Narrative Essay Topics

At the collegiate level, students are expected to know how to write. Professors will not teach writing skills, unless they are teaching writing courses. Therefore, when you are assigned an essay in a content course, you will be expected to write the essay in the style that was assigned. If your college has a writing lab or tutoring center, you might be able to get the help you need. However, you will have to visit the tutoring center when it is open, which does not guarantee that the schedule will be convenient for you. When you have no idea what to write about or how to craft a narrative essay, here are a few tips to help you succeed:


  • Remember that narrative essays tell stories. When you write a narrative essay, you are proving a point by telling a story. You do not need to include dialogue, setting, or plot, but you will need to describe events that you or someone else has experienced. Through these experiences, your readers will be able to connect to you and learn a life lesson.
  • Choose useful narrative essay topics. If your professor has not assigned a topic, you will need to create one on your own. Without a high quality topic that you are comfortable with, you will have difficulty completing the narrative essay successfully. Too many students pick topics that they struggle with and the narrative essays end up being rather dull to read.
  • Prepare yourself. Too many student skip the important planning stage. When students skip writing an outline and choose to simply “wing it,” they end up forgetting details. This can create a serious problem for students who are not strong writers. Planning is vital to writing a successful essay. When you are writing a narrative essay for a college course, your essay should be more complex than anything you wrote at the high school level and successful planning will make this a reality.
  • Prove a point. Your essay needs to prove a point. Many students forget that narrative essays still have the job of persuading the readers that your experience could make a difference in the lives of others and they end up just telling a story. Without the point, the readers will not understand the purpose of your storytelling adventure. Your point will be your claim, which will be included in the introduction to the essay.
  • Experiment. Even if you are not the strongest essay writer, you can still try something new with a narrative essay. You can play with the narrative essay topics you choose, by making them about emotional experiences or about everyday experiences. You might even try to write your essay from the perspective of someone you have never met, like a celebrity or a historical figure or even an ancestor you have always admired. You might even try writing a narrative from the perspective of an evil character.
  • Remember essay structure. Even if you are experimenting with your narrative essay, you should always remember that essays require structure. You should include an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. While the structure of the narrative essay is not as strict as a typical persuasive or expository essay, you should still make your narrative look like an essay rather than a short story. Take the time to read narrative essays by famous authors so you can see how the experts write them. Literary magazines and journals frequently include narrative essays and many of them are writing in experimental ways that could inspire you, too. When writing a narrative essay, remember to have fun!
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