Have you traveled recently and been asked to transform your experiences into an interesting narrative essay?
For most students, traveling to new places is one of the most exciting parts of their lives. The experiences tend to be memorable and can offer a fascinating topic for your academic essays.
Seasoned writers know you don’t need to be overly creative with your travel essay since most trips come with exceptional experiences. As easy as it may sound, this type of narrative essay won’t be a walk in the park.
You will need to develop a subject for your essay and adhere to the rules of grammar and syntax. Here are some tips to help you turn your personal travel stories into narrative essays that impress your readers.
What Is a Narrative Essay?
Before we dive into how you can turn your travel experiences into a spectacular narrative essay, we need to explore what a narrative essay is. In this sense, a descriptive essay implies a piece of writing where the author tells a story.
It is similar to a window that lets readers look into the author’s life like a page taken from a diary. Like descriptive essays, narrative papers tell a story instead of making claims or supporting arguments.
You can write your narrative essay about anything, including a personal experience or childhood memory. One option that will intrigue your readers is to use your travel experience to create a story that captivates and interests audiences.
You could work with an essay writing service if you need help fine-tuning your writing skills.
How to Write a Great Narrative Essay About Personal Travel Experience
For most people, a college narrative essay about traveling is relatively straightforward. As long as you articulate the most thrilling events creatively and ensure great flow in your story, your paper will be exciting and easy to read.
Here are a few tips to help you turn your personal travel experiences into an incredible essay:
Make Sure You Understand the Instructions
The most important part of creating a good narrative essay about your travel experiences is understanding what the professor wants. Like other academic tasks, the narrative essay will have a prompt outlining what the student is expected to accomplish.
Read the instructions, focusing on the essay question and the assignment length. When is the project due? What formatting style are you expected to use? Seek clarification from your professor if any part of the instructions seems too complex.
Create an Outline
Outlines are crucial for every type of academic essay writing. An outline ensures you follow the right structure and organize your ideas.
It allows you to focus your narration without digressing into trivial matters. If you want your travel essay experience to be clearly articulated, start with an outline that simplifies your main points and helps you stay on track.
Use the First Person in Your Narration
One of the most important things you can do when writing your narrative essay about travel experiences is to use the first person. Remember, you will be sharing your personal experiences in the essay, meaning you must use the first-person stance.
It is impossible to tell your personal story using the third-person approach. Avoid making your essay sound like a novel since this is personal.
Start With a Captivating Introduction
Your introduction must be top-notch to turn your travel experiences into an incredible narrative essay. The introduction is always the first part of your essay readers encounter and gets audiences hooked into the rest of your document.
By going through your introductions, most of your readers will have made up their minds whether to continue reading the rest of your writing.
Avoid opening your essay with clichés or statements that define what traveling is. You can start your essay with a startling statistic about traveling or narrate an unusual experience you underwent during your travels. You can start your essay about traveling by discussing a stressful situation.
Understand that the best travel essays start with strong opening sequences, skillfully drawing the reader into the story. A stressful situation like “the sound of the tiny spikes of our wheels crunching on gravel was the only sound we heard for miles.”
Taking the reader into the heart of a stressful situation in your travels heightens the tension and gets the audience interested in the story. Remember, while the introduction is the first part of your essay readers encounter, you should consider writing it last.
Describe Important Characters and Find the Antagonist of Your Story
A crucial part of your narrative essay about your travel experience is the description of essential characters. Who are those people that have an important role in your story? How do they look? What are they wearing? It also helps to make your story interesting if you can find an antagonist for your text. What is the conflict?
Without an antagonist and a conflict, your story may end up sounding boring and bland. In most cases, you will be the protagonist, while the antagonist is someone trying to stop you from getting what you want. Having two opposing characters will bring readers’ interests into your story.
Describe the Scene But Omit Unnecessary Details
You want your readers to go with you through the length of your journey. This means that you ought to describe scenes in great detail, making readers imagine the scene as if they were present.
Evidence shows that detailing builds readers’ imagination. That said, you need to keep your writing simple and clear, which means leaving out unnecessary detail. Anything not related to your story has no part in your travel essay.
The Bottom Line
Your travel experiences can provide an amazing subject for a captivating narrative essay. Keep your writing simple and stay away from cliches. Too many difficult words will compromise the flow and clarity of your writing.
Read through your documents, checking whether the writing sounds interesting and engaging. Always edit and proofread your documents before sending them to your professor for assessment.
