Writing a Personal Narrative

Writing Process: A Personal Narrative

Writing a personal narrative is telling a story about yourself. Use the guidelines from the writing process to help you get started:

  1. Prewriting –(list some interesting things you have done. Then choose one topic from the list to write about).
  2. Draft — (freewriting) using the topic that you have chosen; write out all your ideas. Don’t worry about making mistakes—just write!
  3. Revise – organize your paragraphs. Make sure you include a beginning, middle, and end. Start with an interesting beginning (hook). Ask yourself:
  • Is your beginning interesting?
  • Where could details make your story clearer?
  • Use a dictionary and a thesaurus to find more specific and exact word forms.
  • Make sure you use details that bring your personal story to life.
  1. Proofread – Now, look at what you have written. Does each sentence begin with a capital letter or/and end with the correct punctuation? Have you corrected any misspelled words? Did you incorporate transition words or phrases? Did you use indentation for your paragraphs?
  2. Publish – Once, you have completed steps 1 – 4; you’ll be ready to present your story. For a final touch, add a collage about you! Place your story in the center of the collage.