Table of Contents
Opening Remarks
Writing narrative essays is easy but writing a good narrative essay is another thing altogether. In academia, students are often asked to write essays so that instructors can gauge their writing and thinking capabilities. They are trained to understand the different elements and how to balance them for the ultimate effect, but it is mostly a hit or miss in the case of something as subjective as a narrative essay.
A Good Narrative Essay
Before we share some tips on writing a good narrative essay, it is necessary to define what it is. For that, we need to refer to the reasons why we write narrative essays in the first place.
The primary reason for writing narrative essays is to entertain the readers through a story based on a personal incident or experience from which they can draw parallels and extract valuable lessons.
To attain that effect, writers need to take into account the individual and collective effects of different elements of the narrative essay.Â
Essential Elements Of A Narrative Essay
Just like building blocks are necessary to erect an edifice, it is necessary to have all the essential elements in the essay to get desired effects. They are standardized and writers can learn about them in the succeeding lines.
Before attempting to write a good narrative essay for school or college, students can learn a lot by going through this post.
Perfect Essay Perks
- Theme – it is the central idea of the narrative that writers want to convey to the writers through all the other elements
- Plot – it is the structure of the story and narrative through space and time
- Characters – are the people who inhabit a narrative and convey the central idea of the story to readers, through their actions and words
- Conflict – it is the disruption of the status quo or in the narrative that triggers the change
- Setting – anything that is detailing and helps readers understand in terms of time and space of the story is setting
- Point of View – it refers to the perspective the narrative is weaved from; the narrator of the story and its way of looking at and describing things
Format of A Good Narrative Essay
Without understanding the structure and formatting of a good narrative essay, it is fruitless to expect writers to produce thought-provoking stories. A format is a predictable path or journey that a narrative must take, from start to the finish.
The standard school or college narrative essay has five paragraphs, with one each dedicated to the opening and closing of the essay. The rest of the three, making the bulk of the essay is the body. This is where most of the action takes place, plots unfold, and characters go through transformations.
Let us take a look at these parts one by one.
