Organizing the Personal Narrative Essay From ‘The Writing Center Undeground’ Blog

Ingredients Scene Summary Reflection is action. People are talking (dialogue); you or other people are moving or reacting to something. Summary  is exposition. It is condensing time (making a long stretch of time shorter) or conflating time (making a short stretch of time longer for dramatic effect). Summary can be history and background, filling in the blanks for the reader. Reflection is your – the narrator’s – thoughts. What did you think or feel as the action was happening? What do you think or feel now? How have you made sense of what happened? This is reflection.

The Intro Literature is filled great “hooks” or opening lines: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Anna Karenina “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. . .” A Tale of Two Cities “Call me Ishmael.” Moby Dick And this line, probably the most famous (and now most clichéd): “It was a dark and stormy night.”  Paul Clifford

Organization Chronological in medias res or retelling your story in the order events happened in real life in medias res Latin for in the midst of things. In an in medias res narrative, the story opens in the middle of the actual chronology of events, usually with dramatic action rather than exposition setting up the narrative. The story begins in the middle, moves forward from there, with the past told in flashbacks. 

Story Structure Generally, narrative paragraphs change when something in the action changes: Introduction of new people Location or setting changes Time passes or era changes Action changes Mode changes (action changes to reflection, reflection changes to exposition)

Elements of Plot Exposition Rising Action Climax Falling Action Resolution (Denouement is a French term meaning resolution)

Conclusions central meaning, or universal theme