Fifty Writing Topics: Narration

Although narratives serve a variety of purposes, the most successful ones usually share three basic characteristics: they are clearly organized in time, make a central point, and contain specific details relevant to that point. See these examples of narration at work in paragraphs and essays:

• Willie Morris's Descriptive Narrative
• John Updike's Descriptive Narrative
• Ritual in Maya Angelou's "Caged Bird"
• Ritual in Doctorow's "World's Fair"
• Narration in Graham Greene's "Lost Childhood"
• Sentence Combining: "The San Francisco Earthquake"
• "A Fable," by Mark Twain
• "Outcasts in Salt Lake City," by James Weldon Johnson
• "Street Haunting: A London Adventure," by Virginia Woolf

Fifty Topic Suggestions: Narration

At least one of the 50 topics below may remind you of a particular incident that you can relate in a clearly organized narrative essay.

1. a memorable wedding or funeral
2. one minute of a football game (or other sporting event)
3. your first day at a new school or college
4. your first day at a new job
5. your last day on a job
6. a disastrous date
7. a moment of failure or success
8. an encounter that changed your life
9. an experience that led to renewed faith
10. a strange job interview
11. an experience that demonstrated how labor-saving devices can be more trouble than they're worth
12. an experience that left you disillusioned
13. an embarrassing experience
14. a frightening experience
15. a memorable journey
16. an encounter with someone or something you were afraid of
17. an occasion when you experienced rejection
18. your first visit to the country (or to a large city)
19. the breakup of a friendship
20. an experience that showed how we should be careful of what we wish for
21. a significant misunderstanding
22. a dangerous experience
23. an experience that showed how appearances can be deceiving
24. an account of a difficult decision that you had to make
25. an event that marked a turning point in your life
26. a historic event
27. a memorable encounter with someone in authority
28. an act of heroism or cowardice
29. an imaginary encounter with a real person
30. a rebellious act
31. a brush with greatness
32. a brush with death
33. a time that you took a stand on an important issue
34. an experience that altered your view of someone
35. a trip that you would like to take
36. a vacation trip from your childhood
37. an account of a visit to a fictional place
38. your first time away from home
39. two different versions of the same event
40. a traffic accident
41. a day when everything went right (or wrong)
42. an experience that made you laugh until you cried
43. the day you decided to change your life
44. the experience of being lost
45. an unexpected encounter
46. surviving a hurricane or a tornado (or other natural disaster)
47. an experience that taught you a lesson
48. an important discovery
49. an eyewitness account of an important event
50. an experience that helped you grow up

Also see: 400 Writing Topics