Narrative Essay: Definition, Tips, and Topic Ideas For College

Do you love to tell stories? Would you like to share your thoughts and knowledge with the rest of the world in the form of an essay? If your answer to these questions is a YES, you need to learn everything about personal narrative essay.

In this guide, you’ll learn what a narrative essay is, the appropriate format to use, topic ideas to consider, and some tips to make the essay great. Whether you have never written such an essay before or you just joined college and have no clue, you will find this post useful.

What is a Narrative Essay? 

As known as a personal essay, a narrative essay is an assignment that you present to your audience as a personal story.

It’s not persuasive in form or argumentative in structure. Rather, it presents an opportunity to communicate your points of view and share your personal experiences on certain events in your life.

To write a comprehensive narrative essay, you first have to pick an interesting topic to work on.

The topic you pick will be the basis on which you develop the essay right from the first to the very last sentence. 

You follow your choice of topic by creating an appropriate outline for the essay, writing your first draft, and then revising the work to make sure it meets the essay standards stated in the prompt.

How to Choose Topics for a Narrative Essay 

Choosing the right topic for a narrative essay is easier than you think.

 With our list of 10+ title suggestions below, you don’t even have to spend an entire afternoon brainstorming what to write about in the first place. 

However, there are important considerations to make when picking a topic.

Does the Subject Interest You?  

We always advise students to choose topics that interest them for a reason.

Mostly it’s because focusing on such topics make it possible to write comprehensive essays that are not only interesting to read but also highly engaging.

So pay close attention to topic selection and base your choice on at least one or more areas of your personal interests.

Perhaps the best thing about narrative essays is the flexibility to write just about anything.

So even if your teacher gives you a broader subject, it should be easy to identify the right topic idea to consider for the essay within that broad subject.

Can You Present Truthful Information on the Topic? 

Just because a personal narrative essay requires you to tell a story doesn’t mean you can make up some imaginary stories. You need to base them on an actual event.

Consider picking a topic that allows you to relay truthful information on what has happened to you or what you’ve learned through personal observation.

You’re welcome to look at other personal narrative essay examples online or offline so that you can get a clear picture on what it means exactly to present truthful information on a topic that you choose.

Does the Topic Allow You to Get Creative and Original?

If the topic you’ve considered for your narrative essay only limits you to writing an essay that will end u sounding too obvious, consider choosing a different topic.

Your essay has to be original and highly creative. You should write the essay based on the standards accepted and expected for a narrative essay, and it should also include information that your audience hasn’t read before.

If you take a unique approach to writing your narrative essay, and you should, your essay will come out as unique and therefore standout from among the many submissions that teacher will receive for assessment and marking.

List of Narrative Essay Topic Ideas 

Now that you know how to judge whether a topic is good or not for a narrative essay, here are some topic ideas that you may want to consider:

General Personal Narrative Essay Topic Ideas 

• The most tragic experience and the most important lessons you learned
• Write about a summer vacation that you will never forget and state why it’s still a memory to this day
• A teacher that remains a legendary memory
• You can write about the day you got into trouble unknowingly and how other people came to your rescue
• Life experience in the countryside after two decades of living and thriving in the city
• Write about an experience that changed your behavior and explain in what way it made you a better person
• An unforgettable conflict with another person and the lesson learned
• Write about the significance of small inventions that you’ve made
• Think of a series of episodes that changed your perspective towards people and convert those episodes into a comprehensive essay.
• Write about an experience that eventually made you to come to the conclusion that parents are always right

Narrative Essay Topic Ideas for College Students 

• Write a narrative essay on the impact social media has had in your life since you started using platforms such as Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
• Introduce and talk about teams and clubs that play a huge role in shaping your life as a college student
• You can talk about your biggest achievements before joining college and how such accomplishments changed your life
• Is there a hard college assignment that you struggled to handle but ended up scoring the highest grade? You can write a narrative essay about it.
• Write about a collection of electronic devices that you use more frequently and the impact they have in your life
• Talk about how you can contribute to the diversity of your college
• You can write about what happened when you decided to try something new and completely different
• It would be interesting if you wrote a personal narrative essay that describes the weirdest experience you’ve ever had with a stranger

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