How to Write a Narrative EssayA narrative essay is a form of academic writing that is built around a narration of a certain event or situation. Basically, a narrative essay is a concise form of a narrative novel. Its main objective is to tell a story, so that it is both engaging and interesting for the reader. A narrative essay, more than any other type of essay, allows you to be creative as a writer. Nevertheless, there are certain rules to follow and mistakes to avoid when writing a narrative essay.Steps for Writing a Narrative Essay1. Decide on a plot. You should never start writing your narrative essay before you come up with the plot for it.2. Do a sketch of events you plan to depict in chronological order.3. When starting on your introduction, begin by setting the scene for the situation you will narrate about. Here, it is best to go into details and make the imagery as vivid and colorful as possible, so that the readers will be able to clearly picture the setting in their mind.4. As you go into the main body paragraphs, narrate the story. Try to develop the plot gradually, starting from smaller events or incidents that lead to the main scene.5. Write the main body paragraphs in accordance with the structure you chose when making an outline either block or point-by-point arrangement.6. Narrate the main scene of your story. Use as many details and emotional descriptions as you can to portray the story in full. Draw the reader into the events by evoking feelings and describing reactions of the characters of your story.7. End your story. Here you can appeal to the senses, moods and feelings of your characters, describing the consequences of the narrated events. _ Moral overtureKey Points to Consider1. Start your essay by deciding upon the genre of your writing. Only after you make up your mind about how realistic your story should be (depending on whether you want, for instance, to write a fantastic science fiction essay, or a realistic life chronicle), you can move on to develop the actual plot.2. If you find it hard to start your essay, or cannot seem to come up with the story you will convey, try to approach the process of writing with a Question-and-answer method. Start asking yourself basic questions about the future story and slowly move on to more detailed specific questions as you develop the plot. For example, start with Where did the event happen? and Who was involved in the situation? moving on to What were the consequences of this event? and What were the reactions of people involved?3. Evidence can be supported by hypothesis. You, as an author, can give an alternative description of events the way they could have happened, if some characters acted differently. This will add a philosophical flavor to your essay, leave your readers thinking about the story, analyzing how certain actions affect ones life and possibly adopting and displaying some of the characters actions in their own behavior.4. To experiment with your writing style and make your narrative essay more unique, you can use a literary technique called flashback narration. You can start your story from a particular point in time (usually something extraordinary and exciting), and then move back to the events that lead to the described situation.5. Try to express yourself more creatively and figuratively. Like, instead of just saying a very old man slowly entered the room, you could say a grey-haired man with a thick beard opened the door, his hands slightly trembling from age, and heavily stepped inside.6. With the narrative essay giving you certain freedom to experiment with words, you can use interesting and unusual word combinations to make your writing more creative. A good example would be using action verbs with inanimate objects, or ascribing animals, plants or natural phenomena certain human qualities.

Dos and DontsDos Do use dialogues to make your writing more vivid and life-like. Direct speech is also helpful when you need to show a rapid change of emotions and moods of your characters. Do give information in chronological order. Use time words (first, before, then, after that, later, during, while and such) to help link the events. Do use senses and emotions to set the scene for your story. Do enhance your writing with colorful stylistic literary techniques, like metaphors, epithets, distinguished comparisons, bright allegories and the like. Do include detailed descriptions of the places, people and buildings that are part of the story. You should try to make it easier for your readers to picture everything you describe in their mind.Donts Dont be afraid to be creative sometimes a story that sounds unrealistic is nevertheless benefitting from all the imaginary happenings. Dont switch from past tense to present and vice versa; stick to one tense for the entire story. Dont start writing your narrative essay before you decide on the ending for your story. It is absolutely necessary to plan the entire story prior to developing the plot in detail. Dont change the sequence of events this will make it much harder for the reader to follow the plot. Dont be afraid to include elements of descriptive writing in your narrative essay. Your work will only benefit from bright details and specific descriptions.

Common Mistakes When Writing a Narrative Essay- Switching from first person to the third as you narrate. You should stick with just one way of narration (either that of a detached narrator, or one of the characters of your story). Only skillful and experienced fiction writers can combine these techniques, and, for example, narrate the same story from different characters perspectives in rotation without confusing the reader.- Using slang words is an acceptable stylistic technique when you integrate it into the words of your characters (in case it goes in line with the picture you want to create), but it is never a good idea for the indirect speech. Authors words need to be literary correct and neutral.- Overloading your sentences with verbs, so that you focus too much on the action and fail to construct the full picture. Always try to combine moderate usage of verbs with bright adjectives and adverbs to balance your writing.