20 Narrative Essay Topics That Will Catch Your Reader's Attention


When it comes to writing a narrative essay, you may be thankful that you don't have to research it to the extent of most other papers! But then you might also quickly realize that this type of paper is looking for a personal topic that you can deliver well and catch your reader's attention, and you may have absolutely no idea where to begin. Hmm, that might be even harder then! Well, do not worry. There is always help available, so take a deep breath, focus and think about what subject could be the basis for your masterpiece of an essay!

So what exactly is a narrative essay? That is the first thing you will be wanting to know! Well essentially, it is a paper that tells a story from your own experience (as you might expect by the use of the word 'narrative'). These essays can be personal, anecdotal or experiential. With a narrative essay, you are allowed to write more creatively than with other papers, and they can often be quite emotive as well.

Perhaps it is actually harder than you first thought to come up with a decent subject for the paper's basis then! You'll need to put a lot of yourself into this paper, and you will have dozens, if not hundreds, of life experiences that you could select as your subject. So if you don't know where to even start in choosing the right topic that will be bound to catch your reader's attention, here are twenty great ideas to get you started:

  • My childhood years in the south of France.
  • Visiting Mount Rushmore for the first time.
  • From puppy to dog: Daisy, my Labrador.
  • Thanksgiving at my grandmother's house in Toronto.
  • The swimming contest: my greatest accomplishment.
  • Passing the dance audition.
  • Camping in the wilderness.
  • My little brother's Autism.
  • Baking cakes for the yard sale.
  • Hiking mountains in Chile.
  • A day in the life of my mom.
  • The day trip to the Museum of Modern Art.
  • Working in my father's hardware store.
  • Collecting baseball cards: a hobby and an investment.
  • Scoring the winning goal in the soccer championship.
  • My online hip hop videos.
  • The summer I spent in Europe.
  • Visiting the Grand Canyon on a school trip.
  • The day my cat gave birth.
  • My aunt Jane's funeral.