How to Start a Narrative Essay: Explaining the Purpose and Rules

Table of Contents

What Does A Narrative Essay Aim To Accomplish?

Simply put, a narrative essay is one in which the author relays a tale. It can be utilised as an example from your own life or as inspiration for your next academic task.

The purpose of these essays is to show what you learned from the events, how you feel about them, how they changed you, or how they impacted others around you. Some basic rules should always be followed when writing this essay( more on this later).

What Is a Narrative Essay?

A narrative essay is a story that you tell. It is about something that happened in your life. The event could be an experience, like going on vacation, or an important moment, like graduating from high school. 

Whatever it is, it’s all up to you! A good way to start your essay is by explaining what the narrative essay is and why it’s important. You can also introduce the setting of your story, who the main character is, and what they do at first. 

Types of Narrative Essays

There are many different types of narrative essays, including essays about something that happened in your life or an essay explaining a narrative essay. Narrative essays can be written as fiction or non-fiction and may be autobiographical.

Regardless of the narrative essay type, they all share two important components – a clear purpose and rules. A narrative essay example is often written from the perspective of one person who has lived through an event. The narrative should have a beginning, middle and end, with some resolution at the end. 

Some good narrative essay ideas include writing about what you did on your summer vacation last year or writing about something you learned in school this year.

Elements Of A Narrative Essay

The first element of a narrative essay is an introduction that should set up what will be discussed in the essay. The introduction should include why you are writing about this event, how it has impacted you, and what you learned from it. 

The second element of the narrative essay is telling your story. It is important to write about events in detail, including timeframes for when they took place. The third element of an effective narrative essay is reflecting on what was said in the story. 

One thing I reflected on while writing this narrative essay is whether or not my perspective changed throughout the story. Lastly, remember to end your narrative essay with something personal, like what you learned from it or how it impacted you as a person.

What Are The Rules For Writing A Narrative Essay?

It is about an event or something you observed in your life. The narrative essay can be either true or fictional, but it must be interesting. 

The narrative essay should have one main point, usually what happened in the story. It should have at least three supporting points related to your main point and transitions between paragraphs. Avoid summarising what happened; use quotes and facts from the event to support your statements. 

Keep it relevant to whatever the main point of your narrative essay is; you want people reading this essay to want more information because they are interested in learning more about your topic!

How to start a narrative essay?

Narrative essays are about telling a story. The best way to start writing one is by picking a topic that has meaning in your life and then write down three things you remember about the event or situation. You can also write about an event that impacted your life and how it changed you.

A narrative essay about an event in your life could be intimate (but not too personal) or humorous.

This helps with coming up with ideas for your next narrative essay!

Narrative Essay Outline

Let’s take a look at exactly how to begin a narrative essay. We recommend following this precise sequence of procedures when writing this academic assignment.

• Brainstorming.

• Select the appropriate theme.

• Define your writing goal.

• Plan your story so that it has increasing action, climax, and falling action, and you can draw logical conclusions from it.

• Outline the entire process will be less stressful and much faster if you approach your writing in the manner suggested above. Let us now return to the narrative essay in its entirety.

Narrative Format and Structure

The narrative essay type and organisation are conventional. This type of paper, like other assignments, often follows a paragraph essay outline: an opening paragraph, three body paragraphs, and a concluding narrative paragraph.

Unlike other essays, however, the paragraphs in a narrative piece serve a specific purpose:

The introduction describes the story, identifies the aim of the writing, and provides an appealing element to entice the reader.

The first paragraph of the main body is titled “Upward Action.”

Main body paragraph 2: Climax; Main body paragraph 3: action to decrease; Conclusion: historical lessons learned.

5 Quick Tips For Writing Good Narrative Essay

Good narrative essays can be tricky, but they’re possible. Here are five tips for writing good narrative essays: 

• Think of a story you want to tell or write about something that happened in your life. 

• Make sure you start with an attention-grabbing opening sentence. 

• Write and keep your sentences short. 

• Avoid using clichés as much as possible. A narrative essay is about telling your life’s unique story in a way that will engage readers. Try to avoid common plot twists and clichés (i.e. She was my best friend.) 

• Keep it personal! The goal is for readers to feel like they’re right there with you, experiencing everything as if it were happening to them. Write from your perspective and use only a few descriptive words; try sticking to descriptors like big, little, loud, and fast.

Final thoughts

As you can see, many ways to start a narrative essay exist. You can even write one about something that happened in your life. You should have a fair concept of what it takes to begin writing this style of an essay by now.

The most important thing is to remember that narrative essays are all about telling a story. If you want to avoid making up an event or character, think back on events from your own life. Consider how you felt at the time and how they affect you now.