Five Useful Tips When Struggling to Write a Personal Narrative Essay

Are you dealing with writers’ block when writing your personal essay? These are some useful tips to conquer that and still write an amazing essay.

The year has just started, and seniors are already writing their personal narrative essays.

Seniors will have the option to use that essay as their college essay, but regardless of if they choose to use it for college or not every student must write one.

I had the opportunity to speak with Ms. Carella- Dean, the Director of the Secondary Humanities Department in the high school, and she gave some extra advice to seniors writing their personal narrative essay.

Think about if you want your essay to reveal something deep about yourself (or your life) or a lighter topic that still gives a sense for who you are.

Some students are okay with talking about something painful or tragic that happened in their lives, while others may not want to dig that deep.

If you are choosing to use this as your college essay, schools are looking to learn something about you that is more than just your academics.

So, if you are someone who doesn’t want to discuss a painful event, think about discussing something like an interesting talent you have, how a certain person has had an impact on your life, or a particular interest you have.

If you want to talk about a painful event, discuss how you felt while it was going on or how you overcame it, or continue to overcome it.

Added Ms. Carella-Dean, “Whichever path a student decides upon as their theme, they must be mindful that their essay reflects how they have grown, matured, or changed in some way for the better.”

Pick the topic that speaks the most to you.

When brainstorming topics, think about what you would be able to write an entire essay about.

You do not have to follow what your classmates are writing about because everyone is a different person with different experiences in their lives.

Think about something that holds a deep place in your life and write about that.

Ms. Carella- Dean stated, “This could be either a big moment or a small moment in one’s life. Whatever the moment is, a student should be able to express how that moment impacted their life. The focus needs to be on how that moment has influenced one’s own growth and maturity.”

Jot down every detail about your chosen topic.

You want to paint the entire picture of exactly what this event or topic looks like for you. If it was something that happened a long time ago, there might be minute details you may have forgotten.

You want to include those specific details in your essay because it gives the reader a stronger understanding as if they are there living the experience with you.

This concept improves the quality of your essay, and it will be more thought out.

Ms. Carella-Dean added, “I think that jotting down notes and brainstorming is healthy practice. Sometimes people prefer sketching or using graphic organizers to help in this process. Whatever the method is, every single detail does not have to go into the essay. The essay should strike a balance between feeling real but not overly flowery.”

Carefully plan out the parts of your essay.

Answer the questions about what happens in the beginning, middle and end.

Think about what titles and first sentences will get the reader interested.

Do you want to start off with saying something shocking to get the readers interested? Or, do you want to start off slowly and then drop the shocking statement?

Think about what would make your essay stand out and be unique from others. Make sure to have all this planned out before you start writing as it is stressful to sit in front of a blank page and have nothing planned out.

“This is essential. Brainstorming and making lists, that is like I said an extremely healthy process but when it comes to crafting your final draft the work must be precise and the absolute best version of the essay.” according to Ms. Carella-Dean.