Tell a Great Story: 5 Moves for Unforgettable Narrative Poems

(Or just compelling storytelling)

Photo by S O C I A L . C U T on Unsplash

Our brains are wired from stories. From the second we are born, we read, watch, invent, daydream, and retell stories. Our thoughts reach for a beginning, middle, and end, craving character and conflict. The same goes for poems. Danez Smith says, “Poems are screenplays with an unlimited budget.” 

Narrative poems are some of my favorites because they make a significant impact on the reader, touching each of them in a way that feels personal and familiar. This is because narrative poetry crosses a bridge, bringing the high emotion of the genre into a skill set we practice all our lives. 

Below is a preview of 5 ways to make your narrative poetry even more compelling. Join us this Sunday, July 28, for our Narrative Poetry workshop from 10am to 12pm PT. 

1. Find the most exciting door to enter. There are so many ways to begin. The goal is to begin with a bang—meaning your poem does something new, fresh, and different. Can you write from a perspective we rarely hear from? Fatimah Ashgar writes from the perspective of Pluto after it’s deemed not a planet. Can you start with a surprising first line so we are begging to read more? Can you establish an unforgettable voice that is so unique that it is as if that person is sitting in the room with you? 

2. Pour from the three cups: narration, description, and dialogue. A great story has three key elements. We must know the speaker intimately and know why they are speaking. We must see the world they are in and their urgency to move through it. And we must understand the words they choose and why they choose them. Remember, the essence of narrative poetry is story—one detail, thought, or word spoken changes the emotional landscape forever.