax, and a thrilling conclusion. Allocate the important points to each of these sections according to their relevance and describe everything in detail. End up the story with a thrilling punchline and an unpredictable twist. You need not follow a formal structure for your narrative essay unless it is a part of your assignment.
• Write the Introduction
  Introducing the experiencing and communicating the significance should lay the plot for your narrative essay. This technique is sure to grab the attention of the reader and create a good first impression. It helps the reader to get a hint of what he is going to experience as he progresses through the narrative. You might also opt to delay the significance of your personal experience to the last as it will help to keep the interest of the reader intact.
• Narrate in first-person
  This is one essential point that must be kept in mind while writing your narrative essay. Most students tend to overlook such criteria due to an overemphasis on the content of the essay. Since you are narrating your personal experience and its significance on you, writing in first-person should be your priority without transferring the perspective in favor of someone else.
• Narrate your purpose
  Writing a narrative essay does not only include sharing an event or experience which you had gone through. You need to express your intent for narrating such an event by addressing certain questions. How did the event change your life? What lessons did you learn from such an event? What message do you want to convey to the reader through your narrative? etc.
• Identify the antagonist and the protagonist
  In every narrative essay, there have to have a protagonist and an antagonist. This is what creates a sense of conflict in the reader’s mind. While the protagonist desires to achieve something, it is the antagonist that creates a hindrance. Try to identify both the characters and draw a clear line of distinction between the two.
• Include vivid details
  The name itself explains that in a narrative essay everything should be vividly described so that the reader is informed of every aspect after completion of his reading. Even the most boring situations can be made compelling if the information is presented in the right manner. Do not over-emphasize on a particular point and rush through the others. Maintain uniformity while highlighting those points which are of significance to your narrative essay plot.

Revising the Content

This is the last but the most important part of the narrative essay writing process. After spending a considerable amount of time and effort in your essay research and writing process you would not want your hard work to go waste just because it had some grammatical and typing errors.
Edit – This is the first step after preparing the first draft of your narrative essay. You will definitely come across a few rough spots that could ruin the essence of your entire content. Make sure to alter them to match the tone of your narrative essay. Few tips to consider for a successful editing are –
Don’t start editing immediately after completing your draft. Take some time off and come back with a fresh mind.

• Transform long and complicated sentences into small and meaningful ones.
• Avoid using ambiguous and complicated terminologies that make it difficult to understand.
• Identify any information that has been repeated and delete them from your content.
• Verify the citations have been made properly and the specified formatting has been followed.
• Paraphrase the content wherever required to grasp the sense.
• Reconsider the entire structure.

Proofread –Many students tend to confuse the terms editing and proofreading and consider both of them to convey the same meaning. While editing is about conforming to the style, paragraph structure, and content, proofreading is about detecting grammatical and spelling errors. After you are satisfied with the content of your essay, you need to go through the final phase of the writing process. Here, you should

• Check for grammatical errors and any plagiarized content which might have occurred unintentionally.
• Remove any double spacing.
• Replace incorrect spellings with correct words.

From the above information, you must have understood that narrative essays are one of the most pleasant forms of writing an assignment if you can conform to the simple rules of such writing. Your major involvement in the body of the content is what makes it even more interesting. So, transform your imagination into reality and start crafting a remarkable masterpiece that your college professors will like.