How To Write An Autobiography
- Ten Writing Tips To Ensure Success -

Writing an autobiography is really very easy. It's almost too easy. Which is why everyone should write one - especially you!


Naturally, you have to realize that if you have spent your life alone on a desert island, most other folks probably will not be all that interested in your patently uneventful life story. But I certainly would! How in the world did you end up on a desert island? Did you encounter any cannibals? Is a fish and seaweed diet a good way to lose weight? What did you miss most: junk food or sitcoms? Have you been contacted by National Geographic? Piers Morgan? America's Funniest Home Videos?

Okay, so basically the real trick is to simply attempt to answer the questions people might ask if they had just met you and for whatever reason found you to be somewhat interesting. The best way to do this is to have a format to follow to help you put a little meat on those autobiographical bones of yours.

And if you like shortcuts, check out Autobiography Made Easy for yourself or perhaps as a fun gift for someone else in your family. It's a fill-in-the-blanks book that let's anyone, even hardcore non-writers, document their life story, retain all of the delightful memories, and do only a fraction of the work!  Just a thought.

Anyway, let's face it, the hardest part of any writing effort is just getting started! That's why I always encourage people not unlike you to follow ten very simple rules while I stand in the background and softly repeat the writer's refrain:  Just get started, you lazy sloth!!

TEN BASIC RULES FOR AUTOBIOGRAPHY WRITING SUCCESS!

1. Be honest.  This is partly so that when you write your manuscript, you won't have any trouble properly documenting even the smallest details, as you might if you just embellish parts of your story. But it's mostly because your life is plenty interesting (especially that hilarious story about you and the raccoon!) and there is absolutely no need for fictional adaptation or exaggeration.

2. However, autobiography means never having to say you're sorry . . . or embarrassed! Make what you write the whole truth, but never think writing an autobiography also means that the world has a right to your innermost being or your most private and personal thoughts, unless that is really your purpose in writing the thing. Hey, you want to write something way too personal that is somewhat uncomfortable for others to read? For goodness sakes, that's why Facebook and Twitter were created! (Well, that and to provide an easy way for you to recommend this website to your social media friends.)

3. Be your funny self - but only if you really are funny, otherwise be serious. But whatever you are, don't try to be anything else because you will alter your natural writing style too much. If you are dull and dry as toast, go with that. Write the quintessential autobiography for other tedious people to read. Hey, if it's who you really are, then tell the world to simply learn to live with it. That way, ten thousand years from now no one will have to wonder what you were really like because your life story written in your own true voice will have told them already - you were as dull as a doornail and mighty proud of it, too! Plus, ten millennia from now only machines will still be reading books and you'll have a best seller on your hands. Naturally, a fellow like me will already be long forgotten because I only select odd themes that please ME.   Essay On Unemployment & Car Trouble

4. Write what pleases YOU.  That may strike you as rather egotistical, but this is really the number one rule of writing autobiography (makes you wonder why it's listed as number four here then, doesn't it?) and it means that you should put together a story that YOU think is interesting. I mean, think about it! If you don't find your own version of your own life story to be rather absorbing, what in the world makes you think the rest of us will? Sorry. Am I being too caustic here?

5. Try not to be too caustic.  Even the villains in your life deserve some respect. And you could change your mind about them some day. Or they could change their personality. No, really, that happens sometimes. And anyway, the ones who actually don't deserve respect and will never change, usually have little villain attorney friends very much like themselves who are just waiting to sue somebody like you for defamation.

6. Be sure you avoid cliches . . . like the plague!  I mean, who would want to even consider reading an autobiography that wasn't a bit unexpected in parts and loaded with new and intriguing viewpoints? Exactly right, no one, no one at all. Certainly no one important. So why write one? Decide what key points really make your life story of particular interest to others and you will almost certainly be surprised at the difference in the focus of your overall effort. Make those key interest points your chapter titles and you are halfway home. However, always be mindful of rule #7.

7.  Start with an outline.   I should have put this rule as number one. Or perhaps number three. Five maybe? Anyway, without a clearly thought out path to your goal of documenting your life story, you will surely end up writing too much about one portion of your life and miss the larger picture;  said larger picture being both more interesting and also larger. An outline consisting of a paragraph or two on each of the main events to be addressed in your autobiography is good. Twenty pages on your first snow sled is bad. Got it? Okay! (Plus, you'll definitely want to save that Rosebud sled story until the very last paragraph. Trust me, I know things.)

8. Write your very best the first time through.  There is a tendency for most of us to simply get the whole story down in words any way we can and then imagine we'll simply go back and polish it up with more poetic writing during a final editing. I organize my work tools this way by just leaving them around the garage so I can go back and put them all in order each month. You should see my garage! You should try to just get into my garage!! There may be exceptions to this infallible rule #8, but my own strong feeling is that it's far easier to come up with just the right wording as you go rather than later when you edit the effort.

9.  Keep your confidence up. Your personal ability to write is more than adequate for your autobiographical effort. Never doubt it. I have recently come to realize that most people write far better than they think they do. And I can state to a near certainty that you are a far better writer than you will ever imagine yourself to be. In fact, now that I have given it some thought, I can hardly believe we're even having this conversation since we're both obviously such truly talented writers. (Then again, maybe we should both just stop writing:  Stop Writing! )

10. Never lose sight of the commercial side of writing. There's big money in this wordsmith thing, or everyone keeps saying there is, so write knowing that people are going to read what you have written and maybe give you cash money for it someday. Even if you don't plan to market your story, that will still give you that "writer's edge" that you will need to sustain you when everything goes wrong. And most any writing project worth its salt most assuredly will at some point. Go wrong, I'm saying. Nonetheless, always use a spell checker, watch those dangling participles, and go write like the wind!

In the end the real trick to autobiography is to simply enjoy yourself. You will never go wrong documenting your own precious memories and real life adventures. So try to embrace the actual process and remember that the creative writing spirit is what ultimately separates us from the other animals. Well, that and the ability to safely control an automobile in rush hour traffic.

Whatever becomes of all this discussion about how-to-go-about-writing, you should know that I, for one, wish you nothing but success and hope you will soon discover the ultimate joy of recognizing that your life is as interesting - and important! - as anyone else we could think of today. I really believe that so please don't prove me wrong by your failure to get going and actually write something!

Cordially,

David Douglas Ford

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I don't think anyone should write their
autobiography until after they're dead.
                     - Samuel Goldwyn