Prewriting for Narrative Paragraphs
Prewriting is your first step in writing a narrative paragraph. These prewriting activities will help you select a memory to write about, create a focus statement, and gather and organize your details before you begin a first draft.
Prewriting to Choose Your Topic
Your narrative paragraph will share a special memory from your life. Here’s how you can get started.
Gather writing topics.
Finish the sentence starters below to collect writing ideas for your narrative. Draw a star next to the topic you like best.
- One of my favorite times with my best friend was . . .
- I’ll never forget the holiday when . . .
- I’ll never forget my family vacation to . . .
- One crazy thing my family did was . . .
- I’ll always remember the first time I . . .
- An exciting time in my neighborhood was when . . .
Teaching Tip
Students may also decide to use a writing topic from the “My Memory Wishes” activity.
Prewriting to Gather Details
Gather details.
Write down important details about your topic. The information you collect before you begin writing will help you tell your story.
- Characters are the people or animals in my story:
- Setting is the place and time of the story:
- Actions are the important events that happened:
- Conversations are the words people spoke in a story:
Teaching Tip
Students may not remember exact words from old conversations. That’s okay. Encourage them to create conversations that sound realistic, matching the personality of the speaker.
Teaching Tip
Tell students that special punctuation called quotation marks should come before and after the exact words of characters in a story.
Prewriting to Sketch Actions In Order
Create a storyboard.
Draw pictures of the four main actions in your narrative. Make sure the actions are in the order in which they happened.
1) First |
2) Then |
3) Next |
4) Finally |