It is ingrained in you to do personal narrative writing.

As you live out each day, you are instinctually doing personal narrative writing. Even if you are not actually writing words down on paper, you are thinking ideas through, following routines, having revelations, and getting stuck in conundrums that you do not know how to get yourself out of easily.

Click for Free Writer's Block Help E-Zine and Free E-Book

Everything that happens in a day forms a routine. You are constantly thinking about this routine as you move on to the next portion of your day. Why not write down all that you do? It will help instill in you a sense of wonder and will allow you to notice more of what happens around you. You may find that through journal writing or merely the writing down of words and phrases that define your day, you can come up with some amazingly spectacular anecdotes that can be shaped into other forms and genres of writing.

Take this personal narrative writing as an example. Learning how to write a narrative has never been easier when you take into account that your whole life is, metaphorically, a narrative. Pretend that someone is pulling the strings around you and that is how everything is coming to fruition in your life. The difference in personal narrative writing is that you are the one who gets to pull the strings and define the way that your work is written. Read on for my own personal narrative writing that details one day in my life, and see how you can begin to shape your own writing by critiquing your own routines.

My eyes open. I strain to see the time on the clock. Another hour or so remains. I realize I have to go to the bathroom, so I reluctantly get up, go, and crawl longingly back into bed, wishing that the one hour was more like two, or three, or four, but grateful for it being better than nothing.

Before I know it, a song is belting itself out of the radio and time is up. My cell phone alarm goes off two minutes later, beckoning me to rise, shine, and stifle the noises that are eager to keep me awake.

I get up, wash my face, brush my teeth, dress in the clothes that I’ve laid out the night before, eat breakfast, and check my e-mail about two or three times before I leave the house for work. It’s an automatic reflex that I can’t disengage myself from doing.

As I try to pull myself out of a monotonous situation where my routine ceases to change, I sing along to the radio in the car on my way to work. It’s amazing how seemingly trivial lyrics in a popular song can strike a chord in you and make you feel particularly good. When the songs stop, talk radio dominates the car, and I find myself shaking my head in agreement or disagreement at each morning’s topic.

I arrive at work refreshed and ready to begin my day. I love my job. It’s taken me numerous years to find a job that fits me so well, but I’ve done it. It feels really good.

I show up to class and share my journal entry for the day with the kids. Today it was, “What time period would you have liked to live in and why?” I say the 1950s because the culture of that time is so interesting and I really like the clothing from back then, too.

In-between classes, I run an errand to the post office. I sold a book on half.com and have to mail it to the buyer. The postal worker who helps me asks me the routine questions – whether I need more stamps, if I want delivery confirmation, etc. – and I mechanically respond with my pre-fabricated “no’s.”

With classes back in session, I resume my teaching day, and finish off the afternoon, saying brief, friendly goodbyes to students, parents, and the administration.

Running to the supermarket to pick up vegetables for dinner, I get distracted by the sales signs that propose five for a dollar ears of corn. That seems a little different. I can’t remember the last time I ate corn on the cob. I stock up on a few choice veggies and wait in line. It takes at least double the amount of time to wait as it did to pick up the items. My impatience begins to rear its ugly head, only to be diminished by the cashier beginning to scan my items.

I get home, make dinner, and drive with my husband to the video store. We scan the shelves for something funny, creative, and worthwhile. Nowadays that’s a hard combination to find.

The day winds down, and exhausted, I climb wearily into bed, make sure the alarm reads the correct wake-up time, and find the cold side of the pillow before sinking into a deep, uninterrupted slumber.

It’s funny how despite the constant overabundance of popular culture in our lives, we still follow routines. We see and hear the cultural cues and “white noise” around us on a regular basis, but we still find what’s good for us and stick with it, to an extent. Our society and pop culture phenomena are attempting to instruct us to change our points of view and find new mediums and ways to see the world in the age of pop culture. How often I change my routine is quite a small amount. I have set TV shows I watch, set meals I eat throughout the week, set restaurants I like, and set radio stations I listen to. I am a creature of habit. This personal narrative writing has opened my eyes to the fact that I must embrace doing something different – even if only once in a while – to feel as though I am in charge of my own cultural exploration, and not as if it is in charge of me.

To return from this Personal Narrative Writing Example to the
How to Write a Thesis Page, click here

To return from this Personal Narrative Writing Example to the
How to Write a Narrative Page, click here

To return to the Writer's Block Help Home Page, click here