- Choose a significant event in your life to write about, one that had a meaningful impact on you. The most successful topics for personal narrative essays involve events that taught you something (about yourself, or someone or something else, or both) that changed your perspective or understanding or even direction in some way. The event can involve a single incident (like “Shooting an Elephant”) or a series of related incidents (like “Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self”). Be sure to choose an event that you can remember enough about to describe in detail and that you are comfortable sharing with classmates since you will be sharing drafts of your essay with them.
- Gather material for your draft. Write as much as you can about the following questions:
Where does your story take place?
What is the setting like?
How does the setting affect the story?
How old were you at the time of your story?
What were you like then?
Who else is involved in your story?
What role did each play?
Which of these people was most important to the outcome of the story?
External conflict: Was it a disagreement, argument, fight, opposition, struggle? Who or what was involved in or causing it?
Internal conflict: What were you thinking or feeling about the above situation?
Turning point: When, where, and with whom did it happen?
Climax: When, where, and with whom did it happen?
Resolution: How was the conflict resolved? If it hasn’t been, where do things stand now?
- Write your draft by describing, or showing, what happened. Remember that showing — detailed concrete (sensory) description — is most effective for describing what happened. The descriptions of what happened will ultimately comprise the bulk of your finished essay — all effective Reflective Essays are mostly concrete description — so I recommend starting to work on your draft by describing what happened. If you prefer to start by jotting down some sort of outline for your narrative first, see the step 4 below.
- Construct an effective narrative (story) about the event. At some point, whether before or after describing what happened, you will need to consider which parts of your story will becoming the “building blocks” — the most important parts, to be described in detail – and which parts will become the “mortar” holding them together – the connections or transitions between them. You will also need to consider how to begin your essay – start off with some background information to set up your story, or jump right into describing part of your story – and how to end it.