How to Write an Outline for a Narrative Essay

A â€Å"narrative† is a term that is usually used to refer to a â€Å"story†; therefore, a narrative essay is an essay where you describe an event or a sequence of such events to form a more or less short-story-like piece. Narrative essays are probably one of the least difficult essay types – after all, you don’t need to find arguments to persuade your readers to share your point of view. Your goal is to tell a story, and the more vividly your readers will be able to imagine it, the better. A narrative essay is no different from all other papers in terms of the writing procedure, albeit it might not include the research stage (unless you want to dig for information like actual fiction writers do before they produce a book). Given the nature of such paper, it is tempting to let your thoughts roam and build your narration as you would build it while telling a story to a friend. You could not be more wrong in doing so. A written narration should be much more structured to make the same kind of impression as the oral one. That’s why a narrative essay needs a carefully developed outline to organize your thoughts. The chapters in the narrative essay outline should follow each other in such a way so as to build tension (if possible) and tell a complete story. Don’t worry if your outline doesn’t seem quite right at the first try – you will be able to improve it through revisions. We’ll elaborate on each of the chapters and provide recommendations on writing them below. Chapters to include in the outline The general outline for narrative essay should look like this: Introduction Setting the scene Unfolding of events Climax of the conflict Resolution of the conflict If you want to be guided by a more conventional structure, you can combine chapters 2, 3 and 4 into the main part. Let’s look at every chapter more closely. Introduction. Your introduction chapter should include a few elements. The attention hook is the first one. Where else if not in a story would you try to attract your reader’s attention and hold it until the very end? All the regular attention-grabbing techniques can be used here, including quotations, numbers, etc. The second one is the significance of the topic – why does it matter for you and why should it be important for your reader? The final element of your introduction should be the thesis statement. You don’t necessarily need a conflict for your thesis statement, in a narrative essay it’s just the central idea that you focus on. Alternatively, a thesis can explain why the event was significant for you – in this case, elements number two and three will be combined in your introduction. This chapter should be quite short, interesting, and relatable. Setting the scene. Setting the scene is the next step in narrative essay outline writing. Here you should describe the situation before events took place from multiple points of view: the history, the people (with physical and personality characteristics), the scenery, etc. There are a few things you should take into account while setting the scene: Use the five senses to convey the feelings generated by the scene before the main event took place. Explain why the setting is important for your narration (if it is). Use foreshadowing, i.e. hinting at how the events will unfold. In general, you should aim for a detailed enough description of the setting to immerse your reader into it. Unfolding of events. The unfolding of events is the run-up to the conflict and its resolution. Try to be consistent in your description – first, explain how things started to unfold. Show how the actions of people contributed into the inevitability of the climax. Emphasize the feelings and provide sensory descriptions – after all, your essay is not just a dry account of events, but rather a description of your own perception of them. Climax of the conflict. In this chapter, you should focus on the main conflict and all the related pressure. Again, try to describe the feelings related to such climax and its inevitability in view of the setting and actions of users that took place before it. Resolution of the conflict. Describe how everything ended and summarize the event. This chapter is what you would call a conclusion in all other types of papers. Include the moral of the story here. Why was the story worth writing about in the first place? Tips to consider: The chronological description of events is the most common for a narrative essay, but you will easily find examples of narrative essay outline with a different structure. The actual approach you choose should depend on your goals and the type of event you are describing. Always aim to show things rather than tell about them. It’s the common commandment preached by writers, and there are no reasons not to use it. Make appropriate transitions between paragraphs to make your story flow and help your reader navigate through it. In narrative essay writing, your own experience serves as supporting evidence – rely on it. Try to engage all the five senses to make your writing come alive If there was a conflict in the story, stress on it: the best stories are those with a clear conflict and a clear resolution. Be detailed in your descriptions. The better you explain things to your reader, the happier they will be. You can look for narrative essay outline examples online, but make sure to use them only as guidance. You are the owner of the story and you decide how it should unfold. If a certain outline fits your needs better than what others have used, then be it. Narrative essays are usually designed for candidate evaluation purposes (e.g. admission papers), so it will be nice to show that you can be creative in solving problems. Narrative essay or not, don’t forget to allocate enough time on editing and proofreading so that your paper is free of grammar and spelling mistakes and other defects.