“Remembering is just an invention of the mind, and if you try hard enough, you can remember anything, whether it really happened or not…[Y]ou don’t need a time machine if you know how to remember.”
Regardless of whether or not you experienced something yourself, you can imagine exactly what a situation entailed if you have enough details.
Using a favorite photograph to supply you with the “details”, compose a personal narrative piece. Tell the story of what was happening during the hour, day, week, or month that the photograph was snapped. Be sure to include as much description as possible, including WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, and WHY. And don’t forget that "you can remember anything, whether it really happened or not!” This piece can be imaginative or non-fiction, real or invented, truth or otherwise.
Using a favorite photograph to supply you with the “details”, compose a personal narrative piece. Tell the story of what was happening during the hour, day, week, or month that the photograph was snapped. Be sure to include as much description as possible, including WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, and WHY. And don’t forget that "you can remember anything, whether it really happened or not!” This piece can be imaginative or non-fiction, real or invented, truth or otherwise.
Snapshot in time - practice
Choose an image from the gallery below. Use a prewriting technique - listing, freewriting, word web - to generate as much description as you can including WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, and WHY.
Drafting Your Essay
There are no hard, fast rules for organizing the narrative essay, no formulaic outline into which you can plug in topic sentences. For many, that is the appeal of this mode; for other, the frustration. What we can offer here are some general guidelines. Each story lends itself to a different order.
Getting Started..."It was a dark and stormy night..." Perhaps more so than in other modes of writing, it is essential to draw your reader in with an engaging opening line. When people hear "narrative," they think story; they want to be engaged. Jumping right into the action or conversation often works in narrative essays, then stepping back to give more of a context.
Begin with a catchy hook…
Have a clear thesis statement. It should be the last sentence of your first paragraph. (Your first paragraph should be short!)
Organization and Chronology: Think in terms of climactic sequence: What is the most important part of the experience? Put that toward the end, right before the resolution and thesis, and work backward from there. If you want to set the stage with a general summary, background, or descriptive writing, that should go toward the beginning.
Paragraph Structure/Paragraph Changes: Separate events clearly into paragraphs. In general, authors of narratives start new paragraphs when something changes:
Wrapping Up: In the narrative essay, the thesis is generally re-introduced at or toward the end of the paper, after the reader has had a chance to experience the event through the lens of the narrator. Summary of the story should be limited to that which is necessary to effectively deliver the thesis. Try to end with a punch, with a sense of finality. Bring back the hook to form a circle.
This may or may not be your actual thesis statement.
Getting Started..."It was a dark and stormy night..." Perhaps more so than in other modes of writing, it is essential to draw your reader in with an engaging opening line. When people hear "narrative," they think story; they want to be engaged. Jumping right into the action or conversation often works in narrative essays, then stepping back to give more of a context.
Begin with a catchy hook…
- Sometimes my imagination gets the best of me.
- In my gymnastics career, fear is something I deal with every day.
Have a clear thesis statement. It should be the last sentence of your first paragraph. (Your first paragraph should be short!)
- I never thought I could switch gymnastic teams.
- I didn’t know it, but today I was going to learn an important lesson.
Organization and Chronology: Think in terms of climactic sequence: What is the most important part of the experience? Put that toward the end, right before the resolution and thesis, and work backward from there. If you want to set the stage with a general summary, background, or descriptive writing, that should go toward the beginning.
Paragraph Structure/Paragraph Changes: Separate events clearly into paragraphs. In general, authors of narratives start new paragraphs when something changes:
- speaker changes - use dialogue in your narrative
- characters change (especially entrances of new people)
- place of action changes (characters move to a new setting)
- time of action changes; time passes, leaves a gap
- action changes (purpose or focus of action)
- mode changes (from retelling to reflecting on action)
Wrapping Up: In the narrative essay, the thesis is generally re-introduced at or toward the end of the paper, after the reader has had a chance to experience the event through the lens of the narrator. Summary of the story should be limited to that which is necessary to effectively deliver the thesis. Try to end with a punch, with a sense of finality. Bring back the hook to form a circle.
- Sometimes I should listen to my imagination
- I don’t know why I was so frightened of changing gyms.
This may or may not be your actual thesis statement.