63 Best Memoir Writing Prompts To Stoke Your Ideas
You’re writing a memoir. But you’re not sure what questions or life lessons you want to focus on.
Even if only family members and friends will read the finished book, you want to make it worth their time.
This isn’t just a whimsical collection of anecdotes from your life.
You want to convey something to your readers that will stay with them.
And maybe you want your memoir’s impact to serve as your legacy — a testament to how you made a small (or large) difference.
The collection of memoir questions in this post can help you create a legacy worth sharing.
So, if you don’t already have enough ideas for a memoir, read on.
A Strong Theme
Overcoming obstacles, emotional storytelling, satisfying ending, examples of good starting sentences for a memoir , 63 memoir writing prompts , what are the primary parts of a memoir.
Though similar to autobiographies, memoirs are less chronological and more impressionable – less historical and more relatable.
Resultantly, they’re structured differently.
With that in mind, let’s look at five elements that tie a memoir together, rendering it more enjoyable.
Biographies are histories that may not hew to a cohesive theme. But memoirs focus on inspiring and enlightening experiences and events.
As such, books in the genre promote a theme or idea that binds the highlighted happenings to an overarching reflection point or lesson.
Many people are super at sniffing out insincerity, and most folks prefer candidness.
So while exact dates and logistical facts may be off in a memoir, being raw and real with emotions, revelations, and relational impacts is vital. To put it colloquially: The best personal accounts let it all hang out.
People prefer inspiring stories. They want to read about people overcoming obstacles, standing as testaments to the tenacious nature of the human spirit. Why?
Because it engenders hope. If this person was able to achieve “x,” there’s a possibility I could, too. Furthermore, people find it comforting that they’re not the only ones who’ve faced seemingly insurmountable impediments.
Readers crave emotion. And for many of the stoic masses, books, plays, television shows, and films are their primary sources of sentimentality.
Historically, the best-performing memoirs are built on emotional frameworks that resonate with readers. The goal is to touch hearts, not just heads.
In a not-so-small way, memoirs are like romance books: Readers want a “happy” ending. So close strongly. Ensure the finale touches on the book’s central themes and emotional highlights.
End it with a smile and note of encouragement, leaving the audience satisfied and optimistic.
Use the following questions as memoir writing exercises . Choose those that immediately evoke memories that have stayed with you over the years.
Group them by theme — family, career, beliefs, etc. — and address at least one question a day.
For each question, write freely for around 300 to 400 words. You can always edit it later to tighten it up or add more content.
1. What is your earliest memory?
2. What have your parents told you about your birth that was unusual?
3. How well did you get along with your siblings, if you have any?
4. Which parent were you closest to growing up and why?
5. What parent or parental figure had the biggest influence on you growing up?
6. What is your happiest childhood memory?
7. What is your saddest or most painful childhood memory?
8. Did you have good parents? How did they show their love for you?
9. What words of theirs from your childhood do you remember most, and why?
10. What do you remember most about your parents’ relationship?
11. Were your parents together, or did they live apart? Did they get along?
12. How has your relationship with your parents affected your own love relationships?
13. Who or what did you want to be when you grew up?
14. What shows or movies influenced you most during your childhood?
15. What were your favorite books to read, and how did they influence you?
16. If you grew up in a religious household, how did you see “God”?
17. How did you think “God” saw you? Who influenced those beliefs?
18. Describe your spiritual journey from adolescence to the present?
19. Who was your first best friend? How did you become friends?
20. Who was your favorite teacher in elementary school, and why?
21. Did you fit in with any social group or clique in school? Describe your social life?
22. What were your biggest learning challenges in school (academic or social)?
23. Who was your first crush, and what drew you to them? How long did it last?
24. What was your favorite subject in school, and what did you love about it?
25. What do you wish you would have learned more about growing up?
26. What did you learn about yourself in high school? What was your biggest mistake?
27. What seemed normal to you growing up that now strikes you as messed up?
28. How old were you when you first moved away from home?
29. Who gave you your first kiss? And what do you remember most about it?
30. Who was your first love ? What do you remember most about them?
31. Was there ever a time in your life when you realized you weren’t straight?
32. Describe a memorable argument you had with one of your parents? How did it end?
33. Have you lost a parent? How did it happen, and how did their death affect you?
34. What was your first real job? What do you remember most about it?
35. How did you spend the money you earned with that job?
36. At what moment in your life did you feel most loved?
37. At what moment in your life did you feel most alone?
38. What do you remember most about your high school graduation? Did it matter?
39. What’s something you’ve done that you never thought you would do?
40. What has been the greatest challenge of your life up to this point?
41. What did you learn in college that has had a powerful influence on you?
42. How has your family’s financial situation growing up influenced you?
43. How has someone’s harsh criticism of you led you to an important realization?
44. Do you consider yourself a “good person”? Why or why not?
45. Who was the first person who considered you worth standing up for?
46. If you have children, whom did you trust with them when they were babies?
47. Did you have pets growing up? Did you feel close or attached to any of them?
More Related Articles
66 Horror Writing Prompts That Are Freaky As Hell
15 Common Grammar Mistakes That Kill Your Writing Credibility
61 Fantasy Writing Prompts To Stoke Your Creativity
48. Describe someone from your past whom you’d love to see again.
49. Do you have a lost love? If yes, describe them, how you met, and how you lost them.
50. Describe a moment when you made a fool of yourself and what it cost you.
51. What is something you learned later in life that you wish you’d learned as a child?
52. How do you want others to see you? What words come to mind?
53. What do you still believe now that you believed even as a child or as a teenager?
54. What do you no longer believe that you did believe as a child or teenager?
55. When have you alienated people by being vocal about your beliefs?
56. Are you as vocal about your beliefs as you were when you were a young adult ?
57. Are you haunted by the consequences of beliefs you’ve since abandoned?
58. How have your political beliefs changed since you were a teenager?
59. Have you ever joined a protest for a cause you believe in? Would you still?
60. How has technology shaped your life for the past 10 years?
61.Has your chosen career made you happy — or cost you and your family too much?
62. What comes to mind if someone asks you what you’re good at? Why does it matter?
63. How is your family unique? What makes you proudest when you think about them?
We’ve looked at the elements that make memoirs shine. Now, let’s turn our attention to one of the most important parts of a personal account: the opening sentence.
We’ve scoured some of the most successful, moving memoirs of all time to curate a list of memorable starting sentences. Notice how all of them hint at the theme of the book.
Let’s jump in.
1. “They called him Moishe the Beadle, as if his entire life he had never had a surname.” From Night, a first-hand account of the WWII Holocaust by Elie Wiesel
2. “My mother is scraping a piece of burned toast out of the kitchen window, a crease of annoyance across her forehead.” From Toast: The Story of a Boy’s Hunger, foodie Nigel Slater’s account of culinary events that shaped his life.
3. “Then there was the bad weather.” From A Moveable Feast , Ernest Hemingway’s telling of his years as an young expat in Paris
4. “You know those plants always trying to find the light?” From Over the Top: A Raw Journey of Self-Love by Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’s beloved star, Jonathan Van Ness
5. “What are you looking at me for? I didn’t come to stay.” From Maya Angelou’s masterpiece, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings , the story of persevering in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles
6. “I’m on Kauai, in Hawaii, today, August 5, 2005. It’s unbelievably clear and sunny, not a cloud in the sky.” From What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami, a memoir about the fluidity of running and writing
7. “The soil in Leitrim is poor, in places no more than an inch deep. ” From All Will be Well , Irish writer John McGahern’s recounting of his troubled childhood
8. “The past is beautiful because one never realizes an emotion at the time.” From Educated , Tara Westover’s engrossing account of her path from growing up in an uneducated survivalist family to earning a doctorate in intellectual history from Cambridge University
9. “I flipped through the CT scan images, the diagnosis obvious.” From When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi, the now-deceased doctor’s journey toward mortality after discovering he had terminal cancer
10. “Romantic love is the most important and exciting thing in the entire world.” From Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton, a funny, light-hearted memoir about one woman’s amorous journey from teenager to twentysomething
Final Thoughts
These memoir topics should get ideas flooding into your mind. All you have to do, then, is let them out onto the page. The more you write, the easier it will be to choose the primary focus for your memoir. And the more fun you’ll have writing it.
That’s not to say it’ll be easy to create a powerful memoir. It won’t be. But the more clarity you have about its overall mission, the more easily the words will flow.
Enjoy these memoir writing exercises. And apply the same clarity of focus during the editing process. Your readers will thank you.
Leave a Comment Cancel reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .
Related Topics
- Author Overview
- Types of Writers
- How to Become a Writer
- Document Manager Overview
- Screenplay Writer Overview
- Technical Writer Career Path
- Technical Writer Interview Questions
- Technical Writer Salary
- Google Technical Writer Interview Questions
- How to Become a Technical Writer
- UX Writer Career Path
- Google UX Writer
- UX Writer vs Copywriter
- UX Writer Resume Examples
- UX Writer Interview Questions
- UX Writer Skills
- How to Become a UX Writer
- UX Writer Salary
- Google UX Writer Overview
- Google UX Writer Interview Questions
- Technical Writing Certifications
- Grant Writing Certifications
- UX Writing Certifications
- Proposal Writing Certifications
- Content Design Certifications
- Knowledge Management Certifications
- Medical Writing Certifications
- Grant Writing Classes
- Business Writing Courses
- Technical Writing Courses
- Content Design Overview
- Documentation Overview
- User Documentation
- Process Documentation
- Technical Documentation
- Software Documentation
- Knowledge Base Documentation
- Product Documentation
- Process Documentation Overview
- Process Documentation Templates
- Product Documentation Overview
- Software Documentation Overview
- Technical Documentation Overview
- User Documentation Overview
- Knowledge Management Overview
- Knowledge Base Overview
- Publishing on Amazon
- Amazon Authoring Page
- Self-Publishing on Amazon
- How to Publish
- How to Publish Your Own Book
- Document Management Software Overview
- Engineering Document Management Software
- Healthcare Document Management Software
- Financial Services Document Management Software
- Technical Documentation Software
- Knowledge Management Tools
- Knowledge Management Software
- HR Document Management Software
- Enterprise Document Management Software
- Knowledge Base Software
- Process Documentation Software
- Documentation Software
- Internal Knowledge Base Software
- Grammarly Premium Free Trial
- Grammarly for Word
- Scrivener Templates
- Scrivener Review
- How to Use Scrivener
- Ulysses vs Scrivener
- Character Development Templates
- Screenplay Format Templates
- Book Writing Templates
- API Writing Overview
- How to Write a Book
- Writing a Book for the First Time
How to Write an Autobiography
- How Long Does it Take to Write a Book?
- Do You Underline Book Titles?
- Snowflake Method
- Book Title Generator
- How to Write Nonfiction Book
- How to Write a Children's Book
- How to Write a Memoir
- Mistakes to Avoid When Writing a Book
- How to Write a Book Title
- How to Write a Book Introduction
- How to Write a Dedication in a Book
- How to Write a Book Synopsis
- Business Writing Examples
- Business Writing Skills
- Types of Business Writing
- Dialogue Writing Overview
- Grant Writing Overview
- Medical Writing Overview
- How to Write a Novel
- How to Write a Thriller Novel
- How to Write a Fantasy Novel
- How to Start a Novel
- How Many Chapters in a Novel?
- Mistakes to Avoid When Writing a Novel
- Novel Ideas
- How to Plan a Novel
- How to Outline a Novel
- How to Write a Romance Novel
- Novel Structure
- How to Write a Mystery Novel
- Novel vs Book
- Round Character
- Flat Character
- How to Create a Character Profile
- Nanowrimo Overview
- How to Write 50,000 Words for Nanowrimo
- Camp Nanowrimo
- Nanowrimo YWP
- Nanowrimo Mistakes to Avoid
- Proposal Writing Overview
- Screenplay Overview
- How to Write a Screenplay
- Screenplay vs Script
- How to Structure a Screenplay
- How to Write a Screenplay Outline
- How to Format a Screenplay
- How to Write a Fight Scene
- How to Write Action Scenes
- How to Write a Monologue
- Short Story Writing Overview
- Technical Writing Overview
- UX Writing Overview
- Reddit Writing Prompts
- Romance Writing Prompts
- Flash Fiction Story Prompts
- Dialogue and Screenplay Writing Prompts
- Poetry Writing Prompts
- Tumblr Writing Prompts
- Creative Writing Prompts for Kids
- Creative Writing Prompts for Adults
- Fantasy Writing Prompts
- Horror Writing Prompts
- Book Writing Software
- Novel Writing Software
- Screenwriting Software
- ProWriting Aid
- Writing Tools
- Literature and Latte
- Hemingway App
- Final Draft
- Writing Apps
- Grammarly Premium
- Wattpad Inbox
- Microsoft OneNote
- Google Keep App
- Technical Writing Services
- Business Writing Services
- Content Writing Services
- Grant Writing Services
- SOP Writing Services
- Script Writing Services
- Proposal Writing Services
- Hire a Blog Writer
- Hire a Freelance Writer
- Hire a Proposal Writer
- Hire a Memoir Writer
- Hire a Speech Writer
- Hire a Business Plan Writer
- Hire a Script Writer
- Hire a Legal Writer
- Hire a Grant Writer
- Hire a Technical Writer
- Hire a Book Writer
- Hire a Ghost Writer
Home » Blog » How to Write an Autobiography in 31 Steps
How to Write an Autobiography in 31 Steps
Generate Full-Length AI Book Instantly
Table of contents.
If you’re thinking about writing an autobiography, then you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we will be telling you all about how to write an autobiography – breaking it down and helping you along with the process.
1. What is an Autobiography?
So you want to know how to write an autobiography? First off, let’s start with what an autobiography is. Put simply, a biography is a book written about someone’s life. It includes all elements of their life, particularly featuring any significant events that took place.
The word ‘autobiography’ is made up of the two Greek words ‘autos’ and ‘bios’, meaning self and life. Put them together and you get a book that is a mix of who you are, and the life you have lived.
2. Memoir vs. Autobiography
Before you start any kind of writing process, it is important to know what kind of book it is you want to write. There is no way to know how to write an autobiography if you can’t distinguish the two. Memoirs and autobiographies are often plumped into the same genre because they are both about someone’s life.
But they are two genres of their own. So here’s the difference:
It’s pretty simple – if the book is about the person’s entire life – it’s an autobiography; if it’s about one or two events, themes, or memories within their life, it’s a memoir .
Knowing the difference will save you time and energy. It will also help you to shape and plan your book (if that’s your style).
You can always change your mind and switch genres, but at least you will know what you are doing and how both of them work. Whichever you choose will change a lot about your book – particularly the content you choose to include and the structure of the entire piece.
Memoir is the perfect platform to share your personal life experience, and you don’t have to share every other significant moment of your life. (A wise decision if only one really interesting thing has happened to you during your lifetime.)
Writing an autobiography is much different. While they both to do with the author’s life, biography is more to do with what happened throughout your life.
That means all significant events from birth ’till now.
If you set out to write a biography and it turns into a memoir, this is not a problem. The problem is when you don’t know what you’re doing at all. This leads to confusion in the writing process. And a lack of professionalism outside of it.
A great way to learn how to write an autobiography is to read. A lot. Reading other autobiographies will give you an idea of which direction to go in and how this genre is structured. It can also help you to develop your style and tone of voice, and to pinpoint which writing techniques you find most effective. All good tools to have in your writing toolbox.
Here are a few examples of autobiographies you might want to read:
- My Autobiography, Charlie Chaplin (1964)
- The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Franklin
- Long walk to freedom, Nelson Mandela
- The story of my experiments with truth, Mahatma Gandhi
- The story of my life, by Helen Keller
- The autobiography of Malcolm X, Alex Haley, Malcolm X
- An Autobiography, Agatha Christie (1965))
- The confessions of St. Augustine, Augustine of Hippo
- Scar tissue, Anthony Kiedis, Larry Sloman
- Open: An Autobiography, Andre Agassi
- Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi
- Autobiography of a yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda
4. When to Write an Autobiography
Experience and youth. Photograph by Ivette Ivens. Source: abcnews.go.com
Cellini (1500-1571) wrote one of the finest autobiographies of the Renaissance. He stated:
“No matter what sort he is, everyone who has to his credit what are or really seem great achievements, if he cares for truth and goodness, ought to write the story of his own life in his own hand; but no one should venture on such a splendid undertaking before he is over forty.” Cellini
Knowing how to write an autobiography can have a lot to do with your life experiences. This fact brings into question the age of the reader.
Many biographies are written later on in life when experience has been gathered and there are many exciting moments to draw from. But this isn’t always the case.
If you are a younger writer and feel that your life has been sufficiently fantastic, or you feel a growing desire to get down all of the details of your childhood days, there is no rule that says you can’t. So don’t let others’ perceptions stop you.
Twenty-one-year-old Edouard Louis, for example, published a hugely successful fictional autobiography (aka an autofiction), The End of Eddy about his childhood and adolescence. So it is possible. Sorry Cellini.
That said, an older, more experienced writer may have an easier time writing an autobiography, simply because they have more material to draw from.
Like memoirs, autobiographies tend to center around a theme, even though you are including many life events. That is because people tend to also be themed, in a way. Want to know how to start an autobiography? Thinking about a theme can be a useful way in.
If you are a professional dancer, and that is the passion of your life, it makes sense that your book would also center around the theme of dancing and how you reached that success.
If you are ghostwriting for a celebrity, naturally they will be famous for something in particular.
The main theme, of course, is the person’s life. But that is not enough to sustain interest across time. So bear in mind a secondary theme that ties it all together.
If your theme or themes are relatable, then that will stand you in good stead. If you are not writing a glitzy celeb autobiography, then having a very relatable and original theme is more likely to find a readership than any other. Be careful not to choose and manufacture your theme, however. If you are meant to write an autobiography, you will likely already feel compelled to write about your life. So try not to put too much thought into it. Just keep it in mind, as it will keep you on track.
6. How to Pick a Theme
How to start an autobiography? One way is to pick a theme. And stick to it.
One way of picking a theme is to choose an aspect of your personality that you feel is awesome and make that your sole focus. Maybe you’re great at maths, for example. Perhaps you made it to the world championships in mathematics or something. That would be a story worth telling.
Another is to look at your philosophy in life and make that the focal point of your book. Showing your values throughout the book can inspire and uplift the reader as it can show a good example of a life well-lived. It also reveals quite clearly who you are as a person, without you having to explicitly spell it out.
A third would be to consider the things that are most important to you in your life and to make a reference to these as you work your way through each significant event mentioned in your book. (This works especially well if you are writing an autobiography for those who know you.)
If you are looking to get started right away, then generate a full-length book with AI:
7. Exceptions
You might also want to know how to write an autobiography because you want to share your story with your family. This is an admirable reason to write a story. It means that your family will always have a special connection to you through a story, no matter what. It also means that generations to come will have that link to their own past and history.
From that sense, everybody should write one!
This kind of story can even be compiled as an oral history of your family’s history and lives, which makes for an extremely personal keepsake.
Autobiographies are sometimes written in short form, as essays for college assignments. This is a similar exercise to writing a full book but in a condensed format.
Another form of autobiography is as an autofiction. This book is based mostly upon autobiographical content but is also a work of fiction. This is an easy way of avoiding any concerns you might have about privacy. If you want to distance yourself a little and take more control over the content, then this may be the way to go.
You can also consider other formats, such as writing an autobiographical graphic novel, which has the essence of cool written all over it. If you are an artist or have a passion for strong visuals, this is something to consider.
8. How to Plan
“Look for the times when your life changed the most, and when you changed the most, those are the times of peak drama in your life.” Janice Erlbaum, The Autobiographer’s Handbook
An excellent practice when learning how to start an autobiography is to begin by writing out all of the significant events in your life. These could be anything; from graduating college to losing your virginity, to being born. Whatever you think is most important and noteworthy, write it down.
You can later play with the order of events if you like, to shake things up a little bit, but for now, just get anything and everything you can think of written down.
When considering how to write an autobiography, it seems to be the most natural of all genres to plan. This is because within its very construction there is a presumption of what it will be about: events in your life. In this sense, it is already set up for you. In some ways, this makes writing a lot easier. On the other hand, the risk that easy planning poses is boredom. For the reader or yourself. The challenge then becomes, how to make these life events interesting and stand out. But we’ll get to that a bit later on…
Nb If you are a pantser (someone who likes to write by the seat of your pants) then you might want to skip this step. In all likelihood you have something in mind to write about, so just start there.
9. Writing Schedule
A schedule helps you to get things done. You will know what works best for you after trying a few things out. You could try planning out how much you are going to write by the hour (i.e. I will write for an hour a day, every weekday) or by word count (I will write 500 words a day). Be realistic and don’t overwhelm yourself. If you are too overambitious, you may find you end up not writing at all.
Otherwise, you could aim to write a certain section of the book per week or month if that works better for you. Because autobiography is so clearly and easily arranged into story beats (was born, had first pimple, dyed hair red, etc.) organizing your writing by these events works for almost all writers, even if you are not a fan of planning.
Ask yourself the question, what’s the minimum I could manage on a regular basis? And be honest.
Everyone has their own writing style, including the way they schedule (or don’t schedule) their writing habits. So don’t ever let anyone tell you how you should be writing. It’s up to you.
10. How to Start an Autobiography
The blank page. Source: petersansom.wordpress.com
Well, now you have a list of important events in your life, starting to write should be pretty straightforward. If you don’t like planning, it’s even simpler, just pinpoint a significant moment in time and get to work! If you have a plan, all you need to do is start writing out a first draft of each event.
Next up we have a few tips and tricks to get you started.
11. Go Digging
While figuring out how to write an autobiography, you will want to have everything you are writing as fresh and vivid in your mind as possible. This clarity will translate onto the page and give your readers a strong impression of each moment.
To do this, you will want to dig out any old photos of you and whomever you might be writing about and begin filing things away for each chapter or section of the book.
You also might find it beneficial to interview anyone who remembers what happened. This can bring a new light on old events. Try using a recorder or dictaphone and typing up the best bits once you’re done.
12. Fill Up Your Senses
A good way to get into the moment before a writing session is to surround yourself with the materials relating to that particular event. Look at photos or listen to recordings from around that time, and jot down any thoughts you might have about them.
You may also want to listen to some music from the time. If you have any old clothes or keepsakes from the person, you will also want them to be around or near as you write. Listen to any interviews about the time or the characters before writing.
13. Write a letter
If you’re struggling to start writing, you can try writing a letter to yourself or to other members of the family from the time. This is a very personal way of connecting with the past. Remembering your connection to your characters will help your writing to flow more easily and mean you have material to draw from before you even start writing.
14. Emotions
Writing about certain life events is likely to be emotional. Say you had a car crash when you were younger or had to deal with some maltreatment of some kind, this will impact your writing, and how you feel about it.
It can be a difficult balance. You need to care enough about your subject matter to write it. But you don’t want your emotions to take over to the point where the style and the content of your book suffers.
While feeling impassioned by your writing, it is also important to be able to step back and take a second look at your viewpoint. This may take several rewrites to get right.
If you are finding it difficult, then consider writing out as many different viewpoints of the event as you possibly can. This will open up how you see it and may even lead to an inspiring revelation for both you and your book.
15. New Insights
One of the benefits of learning how to write an autobiography is that, as you develop as a writer, new insights will likely occur.
So while emotions can run high, it is good to know that writing about anything difficult that has happened in your life can help you psychologically.
Dr. James Pennebaker, a professor at Austin Texas University discovered that students who wrote for just fifteen minutes a day over three days about difficult or emotional experiences had a better level of well-being. He found that going through the process was upsetting for them, but it was the new insights the students discovered through the process of writing, that led to their improved levels of psychological health.
16. Take Care
As with memoir, if you feel that it is too much to write any subject matter, always take a break and come back to it (or not). Your mental health and general well-being are always more important than a book.
17. Know Your Why
Make sure that you don’t add topics or incidents simply to vent about them. Instead, get all your feelings out about it during your first draft, and then start with a fresh perspective. If your writing is only about venting, it will not interest the reader. You may come across as petty or whiny.
Instead, you will want to make sure you can see the benefit of sharing your experiences with people. When you truly know how to write an autobiography, it should empower and enlighten people and help them connect to your story, rather than reading like an unfinished diary entry. It is perfectly acceptable for it to start out that way. But by the end of your writing process, you should be confident in the purpose of why you are writing your book, and what kind of impact it will have on its readers.
Knowing why you are writing will keep you on the right track, and help you like a compass in the storm, when you are lost.
18. Tone of Voice
An important aspect of telling your story will be your narrative style and tone of voice. This completely depends upon who you are writing for and the purpose of your book.
If you are writing for your grandchildren, for example, you may use more simplistic language. If you are writing for a broader audience, then you may use a more neutral tone. Writing for friends? You might want to use more familial or colloquial terms.
This also depends a lot on what kind of person you are, and you will want your attitude and personality to be reflected in your writing. This should happen naturally, but don’t be afraid to write as if you are talking or to use a recording device and write up your account of each chapter afterward.
Pro tip: Relax. You won’t find your tone of voice by constantly thinking about how you might come across. Just write as you think and your natural expression will do the rest.
19. First or Third Person?
You can experiment with viewpoints as you go along, but once you have chosen, you will want to stick with it. The third person gives us the feeling it has been written by someone else. So, if you are employing a ghostwriter or are working on a fictional work, then this is a good way to go.
First-person is the generally accepted viewpoint for most autobiographies, because it is your story, and you are the one writing it.
20. Conflict
As you recall the people in your life, adding in any conflicts, even if they are comical, will add to the richness of the book. Conflict drives drama, intrigue, and interest. And that’s what you want, if you want your book read, that is.
21. Story Arc
The hero’s journey. Source: wildgratitude.com
One of the most critical components of writing an autobiography is the story arc. Like most genres of story, autobiography is no exception and will need some sort of an all-encompassing story arc. This is one of the main challenges you may face while writing this kind of book.
It simply can’t be a long list of events and then an ending. They have to all meld together cohesively in order to have some sort of an impact on your reader.
A story arc gives writers a structure, in which our main character aims to do something, and then either manages (or doesn’t) to achieve it. There are normally many obstacles in the protagonist’s way, and they must overcome them. Simply put, our main character must get from A to B. And you will need to decide at some point, what your start and end points in the story will be.
This ties into your overall message in the book. The great thing about autobiography is that it basically tells your reader who you are as a person.
You can start by making a note of your core beliefs and who you feel you are as a person before you begin. But don’t be surprised if, as you write, you reveal a value you hold that you had never especially acknowledged. This is a true gift to the reader, to leave them with your wisdom or knowledge.
Your philosophy can play a big role in the book, as it has likely led you to make certain decisions and can be featured and interlaced with certain events when your process of decision-making was integral to the direction of your life.
22. Comedy and Funny Anecdotes
While you don’t want to overdo it on the comedy (unless it is a comedic autobiography, in which case, carry on!) a little comic relief can work wonders in this genre. It can lighten the mood and even make sad moments even more poignant. Funny stories specific to your family can add to the color of your characters, so they don’t fall flat .
23. Where to Begin?
Think about when you might want to start your story. The logical point to start is from birth, but as your writing evolves over time, you may change your mind. You may want to add some perspective about your life from before you were even born. Your heritage may also be a large influence on who you are as a person today.
Once you have written a full first draft, you can consider changing around the order. Editing in this way can make for a more dynamic and varied read. If placed in the right way, you can even add in a plot twist or add to the suspense of your book.
24. Consider Your Reader
Don’t rest on your laurels. This can especially be a risk if you are writing only for friends or family. Just because someone knows you, it doesn’t mean your story will automatically become interesting to them. It will likely make it more interesting than if you were a random passerby, true. But this is not something to take for granted.
This point can be ignored during the first draft, but as you begin to develop your story, it becomes an implicit part of the process.
If you are wanting your book to sell, this becomes even more important as the reader’s interest and word of mouth can mean the difference between a book being put down or another sale.
25. How to Make Events More Colorful
Once you have written the thing, you will want to make sure that it is an interesting read. Even if you are writing just for friends and family, they will want to be excited by your life. And surely, that is why you are writing this in the first place?!
So a few tips to make sure that each story beat pops with color is to:
- 1. Keep a notebook with you at all times for when you remember particular details about a person or place. Details will always give your story more originality and color.
- 2. Show don’t tell – this is always relevant to any kind of writing and autobiography is no exception. Try adding in things you saw, smelt, tasted, or touched within the scene. Avoid making a statement and describe what happened in the moment, instead.
- 3. Add metaphor or simile- when describing a character or a vivid memory, don’t just describe how it looked on the surface. Unless this is not at all your writing style, you can enjoy emphasizing how something made you feel through descriptions that include metaphor. (use ext link for how to use a metaphor) For example, ‘she was as fit as a fiddle’.
- 4. Avoid common descriptive words – words such as ‘nice’ and ‘good’ should be considered with great caution once you have reached the third draft of your book.
26. Consider Your Reader
An important part of knowing how to write an autobiography is having an awareness of the reader throughout the entire manuscript. This is not only a book for you. So don’t rest on your laurels.
This can especially be a risk if you are writing only for friends or family. Just because someone knows you, it doesn’t mean your story will automatically become interesting to them. It will likely make it more interesting than if you were a random passerby, true. But this is not something to take for granted.
Many new writers are tempted to leave in every detail of their lives. But longer doesn’t always equal better – often it means that you simply haven’t cut out the parts that aren’t needed. So make sure you have your ego in check – don’t make your book too long just for the sake of it. Just because it’s interesting to you, does not mean every reader will want to know about it – family and friends included.
The average autobiography is around 75,000 words long. Much shorter than 60,000 and you might want to find other sources to write about, and any longer than 100,000, you might want to cut it down a bit.
28. Consider Privacy/Confidentiality
Much like a memoir, an autobiography includes characters who are real people. This means that some might be negatively affected by your work. So make sure to talk to those involved and to have an attorney at hand, just in case.
If you are unsure about leaving in their real name, it is best to give their character a pseudonym.
29. Editing
Both editing your book and getting it proofread will make or break it.
That means that you will want to find a professional editor to work with, who knows what she or he is doing. Ideally, you will want to find someone who is experienced in editing autobiographies or memoirs. Check that you have similar values and that you are both clear on what you are going to be working on before you start.
30. Proofreading
Make sure that all your hard work shows. You can have a strong storyline and everything else in place, but if there’s a typo on the front cover, there is no way you will be taken seriously.
So, ask friends to check over your manuscript, or better yet, employ a few proofreaders to check it over for you. Don’t use the same editor to proofread, as they will find it more challenging to spot minute mistakes by the time they have reread the story more than once. A fresh pair of eyes will likely do a better job.
31. Autobiographies on the Shelf
The autobiographies in our bookshops today, you will notice, are mostly written by celebrities. This is because they often have interesting lives that we want to read about. They include incidents that we could never have access to otherwise, in our day-to-day lives.
And that’s what makes them so appealing.
Most people are not so interested in other’s lives unless they have done something extraordinary. So if you’re thinking of writing something purely to try and get it sold, then you might want to rethink the genre you are writing in. We’re not saying it doesn’t happen that unknown authors sell a lot of autobiographies. It does. It’s just a lot less likely.
But don’t be dismayed, this is only a problem if that is the only reason you are writing your book. If it is because you feel impassioned to do so, then that is all the reason you need.
If it is for your friends and family to read, then you need not worry about big sales or landing a large publisher. It is so easy to self-publish these days on a relatively small budget, that you are pretty much guaranteed to achieve your aim.
If you are looking for a book deal, then you might be hard-pushed, if you can’t say your life has an original element to it at all. If this is the case, consider writing a memoir , instead. There are many more memoirs written by ordinary people with extraordinary stories, than autobiographies. Because people love to hear about how ordinary people overcame the odds.
No matter what your reason, if you believe in your book enough to start writing the first page, then don’t let anyone stop you from writing the book inside of you.
So there you have it. Hopefully, you will now feel confident about how to write an autobiography and ready to start. All it takes, is putting pen to paper.
Conclusion
Writing an autobiography is a profound way to share your life story, capturing the essence of your personal experiences, family history, and life lessons for future generations. By detailing major life events and highlighting the roles played by various family members, you weave a narrative that showcases the intricate tapestry of a person’s life story. Following a structured approach, such as the 31 steps outlined in this guide, ensures that your autobiography is not only comprehensive but also engaging, making it a good story that resonates with readers. This reflective process allows you to chronicle your life journey in a way that honors your past, informs the present, and inspires those who will come after you.
The following are some frequently asked questions about writing an autobiography:
How to write an autobiography step by step?
To write an autobiography step by step, start by outlining major life events and gathering materials like photos and mementos. Choose a central theme and create an outline to structure your story. Begin with a strong opening and write in a conversational tone, incorporating vivid details and key events to highlight life lessons. Include family history to enrich the narrative and reflect on your life journey. Edit and revise for clarity, seek feedback, and finalize your manuscript for publishing.
What is the format to write an autobiography?
The format of writing an autobiography involves starting with an engaging introduction that provides background information, followed by chronological chapters detailing major life events and experiences. Each chapter should focus on a specific period or theme, incorporating vivid descriptions and personal reflections. The conclusion should reflect on your overall journey and its impact on your present and future.
How do I start an autobiography about myself?
To start an autobiography about yourself, begin with a compelling anecdote or significant memory that captures your personality and sets the stage for your story. Provide brief background information and explain why you’re writing your autobiography.
How to write an autobiography for class 7?
To write an autobiography for class 7, jot down important events in your life, pick a theme, and write clearly using simple language. Add emotions and maybe some pictures for interest. Edit for clarity.
Instant AI Book Outline Generation
Detailed Structure, Chapter-by-Chapter
Related Posts
Published in What is Book Writing?
Join 5000+ Technical Writers
Get our #1 industry rated weekly technical writing reads newsletter.
Looking to publish? Meet your dream editor, designer and marketer on Reedsy.
Find the perfect editor for your next book
1 million authors trust the professionals on Reedsy. Come meet them.
Blog • Perfecting your Craft
Posted on Jun 05, 2024
How to Write an Autobiography: The Story of Your Life
About the author.
Reedsy's editorial team is a diverse group of industry experts devoted to helping authors write and publish beautiful books.
About Savannah Cordova
Savannah is a senior editor with Reedsy and a published writer whose work has appeared on Slate, Kirkus, and BookTrib. Her short fiction has appeared in the Owl Canyon Press anthology, "No Bars and a Dead Battery".
Anyone who’s lived a long, interesting life (as many of us have in one way or another!) may dream of someday turning their life into a book. However, the practicalities of how to write an autobiography can be daunting — especially to those who don’t have much writing experience.
If you feel ready to write your autobiography but aren’t sure where to start, this guide will take you from opening lines to (hopefully) publishing your autobiography for all the world to read.
1. Understand what an autobiography entails
When asked to picture an autobiography, you might think of a celebrity tell-all or political memoir. This isn’t inaccurate ; a memoir would definitely fall under the autobiography umbrella. But to be really precise, there are a few key differences between memoirs and autobiographies:
- Memoirs tend to be more thematic and focus on a central narrative (similar to a novel), whereas an autobiography is highly factual and reads more like “classic” nonfiction.
- Memoirs focus on a specific period or theme in a person’s life, while autobiographies aim to give a complete, chronological picture.
- Lastly, many memoirs are written while the writer is still young. An autobiography, though, should be written later in one’s life — at a point where one’s life story can be told comprehensively.
An autobiography is also different from a biography in that it is always narrated by the subject. Note that we’ve said “narrated” instead of “written” because, indeed, many autobiographies are created with the help of ghostwriters!
Ghostwritten autobiographies aren’t just for celebrities, either. People from all walks of life work with ghostwriters to record their stories or simply guide them through the process.
If that sounds like you, have a look through our vetted ghostwriters on the Reedsy marketplace . You might just find your dream collaborator!
MEET GHOSTWRITERS
Find a ghost you can trust
Your mission? A fantastic book. Find the perfect writer to complete it on Reedsy.
Should you write a memoir or an autobiography?
In other words, if you’re still young (be honest here!), and/or if the book you want to write is more a series of vignettes revolving around a central theme, you may have a memoir on your hands. If that’s the case, check out our guide to how to write a memoir for more tailored advice.
But if you’ve already lived a long, interesting life — one that you feel prepared to share chronologically and completely — then an autobiography is the medium for you.
2. Outline your life's main “beats”
You might think you don’t need to be too picky about what to include in your autobiography since it’s supposed to be a “complete” account — and you’d be mostly right! That said, even in a fairly exhaustive autobiography, it’s still useful to identify the key “beats” before you begin.
What should you include in an autobiography?
While each person’s autobiography will be unique to them, readers expect certain “beats” to be covered. To get the ball rolling, here’s a list of classic autobiographical beats to hit:
- 🐣 Your birth and family background – possibly including how your parents met, where they were living at the time of your birth, whether you have any siblings, etc.
- 📚 Your early days at school – including the friends you made (whether long-lasting or not), your academic achievements (and failures), and any critical moments related to your future goals/actions.
- 🧑🏽💻 Your first job – this is often enlightening for readers, particularly if it had some bearing on your later career; whether because you realized that you loved the work or, more likely, that you didn’t want to work your first job forever.
- 👩❤️💋👩 Your first relationship – similar to your first job, this is often a major stepping stone into adulthood and understanding your priorities.
- Moving house;
- Having children;
- Getting promoted;
- Receiving an award;
- Traveling somewhere new;
- Or discovering anything significant about yourself.
- 💼 Your retirement – if applicable, this will likely be one of the last beats you cover; it might include why you decided to retire, how you are spending your time nowadays, and any plans for the future.
Remember that each beat you include should contribute to a holistic portrait of your life — whether it’s something that shaped your character or lends context to another parallel moment later on.
But not everything will be relevant. There’s no need to include random things that have no bearing on any other event or important element of your life; that said, the lucky thing about memory is that you likely won’t recall most of those things anyway!
Need some help outlining your autobiography? Check out our Biography Outline Template below — while not entirely chronological, it’s a great starting point for any aspiring autobiographical author.
FREE RESOURCE
Biography Outline Template
Craft a satisfying story arc for your biography with our free template.
3. Try to write in chronological order
Having come up with a solid outline, you should now feel (somewhat) prepared to start writing your autobiography… and, ideally, to start writing it in chronological order.
While many books can be drafted non-chronologically, an autobiography is not one of them. This is because each new chapter quite literally builds on the last; this is different even from a memoir, which often skips around in time and leaves out details. The best way to ensure you’re not missing anything is to write your autobiography as chronologically as possible!
How to start an autobiography
On the note of starting your autobiography, it’s pretty straightforward: begin either with your birth or slightly before, e.g., with your parents. Unlike a memoir, which can start in medias res ( in the middle of the action ), an autobiography should start ab ovo , or “from the egg.”
This is one of the biggest benefits of writing chronologically: you always know where to start, and indeed, what should come next. Here are two strong autobiography openings to give a sense of how yours might sound:
I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb
When I was born, people in our village commiserated with my mother and nobody congratulated my father. I arrived at dawn as the last star blinked out… I was a girl in a land where rifles are fired in celebration of a son, while daughters are hidden away behind a curtain, their role in life simply to prepare food and give birth to children.
Iacocca: An Autobiography by Lee Iacocca and William Novak:
Nicola Iacocca, my father, arrived in this country in 1902 at the age of twelve — poor, alone, and scared. He used to say the only thing he was sure of when he got here was that the world was round. And that was only because another Italian boy named Christopher Columbus had preceded him by 410 years, almost to the day.
Though each opening takes a different tack — Yousafzai’s autobiography begins with her actual birth, while Iacocca’s begins even earlier, with his father’s arrival in America — both serve as effective starts to their respective books and set the tone for what’s to come.
4. Include plenty of detail
In case we haven’t drilled down on this enough, let’s reiterate once more: an autobiography should be a complete overview of your life from beginning to end. That means that as you get into properly writing it, you should include as much detail as you can remember.
Taking one of our previous suggested beats — “your first job” — as an example, here are a few questions you might ask yourself to recount your memories in more detail:
- How did you get your first job?
- What made you want to work there?
- What was the environment/atmosphere like — physically and emotionally?
- What was your greatest accomplishment at this job? Your greatest failure?
- What did you learn from working there? How did it affect your later career?
As you can probably tell from these questions, the natural corollary to the advice of “be detailed!” is to also be honest . Don’t shy away from your failures or regrets — an autobiography without mistakes is not an autobiography, but rather a puff piece.
Examples of strong biographical detail
For those wondering how to inject detail into their writing, here are two examples from great autobiographies that do exactly that. Each takes a different approach to engage readers — perhaps you can pick up some descriptive techniques to suit your own life story.
Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
There was no natural light in my cell; a single bulb burned overhead twenty-four hours a day. I did not have a wristwatch and I often thought it was the middle of the night when it was only late afternoon. I had nothing to read, nothing to write on or with, no one to talk to [...] After a time in solitary, I relished the company even of the insects in my cell, and found myself on the verge of initiating conversations with a cockroach.
This passage’s evocative details — the single lightbulb, Mandela’s loss of his internal clock — convey the crushing loneliness of solitary confinement, yet also add levity with the bit about cockroaches.
This give-and-take style may be useful if you, too, are writing an autobiography which includes difficult or traumatic elements. Don’t shy away from the hard parts, but don’t let solemnity overpower your personality and voice!
Becoming by Michelle Obama
When you’re little, a piano can look like it has a thousand keys. You’re staring at an expanse of black and white that stretches farther than two small arms can reach. [...] The keys on Robbie’s piano had a subtle unevenness of color and shape, places where bits of ivory had broken off over time, leaving them looking like a set of bad teeth.
This passage uses sensory details and an intimate tone to draw readers in, describing not just how the piano looks, but how it feels to play. All this makes for a very compelling narrative style — almost like that of a novel. If you want your autobiography to flow this way, try reading more nonfiction in this style (indeed, many memoirs read quite similarly).
📚 Looking for more examples of brilliant biographical writing? Check out this list of The 30 Best Biographies of All Time to inspire you.
5. Do research to fill in the gaps
No matter how carefully you rack your brains, you won’t be able to recall every detail of your life. That’s where research comes in! Here are a couple of things you can do to learn more about yourself and your past.
Interview friends and family
While you’ve likely retained the core of each important life memory, some details will still elude you. For these, you might call on friends, family members, and anyone else who was in your life at the time — interviewing them should help flesh things out in your autobiography.
You might try a few different interview strategies, depending on what you’re hoping to achieve:
- Ask specific questions based on what you can’t remember/don’t know (e.g. “Whose wedding was that again?” or “Why did Dad quit that job in Pasadena?”);
- Ask your subject to recount everything they can about an event (e.g. “Tell me how you remember our high school graduation”); or
- Ask them if they have any key memories of you which they would like to talk about.
The first interview style will be the quickest, but the latter two might yield more interesting results. If you’re prioritizing thoroughness, we’d highly recommend calling up a few old friends or close family members, sitting down, and recording your interview for a few hours.
Do “traditional" research if needed
Having written as much as you can, and interviewed other people to add their stories, you might still find yourself missing information. If applicable, this is where you could turn to “traditional” research — that is, looking up relevant records and documentation, or even taking a field trip or two to previous neighborhoods.
It’s up to you how far to go with this; just don’t go mad, and try to avoid any rabbit holes that tempt you to write an entirely new book. (Then again, that could always be your next project! Check out our post on how to write a nonfiction book to learn more.)
6. Give your draft a discerning edit
You’ve finally finished a detailed draft — congratulations! Even if you don’t do anything else with your autobiography, your friends and family will be wildly impressed, and your descendants will have a fascinatingly thorough record of your life.
But if you want to publish your autobiography — or even if you suspect it hasn’t turned out quite as expected — you’ll now need to enter the editing stage. There are a few different types of editing to consider for your autobiography, including:
- Structural editing to heighten the impact of your key beats;
- Line editing to improve the syntax, flow, and clarity of your sentences; and
- Fact-checking and proofreading to ensure your book doesn’t contain any errors.
Again, it’s up to you how extensively you want to edit your autobiography. If you’re doing it yourself, we’d suggest going top-to-bottom — first structural editing, then line editing, then proofreading — to avoid unnecessary work. ( Check out this post on how to self-edit your book for key tips!)
And if this all feels overwhelming, you can always work with a professional editor to get your autobiography in tip-top shape . Autobiography and memoir specialists can help turn your work into an Iacocca-worthy masterpiece.
MEET EDITORS
Polish your book with expert help
Sign up, meet 1500+ experienced editors, and find your perfect match.
7. Format and publish your autobiography
Now comes the really fun part, if you so choose it — formatting and publishing your autobiography for everyone to read!
Biography fans out there will know that auto/biographies often contain a selection of personal photos within the text. If you’re envisioning this, it will require specialty formatting; you’ll either need to intersperse photos throughout the text or format your book with a “photo section” in the middle (the more common option).
You can do this with free book formatting tools like Reedsy Studio . Or if you’re not confident in your formatting abilities, consider hiring a professional typesetter to help !
As for publishing, many autobiographers choose to self-publish their books to get them out as quickly as possible, and to have more control over the process. However, if you’re interested in selling your autobiography to a publisher — a reasonable option if you are a businessperson, and especially if you already have a decent following — we’d suggest this post on how to write a non-fiction query letter to get you started.
Whatever path you take, whether you decide to publish it or not, writing the story of your life is an incredibly enlightening endeavor. If you're interested in novels instead, check out this advice from NYT bestselling author Caroline Leavitt ! We hope this guide has helped you on your journey; indeed, as autobiographical writing teaches us, the journey really is the greatest reward.
Continue reading
Recommended posts from the Reedsy Blog
100+ Character Ideas (and How to Come Up With Your Own)
Character creation can be challenging. To help spark your creativity, here’s a list of 100+ character ideas, along with tips on how to come up with your own.
How to Introduce a Character: 8 Tips To Hook Readers In
Introducing characters is an art, and these eight tips and examples will help you master it.
450+ Powerful Adjectives to Describe a Person (With Examples)
Want a handy list to help you bring your characters to life? Discover words that describe physical attributes, dispositions, and emotions.
How to Plot a Novel Like a NYT Bestselling Author
Need to plot your novel? Follow these 7 steps from New York Times bestselling author Caroline Leavitt.
What is the Climax of a Story? Examples & Tips
The climax is perhaps a story's most crucial moment, but many writers struggle to stick the landing. Let's see what makes for a great story climax.
What is Tone in Literature? Definition & Examples
We show you, with supporting examples, how tone in literature influences readers' emotions and perceptions of a text.
Join a community of over 1 million authors
Reedsy is more than just a blog. Become a member today to discover how we can help you publish a beautiful book.
Bring your publishing dreams to life
The world's best editors, designers, and marketers are on Reedsy. Come meet them.
1 million authors trust the professionals on Reedsy. Come meet them.
Enter your email or get started with a social account:
Autobiography Writing Steps, Structure, and Tips
by GetPublished | Jun 26, 2020 | Blog , Writing
Table of Contents
You have decided to share your inspiring life story with the world by writing an autobiography.
While this may appear to be an overwhelming task at the outset, you may find your story almost writing itself if you follow the basic autobiography guidelines.
Autobiography writing can be incredibly edifying, especially when you identify recurring themes in your life that can ultimately inspire others.
Suddenly, the book isn’t just all about you. An effective autobiography is driven by an underlying purpose that uses the author’s life experiences to provide something useful to the reader.
Before beginning the autobiography project, it helps to define the reason for writing your life story.
Is the book to be a chronicling of your life to be passed down to future generations for posterity? Or, is the undertaking driven by a desire to use your life lessons to teach, motivate, help, or inspire others?
Regardless of the purpose for retelling your unique story, having a fundamental understanding of autobiography guidelines will keep you on track from start to finish.
What is an Autobiography?
The word ‘autobiography’ derives from three Greek roots: the prefix, auto (self), the root word, bio (life), and the suffix, graphy (writing)—self-life-writing.
In essence, an autobiography is a first-person narrative detailing the highlights of one’s life.
Because it is a true accounting of your life, it is important to stick to the facts and resist any impulse to embellish or fabricate.
Writing about your life will entail sorting through the key events, relationships, and life lessons learned and then turning these details into a manuscript that will hopefully captivate the reader.
It is important to note that an autobiography is different from a memoir.
Generally, an autobiography covers the author’s entire lifespan, where a memoir devotes attention to a particular period when faced with daunting challenges to overcome, or an unusual or life-defining event.
Memoirs are often written with a pen name to obscure the identity of the author, giving them more freedom to share the details of their life story. Authors use their real names on autobiographies.
4 Autobiography Ideas to Inspire Your Own
When you decide to tackle your autobiography, you may immediately find yourself stumped. “What should I write about?” you wonder. “How do I write an autobiography of myself?”
Consider these ideas to nudge you toward creating a compelling account of your life:
1. Research popular autobiographies.
Read some of the most popular autobiographies to gain inspiration for your own story, as well as to familiarize you with autobiographical structure and content. There are many to choose from, including:
- A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
- Agatha Christie: An Autobiography by Agatha Christie
- Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
- The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
2. Highlight an inspiring comeback story.
Consider a particularly trying period in your life, or an ongoing theme of adversity, and how it shaped you into the person you are today. Maybe you suffered from serious health challenges, abuse or neglect, or addiction. The idea is to take the reader on a journey through the struggles and toward the restoration of mental or physical health.
3. Target cultural themes.
Cultural themes make very interesting autobiographies. If you were born in a different country and experienced a childhood entirely different from the typical American child, it can make for a fascinating read. Share about the holidays, rituals, faith beliefs, and customs that are unique to your culture.
4. Leverage unique experiences.
Perhaps you rose to the top of your profession or were an accomplished athlete, performer, or public figure. Leverage those unique experiences, from the defeats and disappointments to the pinnacles of success, and inspire the reader along the way.
Remember that writing an autobiography is about revealing the pivotal moments in your life while allowing the reader a glimpse into your interior world. What inspired you, what scared you, what moved you—these are the rich details that keep the reader engrossed in your story.
5 General Tips for Writing an Autobiography
Autobiography writing follows the same basic principles of all storytelling. Writing an autobiography requires well-crafted prose, structure, and organization of timelines and themes, a defined purpose, and a keen awareness of the audience. Understanding how to write an autobiography involves the following steps:
1. Define your purpose.
What motivated you to embark on autobiography writing in the first place? What message do you want to deliver to the reader? Define the purpose for writing your story and keep that purpose in mind throughout the project.
2. Identify your audience.
Is the autobiography intended for family only? If so, there might be a need to consider family members’ feelings while writing the book. If your story is for a public audience, then consider how the book can use your life lessons to help others.
3. Create a timeline.
Sorting through a lifetime of experiences is a cumbersome task. Identify the key events that align with the purpose of your storytelling, and list them in chronological order. This becomes a guide for creating chapters or sections.
4. Add the details.
Under each key event of the timeline, add the details that will drive the narrative, the personal struggles, triumphs, lessons learned, as well as key relationships. Refer to journals, photo albums, letters, or any recorded descriptions of the key events to help refresh your memory and get the details right.
5. Bring your story to life.
To capture the heart of the reader, the story must have flavor and emotion and life. This is accomplished through good writing that paints a mental picture of your life and the people who inhabited it. Use descriptive words to bring the scenes to life, and do not hesitate to insert your heart and soul into the tale of your life.
How to Structure an Autobiography
Autobiography structure, as established by the publishing industry, should be kept in mind while writing your personal story. An autobiography essentially mimics traditional story principles, using the same core elements to help draw the reader into the story:
- Setup. Early childhood experiences, introducing family members, describing home life, school, friendships, family customs, and other foundational facts.
- Complication or crisis. Early adulthood experiences that caused strife, such as parents divorcing, moving out of state, dropping out of school, injuries that ended sports careers, substance abuse, or failed relationships. Major twists in your adult life, and pivotal moments that eventually lead to a major life achievement or victory.
- Resolution. This is where the theme of the book comes to fruition, where the author reveals the lessons learned after rising above adversity.
Generally, autobiographies are structured chronologically, unwinding the narrative from birth to the present. Even when using the chronological structure, these storytelling principles should be integrated accordingly.
Some authors begin the autobiography in the middle of their life story, introducing the crisis right off, and then reverting to their childhood days. This has the effect of grabbing the reader’s attention and making them curious about how the author got to that point, thus committing early on to continue reading.
Interested in Self-Publishing Your Autobiography?
Even if you already know how to write an autobiography, it helps to enlist the expert skills of a professional editor who can advise you on structure, format, and provide the full range of editing services prior to going to publication. Check out Gatekeeper Press today for a free sample edit of up to 1,000 words, and see for yourself how we can improve your autobiography manuscript.
Free Consultation
- Plot Twist!
- Ghazala Alam Publishing Journey Q&A
- Laura Gutman Publishing Journey Q&A
- Unconventional writing techniques to help you out of a creative rut
- Joanne Chestnut Publishing Journey Q&A
- Author Q&A (22)
- Editing (18)
- Making Money (7)
- Marketing (13)
- Publishing (62)
- Publishing Journey Q&A (12)
- Uncategorized (2)
- Writing (59)
How to write an Autobiography
A Complete Guide to Writing an Autobiography
A quick scan of the bestseller lists will quickly reveal that we are obsessed with the lives of other people.
Books by and about actors, politicians, and sports stars regularly top the charts as we seek to catch a glimpse into the lives of remarkable people.
While many of these books are written by professional writers after meticulous research ( biographies ), just as many are written by the person themselves (autobiographies) – albeit often with a ghostwriter’s help.
Today we are going to show you how to write an autobiography that tells a great life story.
WHAT IS AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY?
Autobiography is a subcategory of the biography genre and, strictly speaking, it’s a life story written by the subject themselves.
Autobiographies are sometimes confused with memoirs and it’s no surprise as the two share many features in common. For example, both are written in the first person and contain details of the subject’s life.
However, some clear distinctions can be made between the two.
For example, a memoir usually explores a specific period of a person’s life, whereas an autobiography tends to make an account of the person’s life from their earliest years right up to the time of writing.
Autobiographies aren’t just the preserve of the celebrities among us though, each of our lives is a story in and of itself. Whether or not it’s a good story will depend largely on the telling, which is what this article is all about.
A COMPLETE UNIT ON TEACHING BIOGRAPHIES
Teach your students to write AMAZING BIOGRAPHIES & AUTOBIOGRAPHIES using proven RESEARCH SKILLS and WRITING STRATEGIES .
- Understand the purpose of both forms of biography.
- Explore the language and perspective of both.
- Prompts and Challenges to engage students in writing a biography.
- Dedicated lessons for both forms of biography.
- Biographical Projects can expand students’ understanding of reading and writing a biography.
- A COMPLETE 82-PAGE UNIT – NO PREPARATION REQUIRED.
WHAT ARE THE MAIN FEATURES OF AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY?
Once students have a good grasp of what an autobiography is, we need to ensure they are familiar with the main features of the genre before they begin writing.
Let’s take a look at some of the main technical elements of an autobiography:
Purpose of an Autobiography:
To give an account of the person’s life so far
Tense: Mostly written in the past tense, but usually ends in the present tense and sometimes shifts into the future tense at the very end.
Structure of an Autobiography:
● Usually written in chronological order
● Uses time connectives such as before, then, after that, finally, etc
● Uses the names of real people and events
● Is specific about times, dates, places, etc
● Includes personal memories and specific details and descriptions
● Reflects on how positive and negative experiences shaped the author
● Gives an insight into the thoughts, feelings, and hopes of the author
● May include some relevant photographs
● Usually ends with a commentary on life, reflections on significant large events, and hopes and plans for the future.
When teaching these specific features, you may wish to compile a checklist with the students that they can subsequently use to assist them when writing their autobiography.
PRACTICAL ACTIVITY:
One great way to help your students to internalize the main features of the genre is to encourage them to read lots of autobiographies. Instruct the students to be conscious of the different features discussed above and to identify them in the autobiography as they read.
If you have compiled a checklist together, students can check off the features they come across as they read.
When they have finished reading, students should consider which features were well done in the book and which were missing or had room for improvement.
TIPS FOR WRITING A GREAT AUTOBIOGRAPHY
As we know, there is more to a genre of writing than just ticking off the main features from a checklist.
To write well takes time and practice, as well as familiarity with the features of the genre. Each genre of writing makes different demands on our skills as a writer and autobiography are no different.
Below, we will look at a step-by-step process for how students can best approach the task of writing their autobiography, along with some helpful hints and tips to polish things up.
Let’s get started!
HOW TO START AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY WRITING TIPS:
Tip #1: brainstorm your autobiography.
The structure of an autobiography is somewhat obvious; it starts at the beginning of the subject’s life, works its way through the middle, and ends in the present day.
However, there’s a lot in a life. Some of it will be fascinating from a reader’s point of view and some of it not so much. Students will need to select which events, anecdotes, and incidents to include and which to leave out.
Before they begin this selection process in earnest, they need to dump out the possibilities onto the page through the process of brainstorming. Students should write down any ideas and sketches of memories that might be suitable onto the page.
While they needn’t write trivial memories that they know definitely won’t make the cut, they should not set the bar so high that they induce writer’s block.
They can remove the least interesting episodes when making the final selection later in the writing process. The main thing at this stage is the generation and accumulation of ideas.
TIP #2: CREATE AN OUTLINE OF YOUR AUTOBIOGRAPHY
After students have selected the most compelling episodes from their brainstorming session, they’ll need to organize them into the form of an outline.
One good way to do this is to lay them out chronologically on a simple timeline. Looking at the episodes in such a visual way can help the students to construct a narrative that leads from the student’s earliest childhood right through to the present day.
Students need to note that an autobiography isn’t just the relating of a series of life events in chronological order. They’ll need to identify themes that link the events in their autobiography together.
Themes are the threads that we weave between the cause and effect of events to bring shape and meaning to a life. They touch on the motivation behind the actions the author takes and fuel the development growth of the person.
Some themes that might be identified in an outline for an autobiography might include:
● Overcoming adversity
● Adjusting to a new life
● Dealing with loss
● The importance of friendship
● The futility of revenge
● The redemptive power of forgiveness.
These themes are the big ideas of a person’s life story. They represent how the events shape the person who is now sitting writing their story. For students to gain these insights will require the necessary time and space for some reflection.
For this reason, autobiography writing works well as a project undertaken over a longer period such as several weeks.
TIP #3: DO THE BACKGROUND RESEARCH ON YOUR AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Even though no one knows more about the topic of an autobiography than the author, research is still a necessary part of the writing process for autobiographies.
Using the outline they have created, students will need to flesh out some of the details of key events by speaking to others, especially when writing about their earliest experiences.
The most obvious resources will be parents and other family members who were privy to the joys of babyhood and their earliest childhood.
However, friends and ex-teachers make excellent sources of information too. They will enable the student to get a different perspective on something they remember, helping to create a more rounded view of past events.
For older and more advanced students, they may even wish to do some research regarding historical and cultural happenings in the wider society during the period they’re writing about. This will help to give depth and poignancy to their writing as they move up and down the ladder of abstraction from the personal to the universal and back again.
When students make the effort to draw parallels between their personal experiences and the world around them, they help to bridge the gap between author and reader creating a more intimate connection that enhances the experience for the reader.
TIP #4: FIND YOUR VOICE
Students need to be clear that autobiography is not mere personal history written dispassionately and subjectively.
For their autobiography to work, they’ll need to inject something of themselves into their writing. Readers of autobiography especially are interested in getting to know the inner workings of the writer.
There is a danger, however. Given that autobiographers are so close to their material, they must be careful not to allow their writing to denigrate into a sentimental vomit. To counter this danger, the student author needs to find a little perspective on their experiences, and following the previous tip regarding research will help greatly here.
A more daunting obstacle for the student can lie in the difficulties they face when trying to find their voice in their writing. This isn’t easy. It takes time and it takes lots of writing practice.
However, there are some simple, helpful strategies students can use to help them discover their authentic voice in their writing quickly.
1. Write to a close friend or family member
All writing is written to be read – with the possible exception of journals and diaries. The problem is that if the student is too conscious of the reader, they can find themselves playing to the audience and getting away from what it is they’re trying to express. Showboating can replace the honesty that is such a necessary part of good writing.
A useful trick to help students overcome this hurdle is to tell them to imagine they are writing their autobiography to an intimate friend or family member. Someone who makes them feel comfortable in their skin when they are around. Students should write like they’re writing to that person to who they can confide their deepest secrets. This will give their writing an honest and intimate tone that is very engaging for the reader.
2. Read the writing out loud
It’s no accident that we talk about the writer’s ‘voice’. We recognize the actual voice of people we know from its many qualities, from its timbre, tone, pacing, accent, word choice, etc. Writing is much the same in this regard.
One great way to help students detect whether their writing captures their authentic voice is to have them read it out loud, or listen to a recording of their work read out loud.
While we don’t necessarily write exactly as we speak – we have more time to craft what we say – we will still be able to recognize whether or not the writing sounds like us, or whether it’s filled with affectation.
As the student listens to their own words, encourage them to ask the following questions:
● Does this sound like me?
● Do the words sound natural in my voice?
● Do I believe in the events related and how they were related?
Finding their real voice in their writing will help students imbue their writing with honesty and personality that readers love.
TIP #5: DRAFT, REDRAFT AND REFINE YOUR AUTOBIOGRAPHY
In the first draft, the brushstrokes will be large and broad, sweeping through the key events. The main notes of the tune will be there but with sometimes too much ornamentation and, at other times, not enough. This is why redrafting is an essential part of the writing process.
Students should understand that every piece of writing needs redrafting, editing , and proofreading to be at its best. There are no masterpieces full-borne into the world in a single draft.
For many, the tightening-up of a piece will involve the merciless cutting out of dead words. But, for some, the redrafting and refining process will demand the adding of more description and detail.
For most, however, it’ll be a little from column A and a little from column B.
Often, it’s difficult for students to get the necessary perspective on their work to be able to spot structural, grammar , punctuation, and spelling errors. In these instances, it can be best to enrol the eyes of a friend or family member in the role of editor or critic.
One effective way of doing this in class is to organize the students into pairs of editing buddies who edit each other’s work in a reciprocal arrangement.
These ‘edit swaps’ can be continued through to the proofreading stage and the final, polished piece.
A COMPLETE UNIT ON TEACHING FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE is like “SPECIAL EFFECTS FOR AUTHORS.” It is a powerful tool to create VIVID IMAGERY through words. This HUGE UNIT guides you through completely understanding FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE .
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (26 Reviews)
A Final Thought
Employing the 5 tips above will go a long way to ensuring a well-written and engaging autobiography.
While autobiography is a nonfiction genre, it is clear that with its emphasis on narrative, it has much in common with other fictional genres. So, it’s important when teaching autobiography that students learn to recognize the important role of storytelling in this genre too.
As with all good story-telling, there are some necessary elements to include, including a plot of sorts, a cast of characters, and an exploration of some central themes. For this reason, teaching autobiography often works well after the students have completed a unit on fictional story writing.
When all is said and done, the best way a student can ensure their autobiography is worth a read is to ensure they find the story within their own life.
After all, we’re obsessed with the lives of other people.
ARTICLES RELATED TO HOW TO WRITE AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY
How to Write a Biography
How to Write a Recount Text (And Improve your Writing Skills)
15 Awesome Recount & Personal Narrative Topics
15 meaningful recount prompts for students
Personal Narrative Writing Guide
Learn the essential skills to writing an insightful personal narrative in our complete guide for students and teachers.
How to write an autobiography: 7 key steps
Many people who’ve lived interesting lives want to learn how to write an autobiography. Whether you want to write a memoir or a fictional autobiography, these 7 steps will help you start:
- Post author By Jordan
- 4 Comments on How to write an autobiography: 7 key steps
What is autobiography?
Autobiography means to write about yourself, typically the account of significant events in your life. The word stems from the Greek, αὐτός (autos) meaning self , plus βίος (bios) meaning life and γράφειν ( graphein ) – to write.
Autobiography vs memoir: What’s the difference?
What’s the difference between autobiography and memoir? Are there specific kinds of autobiography? These may be questions you ask as you set out to write your life story.
As Ian Jack writes in The Guardian , there are differences between autobiography vs memoir although the terms are often used interchangeably:
An autobiography is usually a record of accomplishment. All kinds of people, more or less famous, can write them or be helped to write them: footballers, politicians, newsreaders. Deeds, fame and an interesting life are not necessary ingredients of the memoir. The memoir’s ambition is to be interesting in itself, as a novel might be, about intimate, personal experience. It often aspires to be thought of as “literary”, and for that reason borrows many of literature’s tricks – the tricks of the novel, of fiction – because it wants to do more than record the past; it wants to re-create it. If a memoir is to succeed on those terms, on the grounds that all lives are interesting if well-enough realised, the writing has to be good. Ian Jack, in The Guardian , February 2003.
7 steps to write your own life story:
- Brainstorm your autobiography’s focus and scope
- Skim autobiographies for inspiration
- Choose between autobiography and memoir
- Outline key and illustrative life events
- Draft key scenes from your life
- Find strong transitions
- Check details and get beta readers
1. Brainstorm your autobiography’s focus and scope
Deciding what period and events you’ll cover in your life story is a helpful first step in choosing how to write an autobiography.
Squishing the intrigues, heartbreaks, surprises and secrets of your life into narrative form may seem an impossible task. Life of course does not unfold in neat paragraphs, scenes and chapters.
Make it easier and brainstorm your autobiography’s focus and scope. Ask:
- What period of my life do I want to tell readers about?
- Where should the timeline start? (Infancy? Childhood? Adolescence?)
- What are key events of my life readers may find intriguing?
This will help you refine your autobiography’s focus [you can also pinpoint your story’s focus in the Central Idea brainstorming tool in the Now Novel dashboard].
For deciding your story’s scope, ask:
- What essential scenes and events should I include?
- What themes or subjects need mention (for example, if you have experienced a trauma or illness that has greatly impacted your life, exploring personal events and insights that resulted from them would make sense)
Autobiography Exercise: Scenes to show
Write a brief bullet list of events to include in your autobiography or memoir.
Focus on events that show strong emotion, key turning points or changes, or vivid life lessons , because these connect with readers.
For example:
- A first encounter with someone who turned out to be an amazing mentor
- A positive or challenging move to another school, city or country in childhood
- The first time you met a major love interest in your life
- The moment you walked away from a job or other commitment to pursue a new dream
2. Skim autobiographies for inspiration
One of the best ways to learn how to write an autobiography is, of course, to read published examples.
Get hold of copies of autobiographies that interest you . Skim parts such as the beginning and end, chapter beginnings and endings. Read for details that leap out at you, grab your attention.
Take notes on how the author approaches telling their life story. Do they:
- Proceed chronologically from childhood to adulthood or play with time and memories?
- Start with a dramatic, life-changing incident or lead in slowly?
- Tell the reader what they’re going to cover or leave the reader to gradually discover the narrative structure or shape of the story?
Reading autobiography and note-taking in this way helps you see the options for how to structure your narrative.
3. Choose between autobiography and memoir
Reading autobiography examples will help you see how authors use common narrative elements.
For example, the acclaimed author Vladimir Nabokov begins Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited :
The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness. […] I know, however, of a young chronophobiac who experienced something like panic when looking for the first time at homemade movies that had been taken a few weeks before his birth. Vladimir Nabokov, Speak Memory : An Autobiography Revisted (1967), 17.
Nabokov, in typically ornate fashion, breaks the ‘rules’ of autobiography. He uses third person to describe a ‘ young chronophobiac’ – one who is afraid of time. We can guess this ‘young chronophobiac’ is Nabokov himself, and that he is using a tone of ironic detachment to imply that the act of dredging through memories – or even the idea of time itself – fills him with ‘something like panic’.
The above seems more like a literary play with form (an attribute Ian Jack ascribes memoir) than a straightforward, chronological autobiography.
Readers might indeed wonder why Nabokov calls Speak, Memory an autobiography.
Nabokov does, however, proceed more or less chronologically, from before his birth, to Chapter 2 which begins:
It was the primordial cave (and not what Freudian mystics might suppose) that lay behind the games I played when I was four. Nabokov, Speak, Memory , p. 20.
Thus Nabokov blends elements of memoir. He blends illustrative snapshots of life (the part illuminating the whole) with key events (birth, childhood) typical of autobiographical narration.
Thinking about how you’ll structure your life story , however, will make it more purposeful and consistent.
Jump to Top
4. Outline key and illustrative life events
In deciding how to write an autobiography, there are two types of events to include:
- Key events – Crucial, formative experiences, for example an early childhood triumph or loss that shaped your view of the world.
- Illustrative events – Individual encounters, lessons, romances, teachers and mentors that provide texture, background, humour, drama or the other vital elements of storytelling .
Examples of key events and illustrative events in autobiography
As an example, Nabokov uses the games he would play as a child at the start of chapter two to illustrate how he came to value imagination and beauty . He describes making a couch tent:
I then had the fantastic pleasure of creeping through that pitch-dark tunnel, where I lingered a little to listen to the singing in my ears – that lonesome vibration so familiar to small boys in dusty hiding places – and then, in a burst of delicious panic, on rapidly thudding hands and knees I would reach the tunnel’s far end…’ Nabokov, Speak, Memory , p. 20.
This is an example of illustrative event: a scene in autobiography that reveals something about the author.
In this case, we see Nabokov’s love of games of imagination and sensory stimulation (something one finds abundant in his fiction).
An example of a key event would be a major relocation, a historical conflict (such as war), or another key turning point. For example, Nabokov describes the effects of the Russo-Japanese War (a key event) in 1905 on the family unit:
The close of Russia’s disastrous campaign in the Far East was accompanied by furious internal disorders. Undaunted by them, my mother, with her three children, returned to St. Petersburg after almost a year of foreign resorts. Nabokov, Speak, Memory , p. 24.
Autobiography exercise: Finding key and illustrative events
Write a bullet list each of key and illustrative events – a sentence describing each. Examples:
- The year my family moved from Country A to Country B
- The first time I held a violin in my hands
- The first close friendship I ever made at school
Illustrative Events
- The experience and emotion of boarding a plane for the first time
- A specific funny or insightful violin lesson or teacher
- A day with a close school friend that left an indelible impression
5. Draft key scenes from your life
Now that you have ideas for key and illustrative events in your life, expand on an example.
Use the techniques of fiction to enrich the scene.
For example, Nabokov describes his sensory impressions behind the family couch.
- Impressions of sound, smell, touch, taste or specific visual details
- Emotions (Nabokov conveys a palpable sense of the child’s simultaneous delight in secrecy and panic in the dark when he describes crawling through the tunnel he made using the family couch)
As you draft, keep this in mind: What do I want to tell, show, teach? How will this help, entertain, surprise, amuse my reader?
6. Find strong transitions
Learning how to write an autobiography is not that different from learning how to write fiction.
For one, autobiographical writing and fiction writing both need engaging introductions, transitions, exposition and development.
An advantage of memoir and autobiography is that transition is a shared, relatable part of life.
For example, most children in countries where school attendance is required by law will leave the family unit and go out into the world at a similar age.
These key life changes are useful places in a memoir or autobiography for chapter breaks or scene transitions . Nabokov, for example, uses the family move to St Petersburg at the start of Chapter 4 to transition into describing his first teacher, a natural early childhood memory to include:
With a sharp and merry blast from the whistle that was part of my first sailor suit, my childhood calls me back into that distant past to have me shake hands again with my delightful teacher. Vasiliy Martinovich Zhernosekov had a fuzzy brown beard, a balding head, and china-blue eyes, one of which bore a fascinating excrescence on the upper lid. Nabokob, Speak, Memory , p. 24.
Note how Nabokov signals the narrative transition – by describing a sound he associates with that period of his life. It’s a vivid, descriptive way to end one section of story and begin another.
7. Check details and get beta readers
As you write an autobiography or memoir, it’s often helpful to speak to family or old friends. Because you never know who may remember a funny, interesting or surprising detail about a time you are remembering and trying to capture.
The people who know you best may be your best beta readers when you write about yourself. It’s also good etiquette, if writing about a family member or friend who is still living, to run sections concerning them past them.
Need someone to read over your autobiography so far? Get help from a skilled editor. Jump to Top
Related Posts:
- What will help me write a book? 7 steps
- How to write a book and get it published in 10 steps
- How do you write an outline for a novel? 7 easy steps
- Tags autobiographical writing
Jordan is a writer, editor, community manager and product developer. He received his BA Honours in English Literature and his undergraduate in English Literature and Music from the University of Cape Town.
4 replies on “How to write an autobiography: 7 key steps”
Just starting to write a family history beginning with what I know about my immigrant grandparents, then with a follow-up through moves and my childhood.
Hi Peter, that sounds a wonderful use of family history. I hope it is going well.
Very helpful.
Glad you found it helpful, Sally. Thanks for writing in.
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Pin It on Pinterest
| |
COMMENTS
Not sure what questions or life lessons you want to write on? Begin with these 63 memoir writing prompts that will give you inspiring writing ideas.
FAQs If you're thinking about writing an autobiography, then you've come to the right place. In this article, we will be telling you all about how to write an autobiography - breaking it down and helping you along with the process.
If you feel ready to write your autobiography but aren't sure where to start, this guide will take you from opening lines to (hopefully) publishing your autobiography for all the world to read.
Autobiography writing follows the same basic principles of all storytelling. Writing an autobiography requires well-crafted prose, structure, and organization of timelines and themes, a defined purpose, and a keen awareness of the audience. Understanding how to write an autobiography involves the following steps: 1. Define your purpose.
Master the art of writing an autobiography with our comprehensive guide. Learn the differences between autobiography and memoir. Perfect for educators.
Read how to write an autobiography with definitions of autobiography and memoir, tips and examples of describing key and illustrative events.
Why bother writing an autobiography, you might ask? Trust me; it's more than just a collection of memories. Your life story is a treasure trove of experiences, lessons, and wisdom that can ...
A collection of downloadable worksheets, exercises and activities to teach Autobiography, shared by English language teachers.
An autobiography is a look at the total sum of your life from birth (early childhood) to the time of your book's writing that highlights the key points that shaped who you've become.
Learn how to write your own life story with tips and examples from MasterClass instructors. Discover the definition and structure of an autobiography.
Writing Your Autobiography Suggestions for the Instructor. ribing Yourself and OthersDistribute the handout, Desc. bing Yourself and Others. R. iew it with the students. Do a few activities to help students become acquainted. ith new words on the li. ask volunteers to take turns reading sections or columns from the list aloud.
This section provides the course assignments, guidelines for homework and class participation, and supporting handouts.
Discover how using an autobiography format can assist in understanding how to write an autobiography. Learn how to start an autobiography and how...
The objective of this worksheet is to help students write an autobiography. A model text is provided for study and comprehension. Then, a distinction is highlighted between a biography and an autobiography. After that, the students are guided to produce a short autobiography, mentioning their early childhood, schooling, difficulties they encountered, and the life lesson they learned. Writing ...
Writing an Autobiography It's natural and novel for students to want to write about their interests, their family, and their goals. The genre of autobiographical writing builds on the existing interest that middle school students already have in themselves and their lives while helping them develop and understand the craft of writing.
In this lesson, Elizabeth and Sarah Delany's autobiography, Having Our Say, serves as a model for student texts. Students read and analyze passages from Having Our Say looking for specific examples of multigenre writing within the text. Students then choose to narrate a life event that has connections to or is informed by a larger event in ...
Teach the ReadWriteThink lesson The Year I Was Born: An Autobiographical Research Project to have students further explore the autobiography writing genre. In place of or in addition to PowerPoint presentations, have students write a typed autobiography, a narrated audio autobiography (set to music) on CD, cassette, or MP3, or a videotaped ...
These activities are geared toward high school students reading or writing an autobiography. Teachers will find methods to guide students through the process of brainstorming, reflecting, and ...
A unit set of worksheets and answers with 6 sessions on teaching and learning resources of writing a biography based on New Bloom's Taxonomy. This download includes: EXERCISE 1: Compare and contrast a biography and an autobiography. EXERCISE 2: Identify the sentences that answer the given questions to show the structure and features of a ...
Biography Worksheets: Due the Research - A nice fact sheet to help you prepare to write. Write a Bio Poem - A short poem that describes a person or thing is called a biography (bio) poem. The form of bio poems can vary, but below is a typical example. Writing a Biography - Select a person that has accomplished something notable that ...
Biographies For French students - reading and understanding English biographies - example of three activities on Elvis Presley's biography.
An autobiography is an account of someone's life, written by themselves. It's different from a biography, which is written by someone else. The word autobiography literally means 'self writing graph'. An autobiography has a number of features specific to this genre of writing. For example, an autobiography is always written in the first ...
Liveworksheets transforms your traditional printable worksheets into self-correcting interactive exercises that the students can do online and send to the teacher.