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Brainstorming for the Narrative Essay: Memory Mining
Last week here at Writing Center Underground, we discussed several different invention strategies to uncover engaging persuasive essay topics. This week, we’ll focus our brainstorming on uncovering essay topics for the Narrative Essay .
Narrative essays tell a story. In English classes, most instructors ask students to tell a story about themselves, such as an event from the past or a story about their family. Narratives can be quite personal, and students have the opportunity to be creative, utilizing fictional techniques including dialogue, description, characterization and plot development.
Choosing a narrative topic that meets assignment guidelines as well as maintains readers’ interest is often daunting for beginning writers, but spending a little time utilizing several invention strategies will set you on your way to an engaging narrative topic and an entertaining essay.
Invention Strategies
Invention strategies will be different for a narrative essay than for a persuasive essay. Narratives will draw more on personal experience, so for narrative essays, we’ll do what’s called memory mining . Memory mining is simply brainstorming to uncover memories of people, places, events, and experiences. To simplify, we’ll break our memories down into categories. Try to list at least 3 memories for each category.
Memories of people
Memories of your immediate family are obvious, but consider other people who may have influenced your life. Did you have a favorite teacher or coach? Did you have a first boss who was a mentor? Did you meet someone who left a profound effect on your life? List the person and a brief note on why they come to mind. Below are some examples that could become an intriguing story:
- My high school history teacher taught me the importance of learning from our past
- My grandmother’s love of baking
- The homeless man I passed each day on the way to the bus stop
Memories of times and places
If I were to ask you to recall a place from your youth, I bet it would be easy. Places are full of memories of sights, sounds, smells – the making of a great narrative essay. Places can be inside home or outside in the city or country. A place could be a garden or a doctor’s office. Think of “time” in terms of era: junior high science lab; the summer you broke both your legs and spent the time in your bed; the maple tree where you kissed your first boyfriend over winter break. Work past the obvious and list as many times and places as you can.
- Early autumn in the Tennessee mountains
- The first day of deer hunting season
- Your Quinceañera
Memories of events
Often when we think of “events,” we immediately thing big – graduation, wedding, birth, death – but an event doesn’t necessarily have to be a big occasion. An event could be your last day of high school, saying goodbye to your favorite teacher. It could be a tornado drill at school when you got to snuggle close to the girl/boy of your dreams. It could be the first time you drove a car and went the wrong way down a one-way street (was I the only one who did that?). Think outside the box.
- Getting a black belt in karate
- The first – and last – time you sat on Santa’s lap
- Parents’ silver wedding anniversary
Memories of happy experiences
This might be an event, but could also be something simple, like a bubble bath or working Thanksgiving in a homeless shelter. Think small and large when brainstorming happy experiences.
- Catching the winning touchdown pass
- Opening the letter of acceptance from the journal where you submitted a poem
- Senior prom
Memories of unhappy experiences
We’ve all had unhappy experiences, but trying to determine which ones might make a good essay can be challenging. Think in terms of how you will tell the story of your unhappy experience before you commit it to paper. A break-up or death may come to mind first, but take some time to consider if there is a story in the experience that others can derive meaning from.
- Being pulled over by the police
- Wrecking my father’s beloved Camero
- Being ejected from the final game and disappointing my teammates
Memories of accomplishments
Accomplishments can be big or small. The emotions we might feel after accomplishing something might range from elation to sadness.
- Winning an award
- Completing the marathon
- Hitting weight loss goal
Supporting Ideas: Testing Your Topic
If you’ve spent some time memory mining, you should have a good list of topic ideas. Now you can begin to brainstorm supporting ideas. Pick one of your favorite topics you’ve uncovered, and list related memories as they come to mind.
For example, one student might choose her grandmother’s love a baking. Here is a list of memories surrounding that topic:
Grandma baked iced sugar cookies every Christmas specialty was pecan pie always wore her blue floral apron flour in hair let me lick bowl types of cookies favorite Betty Crocker cookbook colored frosting and sprinkles kitchen smelled good singing along to Elvis music Dad only ate unfrosted cookies I learned how to use mixer she let me add ingredients learned to read recipes I was glad sister didn’t like to help made extra frosting so I could eat it wrapped cookies in box and gave as gifts couldn’t bake as she got older I baked for her and she helped decorate
This is a long list, and every related memory may not make it into the final draft. If you have too much material for your essay, decide what the main ideas you want to write about are.
In our narrative, we want to show Grandma’s love of baking and how she passed it on, so the details of Grandma’s actions and what the writer learned from Grandma are important. Other details, such as the writer’s feelings about her sister, her Dad’s favorite cookies, or which cookbook Grandma used, may be less important and can be omitted. Once you decide what the story is you want to tell, you’ll begin to see what the important memories are, the focus will gradually become clearer, and the story will start to spring from the memories.
Easy as pie.
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5 thoughts on “ Brainstorming for the Narrative Essay: Memory Mining ”
Pingback: Organizing the Narrative Essay « Writing Center Underground
this is great! Thank you!
Thanks for visiting our blog Brent!
I’m teaching my first high school class next week and we are doing a unit on personal narratives! I’m totally using this for the brainstorming.
Thank you for making this! using these examples for an english class of mine.
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Ideas, Inspiration, and Giveaways for Teachers
We Are Teachers
65 Engaging Personal Narrative Ideas for Kids and Teens
Tell a story to engage the reader.
Personal narrative essays are all about telling stories. Engage your reader with lots of descriptive language, and ensure you have a beginning, middle, and end. ( Get more tips about teaching narrative writing here. ) Try these personal narrative ideas to inspire kids and teens to tell meaningful stories from their own lives, no matter what they’ve experienced.
“Describe a Time When You …” Personal Narrative Ideas
Firsts and bests personal narrative ideas, general personal narrative essay ideas, college essay personal narrative ideas.
These personal narrative ideas urge students to dig into their past experiences and share them with their audience. Be sure to share the details, including what took place and how it made you feel, and anything you learned from the experience.
Describe a time when you:
- Were scared
- Overcame a big challenge
- Learned an important life lesson
- Had to make a difficult decision
- Were proud of a friend or family member
- Did something you didn’t want to and ended up liking it
- Met a celebrity or someone you really admire
- Tried something new
- Made a mistake and had to apologize and/or fix the mistake
- Were in danger
- Helped someone in need
- Had a dream come true
- Felt inspired
- Had a really terrible day
- Were a leader
- Made someone else laugh
- Did something you later regretted
- Set a goal and achieved it
These essay topics explore the times you did something for the first time ever, or when you were the best version of yourself.
- Write about meeting your best friend for the first time and how your relationship developed.
- Tell about learning to ride a bike or drive a car.
- Tell about your proudest moment.
- What is your happiest memory?
- What is your earliest memory?
- Explain what it’s like to move to a new town or start a new school.
- What’s the best (or worst!) vacation you’ve ever taken?
- Tell the story of the time you got your first pet.
- Describe your favorite field trip of all time.
- Tell the story of your first day of kindergarten.
- What’s the best meal you’ve ever eaten?
- Describe the best party or celebration you’ve ever attended.
- Tell about the first time someone ever paid you for work (first job, chores for a neighbor, babysitting, etc.) and how it made you feel.
- Describe the first time you spent a night away from home without your family.
- What’s the best gift you’ve ever been given?
Here are more personal narrative topics to inspire young writers.
- Describe a performance or sporting event you took part in.
- Explain the process of cooking and eating your favorite meal.
- Write about a time when you or someone you know displayed courage.
- Share the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to you.
- Describe a time when you or someone you know experienced prejudice or oppression.
- Explain a family tradition, how it developed, and its importance today.
- What is your favorite holiday? How does your family celebrate it?
- Describe your morning routine from the time you wake up until the moment the school bell rings to start the day.
- Share what you do on a typical non-school day.
- Tell about a time when you were injured. How did it happen?
- Describe an argument you and a friend had and how you resolved it.
- Tell about what you think your life will be like when you’re 25 years old.
- Explore a time when you felt you were treated unfairly.
- What makes your family different from everyone else’s family?
- If you could relive any day in your life, what would it be? Would you want it to be the same or different?
These personal narrative essay topics all come from real 2022–2023 college applications. ( See more college essay prompts here. )
- Discuss a time when reflection or introspection led to clarity or understanding of an issue that is important to you.
- Share an example of how you have used your own critical-thinking skills on a specific subject, project, idea, or interest.
- Using your personal, academic, or volunteer/work experiences, describe the topics or issues that you care about and why they are important to you.
- Reflect on a personal experience where you intentionally expanded your cultural awareness.
- When was the last time you questioned something you had thought to be true?
- Reflect on a time when you or someone you observed had to make a choice about whether to act with integrity and honesty.
- Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes, or contributed to group efforts over time.
- Describe a time when you were challenged by a perspective that differed from your own. How did you respond?
- Elaborate on an activity or experience you have had that made an impact on a community that is important to you.
- Describe any meaningful travel experiences you’ve had.
- Choose one of the communities to which you belong, and describe that community and your place within it.
- What is the greatest compliment you have ever been given? Why was it meaningful to you?
- What has been your best academic experience in the last two years, and what made it so good?
- Describe a time when you’ve felt empowered or represented by an educator.
- Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.
What are your favorite personal narrative ideas? Come share on the WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook.
Plus, check out the big list of essay topics for high school (100+ ideas) ..
Jill Staake is a Contributing Editor with WeAreTeachers. She has a degree in Secondary English Education and has taught in middle and high school classrooms. She's also done training and curriculum design for a financial institution and been a science museum educator. She currently lives in Tampa, Florida where she often works on her back porch while taking frequent breaks for bird-watching and gardening.
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Prewriting and Planning Personal Narratives
Brainstorming ideas.
Brainstorming ideas is a commonly used strategy that helps students quickly explore what they could write about in an essay.
Download and print the handout packet for this resource by clicking the button below.
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Remember, personal narratives describe events and experiences in students' lives that are important to them.
When you are ready, click play on the video below.
Now it is your turn to brainstorm ideas for a personal narrative that you will write. On the first page of Handout 32, list ideas for two or three of the categories.
Narrowing the Focus
One of the elements of a well-written personal narrative is a narrow, clearly defined focus. Sometimes students select topics that are too large or broad. It is important to help students narrow their focus or topic to a single event or experience before they begin writing.
Have Handout 32 available to use during the next video.
On Handout 32, complete the second graphic organizer: Narrowing the Focus of an Idea. First, select one brainstorming idea that is important to you. Then, list specific details about your experience and select one to write about.
Developing the Central Idea
The central idea is the point of a personal essay. The central idea is similar to the thesis or controlling idea in an expository or persuasive essay. The central idea communicates to the reader the experience and its significance (meaning, insight, or lessons learned).
Have Handout 32 ready to use during the next video.
On Handout 32, complete the third graphic organizer: Developing the Central Idea of a Personal Narrative.
Remember, visualizing helps to clarify the significance of an event or experience. Imagine yourself once again in that experience and focus on your feelings, thoughts, and impressions.
When you are finished, locate Handout 33: Prewriting Model Lesson from the handout packet.
This handout presents the key ideas from the model lesson shown in the videos in a different format to help you model the prewriting strategies in your classroom. Take a moment to review the handout. In the classroom, remember to introduce and teach each strategy and step of the writing process separately and over time (several lessons or class sessions).
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Brainstorming story ideas
Strategies for generating story ideas....
- People who are important to you
- Places that are important to you
- Objects that are important to you
- Life-changing moments or turning points in your life
- Challenges that you've overcome
- Moments when you've learned something important
- Moments of strong emotion (For example: happiness, sadness, jealousy, pride, shame, regret, etc.)
- "First time" moments
- "Last time" moments
- Defining moments (Moments that show readers something important about you
IMAGES
VIDEO
COMMENTS
Are you ready to write a personal narrative? First you have to brainstorm some ideas! This video shows you how to think of topics for your
Narratives will draw more on personal experience, so for narrative essays, we'll do what's called memory mining. Memory mining is simply
Small Moments are like "snapshots" of your big idea! Students will share their BIG idea (their whole camera) and then draw/write in their
An organizer that I have used to help students brainstorm ideas to write about for our Personal Narrative Essay. The "Personal Narrative
To help you think of some possible personal narrative topics, let's brainstorm ideas using the. Brainstorming Chart for Personal Narratives. Distribute copies
Firsts and Bests Personal Narrative Ideas · Tell about learning to ride a bike or drive a car. · Tell about your proudest moment. · What is your
Jan 18, 2016 - Are you ready to write a personal narrative? First you have to brainstorm some ideas! This video shows you how to think of topics for your
What themes or issues do you connect to? 3. Have a one-on-one CONFERENCE WITH YOUR TEACHER to discuss some of your ideas for the personal narrative.
Brainstorming ideas is a commonly used strategy that helps students quickly explore what they could write about in an essay. Download and print the handout
strategies for generating story ideas... · People who are important to you · Places that are important to you · Objects that are important to you · Life-changing