How To Write A Narrative Essay? A Guide By Experts

Published : September 23, 2023

Updated : January 25, 2024

By | MyPremiumEssay 12 mins read

You must have observed in your life, people pay more attention to personalized stories compared to a boring information. This personal writing is nothing else but a narrative essay.

A narrative essay is a personal story, any incident or event which an author has faced in his life. It involves a very creative and compelling way of influencing others. Writer is focused on making reader feel like a real world. It is written from one person point of view and keeps the reader engaged throughout the essay. He explains a very complex and lengthy story into a very shot and crisp one without making it too long.

how to write a narrative essay

Students often write narrative essays in their high school or college. Narrative essays resembles descriptive and reflective essay in its writing style. All these essays involves a very informal tone. However, they differ from all other kinds of academic writing in one or other way.

Keep in mind, narrative essays are different from stories. They include facts and memory of the author to prove the whole situation, whereas, a story involves different characters to prove it. A narrative essay has a thesis statement whereas a short story has one central theme.

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Why Narative Essay Is Written?

Narrative essays are written to communicate a story to a reader in a very interesting way. They are practiced to learn a story telling ability without enforcing your opinion on the reader. A writer just tells a story, emotionally engage readers and leave the decision on the audience. These essays are included in academics to allow students learn the effective use of first person perspective.

Types Of Narrative Essay


There are 5 most common types of narrative essay which are:

  • 1 Descriptive Narrative Essay

    Descriptive Narrative Essays are the most common and straightforward type of narrative essays. They follow “show, don’t tell” principle. It involves a very clear funnel of telling a long complex story into a short and easy one. These essays make a clear picture in a reader’s mind in a very interesting way. Descriptive essays requires a limit of the content therefore writer focuses on a very clear description.

    2 Linear Narrative Essay

    A linear narrative essay is the explanation or the storytelling of an incident in a correct order in which the event happened. It can be written from first, second or third person perspective. It mainly focus on the right choronologoical order of the events happened. Most popular examples of narrative essays are Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice.

    3 Non-linear Narrative Essay

    A non-linear narrative essay tells the story without focusing on the order of events. It is written according to flashbacks of the writer. The author mentions the event as he recalls them without focusing on the sequence. This type of writing is commonly used for short stories or novel. It breaks down the segments of the whole incidence into different parts to emphasize on any part. Most popular examples of non-linear narrative essay are Odyssey and Homer’s epic poem.

    4 Quest Narrative Essay

    A Quest Narrative Essay is the type in which writer strictly focuses on a single goal. He presents the character facing huge trouble and difficulties to achieve that goal. It is usually written to show the entire journey of the character. This type of essay is commonly used to write travelogs, autobiographies and personal identification books. Most popular examples of quest essays are J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Hobbit and Sherlock Holmes.

    5 Viewpoint Narrative

    A viewpoint narrative essay is the one in which the narrator expresses his point of view on an incidence. He writes the essay according to his mood, feelings and opinion. In these types, a person tells the story but in a very unworthy manner. They do not state any fact or proofs which is why they involves some sort of ambiguity in it. Most popular example of viewpoint narrative essay is Lolita by Vladamir Nabokov, in which a person tells a story of been into a psychiatric clinic in a very doubtful manner.

Best Performing Narrative Essay Format And Structure

Like all other types of essays, Narrative essay also demands a correct format and structure to follow. It follows a 5 paragraph essay structure. Let’s have a look at the internationally accepted format of a narrative essay:

  • Introduction

    This is the first ever paragraph of an essay which includes a thesis statement.

  • Body

    The body contains the first, second and third paragraph. These paragraphs are more focused on the details of the incidence involving facts and proofs.

  • Conclusion

    It comes at the end of an essay. It summarizes the whole incidence in a single paragraph.

A Complete Guideline To Write A Narrative Essay


Writing a narrative essay can be a tricky task for those who don’t know how to write a convincing story telling type of an essay. Here is a complete and step by step guide to write a best performing essay.

  • 1 Preparation

    Before writing, you should prepare yourself mentally and physically to complete your essay effectively in no time. To get ready for an essay, follow the below steps:

    • Brainstorm Ideas

      Brainstorming is very important and crucial step in generating topic ideas for your essay. If you are given an essay topic by your professor, it would be a good idea. If this is not the case, brainstorming will help you alot. Think about different topics, and make a list. Consult multiple books and trending topics on online platforms and add these in the list.

    • Choosing A Topic

      Selecting a topic is the most crucial step in narrative writing. Once you have all ideas in your list, make sure to pick a topic on which you have some prior knowledge. It should have relevant material available online. Never go for much older and already used topics. Look for a very interesting topic that ignites the readers’ attention. Narrative essay topics are very flexible and open to people’s opinion. They can be very specific or open-ended.

    • Finalizing A Thesis Statement

      Thesis statement is another important element in any type of essay writing. This should be written when a topic is finalized. It helps you draw readers’ attention towards an essay. It should be a general statement. Making it a fact or decision making statement can lead reader skip reading.

    • Finding An Authentic Research Source

      Once you are done with your thesis statement, look for the authentic sources for the relevant material on the topic. Check out Google Scholar for reliable publications. Look for the already published researches and find out all the relevant material. This will help you create a highly credible and authoritative essay.

  • 2 Writing

    Writing is the long, tricky and the most time-consuming phase of essay writing. It begins with producing a first draft to adding all the necessary details. Let’s have a look:

    • Creating Outline Of The Essay

      An outline or the first draft contain three most important headings i.e., introduction, body and conclusion. This will keep your directions clear and statight. It will help you in proper adjustment of the material. Let’s have a look at the writing style of these sections:

    • Introduction

      This is the very first and introductory paragraph of an essay. In this section, writer focuses on adding a hook statement to engage readers. To make it more interesting, you question, fact, quote, stats or any other eye catching element. Introduction should be so specific and precise. It should give the main idea or theme of the whole story while keeping a suspense in it.

    • Body

      The body is the middle part and involves climax in it. Usually this is the lengthiest part of the whole essay. It involves all the intricate details of every character in the story. Keep in mind, never drag your essay unnecessarily long. Don’t stuff your sentence with fancy or difficult vocab. Make your writing descriptive yet interesting while keeping your each and every sentence purposeful.

      Another preferred approach for writing a body is to use a dialogue approach. This keeps the reader engaged. Using transition and maintaining best chrornological order also makes an essay interesting to read.

      Always write the whole body from one person’s point of view either as first person or third person. Avoid shifting from one narration to another.

    • Conclusion

      This is the last and ending paragraph of the essay. It clearly states the findings from the essay. You can also give a quick review of all the major events happened in the entire story and then tell your lessons learned. Add a very clear call to action but do not enforce it on the reader. Leave the decision on the reader.

    Also Read: How To Write A College Essay

  • 3 Proofreading & Editing

    Proofreading is the step that haunts most of the students. Believe me, this will craft your essay into a magical master piece. Hold your horses, and give some time to your brilliantly written essay and polish them. Look at the grammatical errors. Maintain a good flow between the entire essay. Cut all the unnecessary information to keep your essay engaging. Proofread it twice or thrice and edit it where required.

No doubt, all this process takes hours and hours and even days to complete an essay. Usually, students are busy with their multiple assignments which is why they could not find enough time for such creative essays. Therefore, we aim to provide them best essay writing help in their time of need. Ask our experts at MyPremiumEssay and get your mindblowing essay in no time.


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