Writing the Lead For a Personal Narrative

The Personal Narrative is an “I” story. You are writing about you. The lead is your introduction into your personal narrative essay. The lead should draw the reader in, and make the reader want to continue to read your story.

Pay attention to your first sentences. They are your attention grabbers, or hooks. Make these sentences interesting. They help the reader to connect with your life.

Types of Leads There are numerous types of leads. Consider how your favorite book started, and pattern your lead off of it.

The Dual Narrative Lead “Never marry a Mexican, my ma said once and always. She said this because of my father. She said this though she was Mexican too. But she was born here in the U.S., and he was born there, and it’s not the same, you know.” From Never Marry a Mexican by Sandra Cisneros

Begin at the End “At the end, death was closing in on him, and everybody saw it. The police saw it: two weeks before the event, the top commander received an intelligence estimate that he was in imminent danger and offered him round the clock protection...” From The Death and Life of Malcolm X by Peter Goldman

Flashback “When my father died, old men went out of my life. From the vantage point of my girlhood, he and his peers had always been old to me, even when they were not. In his last years, the reality of his graying head begin to hit home. I no longer boogied the weekends away....” From Sweet Summer by Bebe Moore Campbell

The Diary – Timeline Lead “ Quiet as its kept, there were no marigolds in the fall of We thought, at the time, that it was because Pecola was having her father’s baby that the marigold’s did not grow. A little examination and much less melancholy would have proved to us that our seeds were not the only ones that did not sprout...” From The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Descriptive Lead Pattern you lead off of a favorite movie. Create vivid pictures with your words. Evoke all five senses.

The movie Lackawana Blues is a personal narrative by Ruben Santiago-Hudson who was abandoned by his mother and grew up in a boarding house. He relates in his “I” story of how he felt like a little prince amid the poverty and savory characters who rented rooms in the boarding house.

Lackawanna Blues Video Clip

Remember! Make your lead interesting. Make your lead authentic. Tell your “I” story.