Tips and tricks: narrative essay topics for high school students

First of all, a Narrative Essay is an autobiographical essay, based on a personal experience. By taking one point and writing on this from the student’s perspective the essay is not hard to do well. It in many ways is actually one of the easier essays, because less research is needed.

In writing a Narrative essay, it is more effective to write about a dramatic event than an everyday event. Such subjects could be; death of a loved one, first love, an event on vacation with the family or on the student’s own. Anything that had a major impact on the writer is a good subject to write about.

1. Build a story: Create a storyline for the essay. Do not just jump in, and start writing. It has to be interesting, or it will not be readable.
2. Develop an outline: Like a story, or a research essay, use an outline to work off from. Don’t worry that this might get changed, they usually do. But it will give the author something to work off from, and set a line of events.
3. Build up to the event: Never start out with the event, unless this is a place that sets a chain of responses that the Author has to deal with throughout the essay. If this is the case, be sure to keep this focused on, and refer to it from time to time. By referring to the opening event, the author keeps the reader reminded how this started and
4. Make sure to tie everything together: In the ending paragraph, make sure that everything is tied together neatly. The reader has to be reminded and brought with the Author, or the ending will lose the reader.
5. Don’t be afraid to make you of yourself: If the writer cannot use humor in these types of essays, they can get very boring. It does not matter how well it is written, if it is all stoic, people will lose interest.

Remember to use dramatic events that had an impact on the writer. Create a solid storyline, and outline. Even if the outline has to be changed, use one. Use humor, and make fun of yourself, or a situation. When writing about a Motorcycle accident on a bridge that iced due to wind-chill. The humor that was used; “All I could think of was the lyrics, ‘Slip sliding away’ as my bike slid on the ice, and I hated that song!”

Use the facts in the most interesting way, do not just list them or talk about them. Use the facts into the story, and make them fit as they happened. Do not exaggerate the story, tell it, but use creative words and ideas to bring them to life. In this way, the reader can see inside the writer’s experience as if they lived it.