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Q&A How do I approach writing an autobiography?

Well, chronological is always a useful way of telling this sort of story, but it might not be the most engaging. As strange as it sounds, even a biography has to have a story. Sometimes the best wa...

posted 11y ago by Fox Cutter‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T02:28:44Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/6274
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Fox Cutter‭ · 2019-12-08T02:28:44Z (over 4 years ago)
Well, chronological is always a useful way of telling this sort of story, but it might not be the most engaging. As strange as it sounds, even a biography has to have a story. Sometimes the best way to do this is start it at a singular event, then go back to see how you came to that point. The idea is to show how your life molded you into the person that you are. This also starts to dance into a memoir, but that isn't a huge issue.

Of course, since his is a biography the order you write the events isn't going to change the events themselves, so I would just simply start writing things as they come to you. Make sure to date when they happened so you can organize them later, also talking about one event may help jog you memory of another even, so writing it non-linear might help keep events fresh in your mind.

As for how to pace yourself and keep interest in the project, well that's a challenge every writer faces. Going old traditional might be the best choice: writing some every day, having a fix time to write with little distractions and daily goals. Even so that is a larger question to deal with.

Lastly, using digital features to try and keep things organized. Believe it or not, blogging software might be the best choice in this case. Using software like that you can tag and link pretty much every post you make, allowing you to navigate things easier. You can also host in in the 'cloud' so you can access in anywhere (and you can keep them private, so no one can read them without your permission). In the end though, don't let worry about how to use it stop you from starting the project. Really the very first step is going to be to start writing it, before that everything else is really just academic.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2012-08-29T17:11:30Z (over 11 years ago)
Original score: 2