Determine what the essay will be about. Narrative essays are usually in the form of a story. Be sure your story teaches something to the reader about life or about themselves. The essay can also show how you learned something. It is permissible to use the first person in this type of writing so the story can be personal.
Determine the particulars of your essay. You will want to consider things such as characters and setting. Write these out in detail. Determine how many characters you will want to include in your story. Try to include only those necessary to convey to the reader the purpose of the story.
Write an outline for your story. Choose the climax for your story when your reader learns the lesson or purpose that you intend your essay to convey. Work backwards from this event in a cause and effect manner to show how you arrived at that lesson to relate a compelling story. For instance, if you are relating a story about how your grandmother's death taught you to appreciate life, show the steps that led up to that revelation. Show how you at first did not appreciate life, then how you felt when she died, and, finally, how you learned to appreciate life as the climax.
Write the narrative essay by following the outline you have prepared. Each outline point should be addressed, but it should not be addressed with only one paragraph. Instead, use multiple paragraphs and vary paragraph length to show action change, speaker change and to break up long blocks of text. A narrative essay is much more like fiction than essay in construction.