- 1). Choose a topic. A true, significant event is the most common choice. Although the event might be a life-changing or traumatic experience, it does not have to be a large event. A topic as simple as cooking dinner for your mother on her birthday could be a narrative. What is important is the quality of the detail you remember about the event not the event itself.
- 2). Brainstorm on your chosen topic. Write down as many specific details as you can remember. You may outline, use mapping or webbing techniques, or begin a draft to brainstorm.
- 3). Use your brainstorming to write a rough draft. Describe both the scene and the action in the scene, but do not worry about including any figurative language in this draft. The purpose here is to clearly record the events, so you have a framework to work with.
- 4). Read the draft paragraph by paragraph. Pay attention to particularly generic verbs or nouns. For example, for the sentence "I got into the car" both "got" and "car" are generic words. Try replacing "got" with a more specific action verb. Ask yourself how you got into the car? Were your movements graceful or awkward? Was the car extremely low to the ground, so you had to drop down to sit, or was it higher so you had to step up to enter? Then look at the word "car." Ask yourself what the car looked liked. What model of car? What color? Was it new or old? Did it have any distinguishing characteristics?
- 5). Chose one type of figurative language, such as metaphor, and reread the draft paragraph by paragraph. Pay particular attention to paragraphs that do not seem particularly descriptive. Change sentences to include your chosen type of figurative language. For example, if sentence was originally written, "My sister was angry and yelling," and you were incorporating metaphor, it might be changed to "My sister's anger was a roaring fire." Be creative. Think of what a person, object, or action reminds you of and convey that to your reader.
- 6). Repeat step 5 for a different type of figurative language, such as hyperbole and understatement. Hyperbole is a colorful exaggeration. For example, "the bug was a size of a boulder." Understatement intentionally downplays an event, object, or idea. For example, after explaining how you totaled your car by hitting a tree, saying "driving with my eyes closed might not have been the best idea" is an understatement. This step may be repeated multiple times for other types of figurative language.
- 7). Revise for clarity and flow. Make sure the changes you made do not detract from the clarity of the narrative or interrupt the flow. Figurative language should add to the vividness of the writing not detract from the meaning. Have a friend read your work if possible. An outside eye is extremely helpful in determining not only whether your work flows well, but also if it is easily understandable and interesting.
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