Jennifer Valencia 

Personal Narrative 
A ​personal narrative​ allows you to share a 
story from your life and allow others to 
experience what you experienced through 
your words. Your job as a writer is to put the 
reader in your shoes. Give them the full 
experience; what you saw, what you heard, 
what you felt (physically and emotionally).  
You could tell about an emotional 
experience, a silly or serious event, a scary 
encounter etc. 
Whether the story is true doesn’t matter, as 
long as they are telling a good one through 
your words. 
 
You could: 
● tell a true story from your own experience, but 
write it as if it were a fiction piece, with fictional 
characters, in third person. 
● create a completely fictional story, but tell it in 
first person, which would give it the same feel as a 
personal narrative. 
● tell a true story that happened to someone else, 
but write it in first person, as if they were that person. 
For example, I could write about my grandmother’s 
experience of getting lost as a child, but I might write 
it in her voice. 

Your personal narrative should 

● be 3-5 pages double spaced MLA format 
● Include dialogue, sensory/descriptive language 
● Leave the reader with a lesson/emotional connection 
● Include a small visual component. This can look like a montage or a 
slideshow to accompany your narrative and you could record them as digital 
storytelling videos.