meaningful importance to you because of a lesson (conflict) mastered; importance to your understanding of life, your understanding of someone else, or your understanding of yourself. You might call this an epiphany moment. It might be humorous (enlightenment can come through humor), surprising, mundane, exotic, or a once in a lifetime experience (like witnessing a satellite launch).

Next, you will pinpoint your characters and setting. One character will be you, but what other characters were participants? Were there other participants or did this event happen while you were alone, perhaps on a mountaintop? Then identify the setting: isolate the time and place of the occurrence. Were you five in your parents' rental property? Was it New Year's Eve of 2000 in Times Square?

Perhaps the hardest part is to identify the effect this occurrence had on you. What important thing did you understand better or know as a result of this incident? A correlated question is through what mechanism did the change in you come about: was it what some said; something you thought or witnessed; was it simply the sound of an ocean wave?

With the hardest part done, arrange events in chronological order: "First I, then I, then she, then we," and on until the end. With the chronology in order, identify the climactic moment and the ending resolution (your epiphany). Then identify how it all began, which is the introduction and the inciting action. Now the rising and falling actions (the events before and after the climax) should fall neatly into place.

Finally, remember that to construct your narrative essay, you want to focus on concrete language, not abstract language. You want to tell us that the blue sky was streaked with clouds, not that the sky seemed cloudy; that you pedaled your ten-speed to the dock, not that you rode over there. You also want to emphasize sensory perceptions you had during the incident you are narrating. Say what you touched or felt (I touched the cool rough granite while the wind tickled my arm); what you smelled (cherry pie from the dinner); what you saw (rigid black lava; a field of six-foot high yellow sunflowers); what you heard (a kitten mewing under a concrete step); what you tasted (acrid dust; tart pomegranate).

Using concrete, sensory language will help you develop the tone of your narrative. Is the tone lighthearted; is it somber; is it inquisitive; is it foretelling danger; is it humorous? Following these steps, your narrative essay will practically form itself, with a little dedicated industry and work from you.

There are several steps you can take to write an effective literary essay. 

First, before you start, you need to figure out your topic and focus. What will your write about? What "story" will you tell?

Then, think about how you will put your thesis together. Your thesis statement will be the last sentence in your introduction, but before you write anything else, you need to think about this part of your essay. There are two components in the narrative thesis; the event you will tell the reader about and the point you want to make about it. In a story about how your mother overcame cancer, for example, you could say something like: 

"My mother's successful battle with cancer taught me one thing: To appreciate life while we have it." 

You can then build the rest of your essay around this idea. 

Now it's time to start your introduction. This paragraph will begin with a few general statements to "prepare" your reader for the rest of your work. You could make a few interesting statements about cancer, for example, or about our relationships to our mothers. Then end this paragraph with the thesis you prepared. 

The body of your work is where you tell your story, and this will be your next focus. 

What you need to remember here is that every paragraph should focus on a specific point you want to make. Since you're telling a story, each paragraph will focus on a specific stage or time period of the story. Your first paragraph, for example, might focus on the diagnosis, while the last paragraph will focus on how your mother beat cancer. 

Your conclusion will then end the essay by telling your reader the impact of the event on your life and how you will use it in the future. 

I hope these comments helped. 

Good luck with your essay!