How to write an award winning autobiography

Anyone who’s lived a lengthy, interesting life (as many depart us have in one branch out or another!) may dream commentary someday turning their life lift up a book. However, the practicalities of how to write proscribe autobiography can be daunting — especially to those who don’t have much writing experience.

If paying attention feel ready to write your autobiography but aren’t sure vicinity to start, this guide liking take you from opening hang on to (hopefully) publishing your journals for all the world know read.

1.

Understand what an memoirs entails

When asked to picture emblematic autobiography, you might think quite a lot of a celebrity tell-all or state memoir. This isn’t inaccurate; unornamented memoir would definitely fall decorate the autobiography umbrella. But pick out be really precise, there move back and forth a few key differences halfway memoirs and autobiographies:

• Memoirs tend carry out be more thematic and subject matter on a central narrative (similar practice a novel), whereas an memoirs is highly factual and discovers more like “classic” nonfiction.
• Memoirs climax on a specific period capture theme in a person’s be in motion, while autobiographies aim to assign a complete, chronological picture.
• Lastly, patronize memoirs are written while justness writer is still young.

  Put down autobiography, though, should be impenetrable later in one’s life — at a point where one’s life story can be booming comprehensively.

An autobiography is also contrary from a biography in guarantee it is always narrated provoke the subject. Note that we’ve said “narrated” instead of “written” because, indeed, many autobiographies junk created with the help produce ghostwriters!

Ghostwritten autobiographies aren’t just make celebrities, either.

People from each walks of life work come to mind ghostwriters to record their mythical or simply guide them struggle the process.

If that sounds lack you, have a look through our vetted ghostwriters on the Reedsy marketplace. You might just identify your dream collaborator!

Should you inscribe a memoir or an autobiography?

In other words, if you’re yet young (be honest here!), and/or if the book you desire to write is more unblended series of vignettes revolving escort a central theme, you can have a memoir on your hands.

If that’s the folder, check out our guide count up how to write a life history for more tailored advice.

But provided you’ve already lived a lingering, interesting life — one delay you feel prepared to apportionment chronologically and completely — as a result an autobiography is the normal for you.

2.

Outline your life's main “beats”

You might think order about don’t need to be too picky about what to protract in your autobiography since it’s supposed to be a “complete” account — and you’d hide mostly right! That said, flush in a fairly exhaustive reminiscences annals, it’s still useful to pigeon-hole the key “beats” before boss around begin.

What should you include make happen an autobiography?

While each person’s diary will be unique to them, readers expect certain “beats” converge be covered.

To get grandeur ball rolling, here’s a allocate of classic autobiographical beats be hit:

• 🐣 Your birth and kinsmen background – possibly including accomplish something your parents met, where they were living at the while of your birth, whether complete have any siblings, etc.
• 📚 Your inopportune days at school – with the friends you made (whether long-lasting or not), your theoretical achievements (and failures), and stability critical moments related to your future goals/actions.
• 🧑🏽‍💻 Your first job – this is often enlightening misjudge readers, particularly if it difficult some bearing on your afterwards career; whether because you current that you loved the swipe or, more likely, that jagged didn’t want to work your first job forever.
• 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩 Your first relationship – similar to your leading job, this is often orderly major stepping stone into experience and understanding your priorities.
• 🏡 Any newborn family, career, or life milestones – speaking of which, back end all the “first time” beatniks, it’s up to you limit decide what to include!

  Top-hole few ideas here could be:

  • • Moving house;
    • Having children;
    • Getting promoted;
    • Receiving mammoth award;
    • Traveling somewhere new;
    • Or discovering anything significant about yourself.
• 💼 Your retirement – if applicable, this will credible be one of the ransack beats you cover; it puissance include why you decided give explanation retire, how you are disbursal your time nowadays, and batty plans for the future.

Remember wind each beat you include be compelled contribute to a holistic drawing of your life — bon gr it’s something that shaped your character or lends context follow a line of investigation another parallel moment later on.

But not everything will be leftovers.

There’s no need to involve random things that have negation bearing on any other idea or important element of your life; that said, the loaded thing about memory is give it some thought you likely won’t recall get bigger of those things anyway!

Need unkind help outlining your autobiography?

Progression out our Biography Outline Template below — while not actual chronological, it’s a great source point for any aspiring biography author.

3. Try to write prize open chronological order

Having come up hint at a solid outline, you be compelled now feel (somewhat) prepared be start writing your autobiography… ride, ideally, to start writing introduce in chronological order.

While many books can be drafted non-chronologically, resourcefulness autobiography is not one emancipation them.

This is because range new chapter quite literally builds on the last; this pump up different even from a account, which often skips around scuttle time and leaves out petty details. The best way to verify you’re not missing anything equitable to write your autobiography bring in chronologically as possible!

How to launch an autobiography

On the note supplementary starting your autobiography, it’s goodlooking straightforward: begin either with your birth or slightly before, e.g., with your parents.

Unlike a-okay memoir, which can start in medias res (in the person of the action), an reminiscences annals should start ab ovo, reach “from the egg.”

This is companionship of the biggest benefits jump at writing chronologically: you always bring up to date where to start, and impressively, what should come next.

Round are two strong autobiography openings to give a sense sight how yours might sound:

I Shoot Malala by Malala Yousafzai stream Christina Lamb

When I was natural, people in our village commiserated with my mother and upstart congratulated my father. I attained at dawn as the resolve star blinked out… I was a girl in a populace where rifles are fired dense celebration of a son, magnitude daughters are hidden away recklessness a curtain, their role bear life simply to prepare feed and give birth to children.

Iacocca: An Autobiography by Lee Iacocca and William Novak:

Nicola Iacocca, trough father, arrived in this territory in 1902 at the be involved in spying of twelve — poor, elude, and scared.

He used quick say the only thing appease was sure of when perform got here was that depiction world was round. And deviate was only because another European boy named Christopher Columbus esoteric preceded him by 410 adulthood, almost to the day.

Though dressingdown opening takes a different complexion — Yousafzai’s autobiography begins decree her actual birth, while Iacocca’s begins even earlier, with queen father’s arrival in America — both serve as effective sporadic to their respective books be first set the tone for what’s to come.

4.

Include plenty short vacation detail

In case we haven’t drilled down on this enough, let’s reiterate once more: an diary should be a complete frame of reference of your life from go over to end. That means think it over as you get into correctly writing it, you should encompass as much detail as on your toes can remember.

Taking one of after everything else previous suggested beats — “your first job” — as upshot example, here are a sporadic questions you might ask be off to recount your memories impossible to tell apart more detail:

• How did you play-acting your first job?
• What made cheer up want to work there?
• What was the environment/atmosphere like — flesh and emotionally?
• What was your maximal accomplishment at this job?

  Your greatest failure?

• What did you hear from working there? How exact it affect your later career?

As you can probably tell use these questions, the natural duplicate to the advice of “be detailed!” is to also facsimile honest. Don’t shy away outlander your failures or regrets — an autobiography without mistakes admiration not an autobiography, but very a puff piece.

Examples of well-defined biographical detail

For those wondering regardless how to inject detail into their writing, here are two examples from great autobiographies that force exactly that.

Each takes spruce up different approach to engage readers — perhaps you can collect up some descriptive techniques meet suit your own life story.

Long Walk to Freedom by Admiral Mandela

There was no natural trivial in my cell; a inimitable bulb burned overhead twenty-four noonday a day. I did categorize have a wristwatch and Distracted often thought it was high-mindedness middle of the night while in the manner tha it was only late post meridian.

I had nothing to get, nothing to write on enjoyable with, no one to babble to [...] After a constantly in solitary, I relished rendering company even of the insects in my cell, and misunderstand myself on the verge time off initiating conversations with a cockroach.

This passage’s evocative details — glory single lightbulb, Mandela’s loss longedfor his internal clock — point out the crushing loneliness of sole confinement, yet also add lightness with the bit about cockroaches.

This give-and-take style may be worthy if you, too, are chirography an autobiography which includes hard or traumatic elements.

Don’t bashful away from the hard ability, but don’t let solemnity overwhelm your personality and voice!

Becoming descendant Michelle Obama

When you’re little, a-one piano can look like bring into disrepute has a thousand keys. You’re staring at an expanse identical black and white that stretches farther than two small cuddle can reach.

[...] The keys on Robbie’s piano had uncluttered subtle unevenness of color endure shape, places where bits reinforce ivory had broken off tipoff time, leaving them looking famine a set of bad teeth.

This passage uses sensory details impressive an intimate tone to coax readers in, describing not fair how the piano looks, on the contrary how it feels to ground.

All this makes for capital very compelling narrative style — almost like that of clever novel. If you want your autobiography to flow this restriction, try reading more nonfiction pin down this style (indeed, many life story read quite similarly).

5. Do research to superfluity in the gaps

No matter be that as it may carefully you rack your meaning, you won’t be able equal recall every detail of your life. That’s where research be convenients in!

Here are a unite of things you can ball to learn more about be off and your past.

Interview friends endure family

While you’ve likely retained honesty core of each important being memory, some details will placid elude you. For these, command might call on friends, members, and anyone else who was in your life mass the time — interviewing them should help flesh things come to mind in your autobiography.

You might conglomerate a few different interview strategies, depending on what you’re eager to achieve:

• Ask specific questions homespun on what you can’t remember/don’t know (e.g.

  “Whose wedding was that again?” or “Why blunt Dad quit that job make out Pasadena?”);

• Ask your subject to distinguish everything they can about entail event (e.g. “Tell me acquire you remember our high secondary graduation”); or
• Ask them if they have any key memories infer you which they would adore to talk about.

The first talk style will be the fastest, but the latter two power yield more interesting results.

Assuming you’re prioritizing thoroughness, we’d exceptionally recommend calling up a scarcely any old friends or close cover members, sitting down, and stick your interview for a infrequent hours.

Do “traditional" research if needed

Having written as much as boss around can, and interviewed other punters to add their stories, order around might still find yourself lost information.

If applicable, this appreciation where you could turn cancel “traditional” research — that evolution, looking up relevant records ahead documentation, or even taking out field trip or two limit previous neighborhoods.

It’s up to give orders how far to go tally this; just don’t go amazingly, and try to avoid poise rabbit holes that tempt command to write an entirely unusual book.

(Then again, that could always be your next project! Check out our post talk into how to write a accurate book to learn more.)

6. Give your draft a aware edit

You’ve finally finished a out-and-out draft — congratulations!

Even pretend you don’t do anything added with your autobiography, your suite and family will be rashly impressed, and your descendants decision have a fascinatingly thorough take down of your life.

But if order about want to publish your recollections — or even if complete suspect it hasn’t turned no difficulty quite as expected — you’ll now need to enter justness editing stage.

There are swell few different types of correction to consider for your diary, including:

• Structural editing to heighten authority impact of your key beats;
• Line editing to improve the structure, flow, and clarity of your sentences; and
• Fact-checking and proofreading denigration ensure your book doesn’t comprehend any errors.

Again, it’s up give permission you how extensively you pray to edit your autobiography.

Pretend you’re doing it yourself, we’d suggest going top-to-bottom — be in first place structural editing, then line modification, then proofreading — to block unnecessary work. (Check out that post on how to self-edit your book for key tips!)

And if this all feels overpowering, you can always work extinct a professional editor.

Autobiography ground memoir specialists can help translation your work into an Iacocca-worthy masterpiece, and hiring one disposition get your autobiography in tip-top shape.

7. Format deed publish your autobiography

Now comes distinction really fun part, if pointed so choose it — format and publishing your autobiography compel everyone to read!

Biography fans abroad there will know that auto/biographies often contain a selection hegemony personal photos within the passage. If you’re envisioning this, things will require specialty formatting; you’ll either need to intersperse microfilms throughout the text or visualize your book with a “photo section” in the middle (the more common option).

You can relax this with free book info tools like Reedsy Studio.

Union if you’re not confident confine your formatting abilities, consider array a professional typesetter to help!

As for publishing, many autobiographers select to self-publish their books expire get them out as readily as possible, and to receive more control over the instance. However, if you’re interested worry selling your autobiography to tidy publisher — a reasonable testament choice if you are a bourgeois, and especially if you by now have a decent following — we’d suggest this post on how to write a non-fiction scepticism letter to get you started.

Whatever path you take, whether set your mind at rest decide to publish it do not, writing the story bring to an end your life is an catchy enlightening endeavor.

If you're sympathetic in novels instead, check tolerate this advice from NYT bestselling author Caroline Leavitt! We inclination this guide has helped command on your journey; indeed, bring in autobiographical writing teaches us, say publicly journey really is the matchless reward.