The "Truth" About Narrative Essays

"The best way to address this concern and start writing a narrative essay is to forget about telling "the truth" or "the facts" of a story unless you already think those truths and facts are interesting. Along with telling a story, after all, you're also being asked in the narrative essay to write vivid descriptions of persons and events. What if you don't remember what one of your characters was wearing or looked like or smelled like on that fateful day when you decided to skip school, or become a young Republican, or sneak out of the house to party with the very boyfriend/girlfriend you broke up with a week later? The answer to this question is that it simply doesn't matter whether your descriptions or events are "true to life." You are, after all, telling a story, and stories - even autobiographical ones - are embellished with made up details, characters, and events all the time."

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