San Juan National High School

CREATIVE NONFICTION

ALVIN D. DE LA CRUZ
English Teacher
 Writing a Draft of a Creative
Nonfiction Piece
At the end of the lesson, you are expected to:
1. prepare a brainstorm list needed in writing a personal
narrative essay;
2. create an outline for a personal narrative essay;
3. write a draft of a personal narrative based on a
memorable experience.
 PERSONAL NARRATIVE
A Personal Narrative is a form of writing in which the writer
relates one event, incident or experience from his/her life and
can communicate a main idea or lesson learned. It is usually
written in the first-person point of view. It helps to depict a clear
narrative that’s focused on a specific moment.
 PERSONAL NARRATIVE
A good personal narrative:
a. tells a story;
b. expresses the writer’s feeling using the first-person;
c. uses narrative techniques;
d. shares events in a sequence that makes sense and uses transitional
words, phrases and clauses to make the sequence clear; and
e. uses concrete words and phrases and sensory details to describe
events and people.
 How to Write a Personal Narrative
Essay
Writing, to be well-done, should go through certain stages. All writers go
through their own unique writing processes before they make their final
drafts. Usually, writers start with choosing topics and brainstorming,
and then they may outline their papers, and compose sentences and
paragraphs to make a rough draft. After they make a rough draft, writers
may begin revising their work by adding more sentences, or removing
sentences. Writers may then edit their rough draft by changing words and
sentences that are grammatically incorrect or inappropriate for a topic.
For this, lesson, we will focus on the
first three stages of writing:
Brainstorming on a chosen topic,
outlining, and writing a draft.
 I. PREWRITING
(Brainstorming and Outlining)
1. Think about your purpose and audience.
Think about a particular theme or idea.
- Before writing, you need to think about your audience. Who will
be reading your personal narrative? Use language that is right for
your audience.
- Use a theme as a jumping off point for your narrative. Explore a
theme or idea from your perspective. Consider how the theme
applies to your life and your experiences thus far. Themes like
poverty, isolation, sacrifice, challenges, and talent are all good
options for a personal narrative.
Note: The purpose of writing a personal
narrative is to express your thoughts and
feelings about an experience. It is also to
entertain your readers, or audience.
For example:
You may explore a theme like poverty by writing about
your family’s struggle with money and finances during
the COVID 19 pandemic. You may write about having to
help your parents work to make ends meet for your
family while you juggle with answering your modules.
2. Choose a topic.
- Brainstorm a list of memorable experiences that have
happened to you. Think about which topic would be most
interesting for your readers.
- After choosing your topic, explore ideas by making a
list of events. Also, list some of your thoughts and
feelings about them. Later, you will organize these ideas.
You may write about:
a. a learning experience that challenged and changed you;
b. a new discovery that came about in an interesting way;
c. something funny that happened to you or your family;
d. a lesson you learned the hard way;
e. your struggles with body image when you were in junior high
school and how you overcame them; or
f. your disastrous 15th birthday party and how it affected your
relationship with your mother or your siblings.
3. Organize/outline ideas in
sequence.
A personal narrative develops from one main
idea. You then add supporting details to the main
idea to develop your narrative. To plan your
personal narrative, you can use a main idea map.
Consider this example of Narrative Essay Outline
Template.
4. Do research to gather more
information.

Learn from good examples of personal narrative

online and in print.
II. WRITING THE DRAFT
What is a draft?
You often hear your teacher say, “Work on your rough
draft” as the next stage after you are done with your essay outline.
It is commonly called as the first draft. A first draft is a rough
sketch of your future piece of writing. Sometimes your first draft
may become the final one due to it being rather satisfactory, but in
most cases, it requires further work. A first draft is a way to
elaborate on the main points of your essay stated in your outline,
giving them a sample form. It acts as the framework for the final
version.
Just like any other essays that you write, a
personal narrative essay should basically have an
introduction, body and conclusion.
As you finalize your draft, be sure that you didn’t
miss to include these elements:
1. Characters: Who are the people involved in
your story? What are their significant character
traits?
2. Tense: In as much as your story already
happened, so, generally, write in the past tense.
Though some writers are effective in telling stories
in the present tense— that usually isn't a good idea.
3. Voice: How would you like to sound - funny, somber, or
serious? Are you telling the story of your 5-year-old self or your
15-year old self?
4. Conflict: Any good story should have a conflict, which can
come in many forms. Conflict can be between you and your
neighbor’s dog, or it can be two feelings you are experiencing at
one time, like guilt versus the need to be popular.
5. Descriptive language: Infuse your work with
rich imagery. Make an effort to broaden your
vocabulary and use expressions, techniques, and
words that you don’t normally use. This will
make your paper more entertaining and
interesting, and it will make you a better writer.
6. Your main point: Conclude your story in a
satisfying or interesting way. Do not attempt to
describe an obvious lesson directly—it should
come from observations and discoveries.
In as much as a personal narrative presents the
writer’s particular real-life event, it is imperative
to use appropriate transition words to show the
development of events.
 To show Agreement / Addition /
Similarity
To show Opposition / Limitation /
Contradiction
Transition phrases like but, rather and or, express
that there is evidence to the contrary or point out
alternatives, and thus introduce a change the line
of reasoning (contrast).
To show Opposition / Limitation /
Contradiction
To show Cause / Condition /
Purpose

These transitional phrases present specific

conditions or intentions.
To show Cause / Condition /
Purpose
To show Conclusion / Summary /
Restatement
These transition words and phrases conclude,
summarize and / or restate ideas, or indicate a
final general statement. Also, some words (like
therefore) from the Effect / Consequence
category can be used to summarize.
To show Conclusion / Summary /
Restatement