What is a personal narrative? and how to write a personal narrative. A personal narrative is a story that describes an event or time in your life that you want to keep as a memorable moment. It needs to be authentic. You are the author and the whole story is your point of view. You need to help the reader feel and hear, and see the description you provide in the personal narrative.
Personal narratives are beneficial for writing a college application. These personal narrative helps in personal growth and encourages students. It can improve writing skills and you can be creative in writing personal narratives. Personal narratives are mainly based on your personal experience specific moments, and events. Personal narratives reflect the main point and a great story in an interesting way.
In this article, you will see how to write a personal narrative, examples of personal narratives, and ideas on how to write a personal narrative.
1. What Is a Personal Narrative?
A personal narrative describes the experiences of a particular person’s event or memory. You can write a personal narrative for college admissions or school views. How to write a personal narrative is very important. Personal narratives can help students, or anyone develop writing and relevant content. A personal narrative can also be used to call storytelling about a particular memory or event.
A personal narrative says something about your life. Personal narratives can be one of the most effective and efficient ways to communicate any form of information. It can be from a business or personal writing. A personal narrative is an excellent way to tell your life story and showcase your best qualities.
Our narrative should include an engaging beginning, a strong middle, an end, and a clear and concise message. How to write a personal narrative? continue reading.
2. How To Write a Personal Narrative
A personal narrative must consist of a clear and concise message to help the reader know about the story you are telling. and how to write a personal narrative will include all the details of the story. A personal narrative must have a plot in the story to make your narrative more valuable and it must have quality creative writing.
The following steps can help you to know how to write a personal narrative.
2.1. Gather Inspiration by Reflecting on Your Own Life Experiences
How to write a personal narrative? First, think about times when you overcame obstacles or accomplished a goal in your life. Write down any details that you feel are compelled to include in your story. You can also ask family and friends for suggestions to help you brainstorm ideas for your narrative. You can think about events that have occurred in your life that you want to keep as a memory.
2.2. Identify Your Theme or Idea
Start by deciding on what you want to write about in your narrative. You can choose anything as long as it is relevant to your story in a personal narrative. You need to choose a more specific topic for your narrative so it will be easy for you to write your narrative. Choose any theme, idea, or topic to start your narrative.
2.3. Organize the Outline and Information You Have Collected
Make a list of experiences in your life to include in your narrative and think about how you can present these events as statements in your narrative. Now that you have written down a list of important events in your life, you need to find a way to organize this information. You could start by sorting your list into categories. Now after you have organized your information start writing your narrative.
2.4. Make Your Introduction
How to write a personal narrative? When you start your narrative start by introducing your topic to the reader’s attention. This is the first step in the body of the personal narrative. Introducing and elaborating on your topic should be the first step after the title of the personal narrative.
2.5. Start an Engage Beginning
After the title and introduction begin your personal story with an engaging beginning of your particular topic with an idea of a theme. Begin with the specific details about the event you are trying to write a personal narrative about. Include details of the time and the place and how you felt about that event. So you can catch your reader’s attention and make your narrative stand out.
2.6. Write a Strong Middle
After writing the beginning, write a strong middle event. Your thesis statement must include strong middle events and specific details and moments about it. This middle event includes details about how you felt and what happened. Make it authentic and relevant.
2.7. Write an End of the Story
After writing the beginning and the middle event end your narrative with an end of the story. Conclude how exactly you felt about the whole event and why it is important for you to write a personal narrative about it. Most personal narratives are short three paragraphs, but it depends on the topic and can be kept in a shorter or longer order. Include interesting details about your event. And choose a particular theme.
2.8. Conclude Your Narrative
Summarize your topic of the personal narrative. that leaves the reader with a lasting impression of your thesis. The main statement of your narrative is to conclude it. A conclusion is nothing but an end or finish of an event. You have to use relevant reasoning while writing a conclusion.
Restate your topic and put your final thoughts into it. Restating and concluding your topic can be very beneficial for college applications schoolwork business or job applications.
2.9. Edit Your Topic
Analyze the details of your topic and edit your narrative. Make sure to be on the checkout for grammatical mistakes and language. Your narrative should be professional after finalizing your topic look on the run for feedback on your narrative.
2.10. Leave a Brief Message About Your Story
When writing a personal narrative, you have to be clear about the message you are providing through your story and you have to make it briefly short and sweet, so it won’t take up much time for the reader. These are the steps on how to write a personal narrative.
3. Examples of Personal Narratives
There are many reasons why you should write a personal narrative. You can connect with others and tell your story in a lasting and more compelling way. Below are a few examples of writing a personal narrative.
3.1. Personal Stories
Many people write personal narratives for their personal experiences which include a particular event or time in their life that they want to store as a memory. You can think about any memory you would like to write down and make it a personal narrative by the following steps given above.
They include a childhood memory or an immensely unforgettable experience that they want to write down. These narratives are the own stories of a writer. It can be based on a specific moment or specific event. Here is an example of a personal narrative story.
Example: I went on a trip to Italy Milan to celebrate my brother’s birthday. There was this nice dessert place I found which is the highest-rated gelato spot in Milan. I went inside and the whole place smelled like heaven I saw a variety of desserts but the one that caught my eye was tiramisu.
I ordered my gelato and waited for it to arrive. The dessert arrived and I tasted it and it was the best dessert or gelato I have ever tried in my life. From the texture to the taste and the presentation to the shop, everything was a 10/10 and it was one of my most delicious experiences.
3.2. Personal Narrative Essay
Many students when applying for their college applications write a personal essay to know the student more and extend into why the student wants to join this college. For that many students write personal essays for college applications to have an advantage of getting into the college by submitting their narrative along with their college application.
Personal narratives are beneficial for a student’s college applications. Personal narratives can be written for various topics and one of them can be to apply for a college application because it will enhance the engagement of the admission of a particular person, and it will be useful to know the student better and their qualities. Here is an example of a personal narrative essay for a college application.
Example: My dream from a very young age was to start a business of my own because I was very interested in it. As I grew up and started to see more on the earning side of the world, I figured that my passion for working was in IT.
I came to realize that I am very invested in technology and computers. If I can choose a career path for myself, it would be this. Which made me think of applying to this college to continue my career journey with what I want to be in the future. Getting into IT can fulfil my dreams with gratification that a business stream couldn’t.
4. Ideas of Personal Narratives
We know the steps on how to write a personal narrative now we will see ideas of personal narratives. Personal narratives are completely based on the experiences of a particular person, and they can be about a chapter in their life or their whole journey of life.
Writing a personal narrative can be a tough task sometimes but these ideas will be helpful for you to get started writing your first personal narrative. Here are a few ideas for personal narratives to help you get started.
- An event in your life: A personal narrative can be an event from your life which happened at a particular place and time. Think about an event which occurred to you and made an impact in your memory and write it down.
- A happy memory you want to store: Think about a memory which made you extremely happy and you would like to go through that memory and feel it once again. To be precise feel that happiness you felt once again.
- A change in your life: If you had a change in your life like moving to a new city or country or even moving to a new area. How has it impacted your life and what change it has made in your life? and write it down.
- A positive or a negative experience: When writing down narratives you have to think about both the positive and negative experiences of your life and make a list and choose one from them and write down your narrative as an experience in your life which includes one of both positive and negative.
- Tell a story about how something or someone made you happy or sad: Think about a time in your life when you either felt exceptionally happy or sad and write it down in your narrative.
- Getting accepted into a college or a job: Write a personal narrative about how you got accepted into your dream college or dream job and how it has impacted your behavior and mind.
- Your dream or passion: In a personal narrative you can talk about your passion or your dream or what you would want to do and what you don’t like and start writing personal narratives about it.
Suggested Reading- What is Narrative Writing: 4 Types of Narrative Writing
5. Final Thoughts
To conclude this article personal narratives are advantageous to encourage students, teachers, or anyone applying for a job application or a college application or for someone who wants to develop creative writing and telling stories.
A personal narrative is the own work of someone. The personal narrative does not have a step-by-step guide. Learning how to write a personal narrative is a very important and hardworking skill. You have to brainstorm ideas on your own and write a narrative on your own story.
To write a personal narrative you have to describe everything in the particular event and focus on the characters to make the readers feel and see what you have provided. It can be of a particular theme with details of the event and various elements.
How to write a personal narrative? It is simple and easy if you learn how to do it. Personal narratives are very useful and helpful for developing creative writing and encouraging students. Start your first personal narrative now.
