Lesson 3
Introduction:
We are almost ready to write our first essay! Yay! Below, you will learn how to organize your narrative essay and how to plan!
There are 2 ways to develop your personal narrative: 1) plan your story or 2) write your story by the “seat of your pants.” Planning is where you figure out the things you want to include in your essay, and where you will include these things before writing. Pantsing or “writing by the seat of your pants” is where you take a personal narrative essay topic and start writing about it from beginning to end. You don’t think about the things you want to include ahead of time. Both planning and pantsing work for developing a personal narrative essay. It’s just a matter of which you like better.
Planning Your Personal Narrative
Planning a personal narrative essay is like planning any other kind of story. You plan a beginning, a middle, and an end. But for a personal narrative essay, you also include what you learned or realized because of this story. List the order in which things occurred. You can do this in a simple list or you could create a story outline.
First, how did the story start? Here you want to include the setting of where your story began. Describe the first thing that happened.
Second, list the things that happened next. These things lead up to your climax. The climax is the most important part of your story.
Third, how does the story end? The ending of your story is the resolution. A resolution in a personal narrative lets your reader know the result of everything that happened.
Add any important realization or thing you learned from the experience.
Pantsing a Personal Narrative Essay
You’ll hear many writers talk about “pantsing” or writing by the “seat of their pants.” They mean that they don’t plan what they will write before they start writing. This method works well for some people writing personal narrative essays.
If you are pantsing a personal narrative essay, write down your topic. Select a starting point for your story. Then write your story from beginning to end. When you finish writing, go back and see if you have all the pieces of your story from beginning to end.
Where did you begin your story? What is the setting for your story (time and place)? What is the first thing that happened?
What events happen that lead up to the most important moment of your story?
What is the climax of your story?
How does your story end?
What did you learn or realize?
Go back and add any missing pieces to your essay.
(from https://www.academicwritingsuccess.com/writing-a-personal-narrative/ by Suzanne Davis)