Begin the first body paragraph of a narrative essay with a topic sentence. A topic sentence is a statement that summarizes the rest of the paragraph to follow. If your narrative essay is about a trip you took, for instance, a topic sentence could read, "The first thing I learned was that packing is more difficult than you might think."
Begin the first paragraph with a surprising statement that puts your reader into the middle of the action. After an introduction that tells your reader about the generalities of your trip, begin with something like, "Bang! It was the loudest crash I ever heard. Fortunately, it was just someone's suitcase falling out of the overhead baggage compartment."
Begin the body paragraph with a rhetorical question that encapsulates your feelings toward the first event in your narrative essay. In the vacation example, write a sentence such as, "Why don't more people go overseas for a vacation?" Beginning with a rhetorical sentence can get your reader thinking about your experience and relating it to his own.