Reading great personal story examples is the best way to learn how to look after yourself.
But you’ll want to read them listening like Sherlock, looking for clues.
It may be the interesting setup of the opening scene that draws you in.
Perhaps this is a live image. Or strong words you feel for the characters. Or the fast pace of the action that throws you off guard because you don’t realize you’re reading until it’s over.
In this post, I’ll unpack some personal narrative essay examples and see exactly what makes them so great.
7 examples of personal stories that knock it out of the park
A personal story is a story that someone tells about something that happened to them.
Why do we want to read? According to the story coach Lisa Cron, our brains are literally made for stories. We are built to respond to someone else’s story, but only if it is told well.
To help you write your own, I’ve collected and broken down 7 great personal story examples, including one from the popular New York Times Modern Love column and a classic story by David Foster Wallace.
That said, let’s dive into the examples.
1. Aquarium by Aleksander Hemon
Hemon’s storywill resonate with any parent placed at their infant’s hospital bed.
He writes in a strong voice, refusing to shield us from his pain and fear. If you also write to bare your soul, your readers will respect your honesty and empathize with you.
She draws us in with the graphic details of the child’s story, so we feel compelled to stay the course, just like her.
“… I couldn’t take my eyes off the brutally changing numbers on the monitors, as if the mere act of looking could affect the outcome.”
It shows how to write beautiful sentencesmixing the long ones, full of details, with the shorter ones, getting to the point. The contrast creates an easy-to-read and dramatic flow.
“All I cared about was the solid reality of his breaths on my chest, the concreteness of him falling asleep while singing three lullabies. I didn’t want to stretch myself in any other direction than him.”
To break up the relentless pace of the action, Hemon reflects, re-engaging our emotions with details and powerful words:
“Yet, as we mature into mortality, we begin to dip our fearful toes into the void with passion … trusting that God or some other sedative opiate will exist as we enter the darkness of nothingness.”
And finally, Hemo’s aquarium metaphor—an unnatural human home—gives us a sense of how isolating illness can be. Readers remember vivid pictures you paint with your words. Leave them with something memorable and unique whenever you can.
2. Goodbye, Mr. Fantasy Man by Lavinia Spalding
This Modern love essay will delight romantics, although in the end it rejects the illusions of love. To bring some surprise or suspense for your story keeps your readers on their toes, wanting to read to the end.
Spalding also captures our interest by opening his story with an interesting word — “fate.”
“The night I agreed to try online dating, I told my roommate Megan that I hoped I wouldn’t meet anyone because that wasn’t the story I wanted to tell.
“I know myself,” I said. “Anything but half will not work.”
To create conflict (he always does with a story) he shows how his pre-flight tests erupted. He compares his parents’ romantic escapades to his own disappointing dating beginnings. These sub-stories keep us interested and ensure we ride the rollercoaster of hope and confusion with him as he tells his story.
Then he lures us in with the promise of his budding friendship, only to disappoint us when he can’t let his inner romantic die:
“I was in love and happy, but there were doubts. I still sometimes fantasized about a man sipping coffee and reading a novel in bed with me during our frequent trips to India.”
I found the tender honesty of the last paragraphs a home run of what love looks like. Because the picture is real, readers will see something of themselves here and will likely look at their destiny (kismet) with fresh eyes.
3. The Nick Cave Song That Changed My Life by Emily Blake
Essay by Emily Blake it did something unique for me. His words transported me to the concert, where I felt the music swirling through my body.
Notice how his mastery of language and metaphor puts you, body and soul, into song.
“…and Warren Ellis’s guitar crawls into your head, wraps around your shoulders like a hug or maybe a shroud… At the end of the verse, the strings drop to your stomach and Cave abandons the story entirely, slipping into a litany that reads like a prayer… and then the song sings out.”
A vivid description of Blake’s experience with music rich emotional words which awakens your own sense of touch, speech and hearing:
“… a fist that closed around my heart and lifted me to my feet. I realized that I was… growling? Some animal sounding deep in my throat, with surprise and wild joy.”
This is “no show” writing at its best. When telling your story, instead of describing what happened, see how you can recreate the direct experience for us. As Blake did in his final epiphany, he managed to leave us with this brilliant description of Nick Cave—he became “a glowing wire, a baseline for meaning, feeling, and art.”
4. Ticket to the Fair by David Foster Wallace
Wallace’s long story essay it’s a classic in its own right. Like decades of readers before me, I am transported by his sensual wordsmithing to the colorful carnies, sickening smells, and ear-splitting sounds of the Illinois State Fair.
See how he describes the scorching heat of a summer day:
“The weather is like wet wool…swelteringly hot. It will be an oven at noon….Great swarms of hairy gnats at work.”
Here’s how the alliteration of the s moves your ear in a sentence:
“From the spinning car, it’s like the Native Companion is being slowly roasted. I invite the spittoon to come in and say something really harsh.”
Wallace’s humor nails several scenes—horror baton twirling, clogging championships, and his escape from the evangelist—to create laugh-out-loud moments. Try it yourself exaggerated words and pictures and you will engage your readers.
While Wallace’s point of view is observant, his keen eye is also kind, which any reader will enjoy. Now, as an Oriental, he thinks his people have left the city to get away from it all. But you go to a fair in the Midwest because
“Here, you’re always far away. The land is big, it’s flat, there are horizons in every direction. … We’re the real spectacle that draws us here.”
This is an essay to taste and reveal gems in every crafted sentence.
5. Death of a Moth Virginia Woolf
Wool’s personal essay covers the final hours of a small trust, but also grapples with the enormity of life and death. We met the moth right away and it “seemed to be content with life.” When you give human feelings to the hero of the story, even a small insect, you awaken the reader’s empathy.
And then, Woolf uses an effective narrative technique – contrast. It creates a powerfully fluttering scene, covering the sky with vast webs of flying rocks. Then we returned to the fenced off world of the little fluttering moth. Describing life most powerfully, Woolf gives the same vitality to the moth:
“What he could do. Watching him, it was as if a very thin but pure fiber of the world’s enormous energy had been injected into his thin and shrunken body. As he often passed the panel I thought I could see a thread of vital light. He was nothing but life.”
As Woolf describes the struggle of trust, see how she sways our emotions using powerful words and images that take us from pity to pathos to triumph and finally wonder.
“This last protest was great, and so maddened that it succeeded in correcting itself at last. Of course one’s sympathies were on the side of life.”
So you see, even if your story is short, the subject matter is mundane, and not much happens, like Woolf, you can still convey deep meaning and create a satisfying story.
6. On Dying, Mothers, and Fighting for Your Thoughts by Jon Morrow
This essay it sets me on fire, it raises the standard I hold myself to. Because Morru’s story defies expectations and forces you to examine your life.
It sets up a chilling opening scene with the doctor saying, “It’s bad news.” But its subject is not crisis or disease. This is courage. When you can surprise the reader, as Morrow did here, do so.
Morrow uses strong, emotional words more suited to the battlefield to offer no way out, no excuses:
“The shame of dishonoring their sacrifice by surrendering poisons my soul.”
And he involves humor pity to shock us. No reader will forget,
“… the vaguely constipated look on a venture capitalist’s face when he asks for $500,000 in seed capital for my first software company?”
But look how quickly Morrow hooks you, the reader, through his personal story. He sets a high bar. And the writer, who wants to be unforgettable, urges his fellow writers to muster the courage to master writing. Because, simply, it is their “job”.
His art of words shows his opinion. Look at the symmetry in this memorable sentence:
“It’s about breathing life into something and then working to make sure that life becomes something beautiful.”
Morrow’s story begins inauspiciously and ends with creative burnout following the classic personal narrative arc of transformation. If you can handle your story with the power of Morrow’s “Burn it, baby,” you’re on your way to greatness.
7. Cat Cat by Anne Lamott
Lammott begins with a wedding and a kitten. As with many of his personal stories, he draws on his everyday experience. It presents many universal themes from his latest collection, among the small items of everyday life.
Lamott’s writing is funny, quirky, real, and full of surprise, so it draws us in. Sometime invokes a metaphor getting to know one’s spouse’s “uncooked egg parts,” then diving into this idea of intimacy:
“When I see it, I sense something wounded and perfect deep within it. Seeing is a form of pure being, unlike watching or looking. Seeing is why we are here.”
He also constantly zooms in on a detail and then moves on to a larger subject.
“…a light rain from the sky, or a waterfall, calling to the deep, or a cool drink from the tap… Light, water, kindness and not giving up. These are big, everything.”
There are always concrete details, things we can see and touch, sprinkled with his abstract thoughts about life. When you write like this, you connect your readers to the real place, to what they know, while taking them on a journey over new horizons.
Lamott is a master storyteller who takes risks, and by reading him, you will learn to savor and write about seemingly mundane experiences.
I won’t spoil the ending. But you can be sure that there is a satisfactory solution. Make sure you spend time here so you have stories too.
Choose your favorite personal story example and write your own
What’s more than reading great personal story examples? Yes, going out alone.
You now see how to appeal to your readers’ senses, choose words that move them, and create images they won’t forget.
You know how to build momentum and intrigue to keep your readers hooked so they want to know what happens.
Most importantly, you’ll join readers in their experience so they feel invested in your authentic story and can’t let go.
I can’t wait to see what you can do!
This article was originally published on July 15, 2023. It has been updated for clarity and comprehensiveness.
