Points to Remember When Writing a Personal Narrative

1. A narrative point conveying the event’s significance should be clear. Develop only those details that advance the narrative point—the dominant impression or thought you want the reader to remember about your personal narrative. Do not get sidetracked and drag out a story with nonessential details. Even though you might have interesting details, do not include them unless they support your narrative point. Do include all details that your audience needs to understand your story. Keep asking yourself the following questions: “Is this detail or character or snippet of conversation essential?” “Does the audience need this detail to understand the conflict in the situation?” “Does this detail advance or intensify the narrative action?” Limit narrative commentary—statements that tell rather than show what happened.

2. Conflict usually exists in the event. You may be in conflict with an aspect of nature, society, or another person. The conflict might be an internal dilemma.

3. Organize the narrative sequence. Often a chronological telling is effective. However, you may want to plunge the reader into the middle of the story—in medias res—and then return in a flashback to the beginning of the tale.

4. Make the narrative easy to follow. Each paragraph should have a clear focus. Often this focus is indicated by a sentence early in the paragraph that directs attention to the action taking place. Also use time signals when narrating a story. Words like now, then, next, after, and later ensure that your reader won’t get lost as the story progresses.

5. Make the narrative vigorous and immediate. A compelling narrative provides an abundance of specific details. Readers must be able to see, hear, touch, smell, and taste the event you are narrating. Vivid sensory description gives the narrative a stamp of reality. However, do not over-do the details as they will slow the pace of your story. To create a sense of immediacy, use dialogue while telling your story. Our sense of other people comes, in part, from what they say and from the way they sound. When using dialogue, generally begin a new paragraph to indicate a shift from one person’s speech to another’s. Using varied sentence structure is another strategy for making narrative come alive. Sentences that plod along predictably (subject-verb, subject-verb) put readers to sleep. Finally, use active verbs rather than passive ones.

6. Keep your point-of-view and verb tense consistent. If you tell a story as you experienced it, the story is written in the first-person point of view. However, if you observed the event and want to tell how someone else experienced the incident, you would use the third-person point of view. First person allows you to express private thoughts and to re-create an event as you actually experienced it. This point of view is limited, though, in its inability to depict the inner thoughts of other people involved in the event. Third person makes it easier to provide insight into the thoughts of all the participants. However, this broader perspective may undercut some of the immediacy of the first-person “I was there” point of view. Whichever one you choose to use, stay with it for the entire narrative. Knowing whether to use the past or present tense is important. In most narrations, the past tense predominates, enabling the writer to span a considerable period of time. Although rarely used, the present tense can be powerful for events of short duration—a wrestling match or a medical emergency, for instance. A narrative in the present tense prolongs each moment, intensifying the reader’s sense of participation. Whichever tense you choose, avoid shifting tenses in your narration.