Writing your autobiography is a monumental task. It is something that you will have to plan out quite well and it is something that you have to accomplish perfectly.
There are different types of autobiographical writings and they are autobiographical essays, memoirs and personal essays. But today we will be strictly talking about traditional biographies about oneself known as autobiographies.
Now before you embark on your autobiographical project of writing your high-quality autobiography, you might want to understand how to write an autobiography or rather what is the kind of writing experience.
THE FIRST STEPS TO AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Writing an autobiography is a thing of passion and it requires a lot of hard work and determination.
However, the easiest thing about the autobiography is also the hardest and it is rediscovering yourself and bringing it out into pages for others to read.
The writing process is quite similar to writing anything else however you are the subject here and you must have an open mind and open heart before you start this journey.
When someone asks what is an autobiography, the simplest answer to that would be self-discovery and self-expression in which you express your life.
While you can read a few autobiographers for an understanding, however, we would suggest that you do not read or research too much because you do not want to dilute your writing experience with the writing of someone else.
In this case study on writing an autobiography, we are going to look at a few elements that are quite important to an autobiography.
IMPORTANT ELEMENTS TO AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY
ORIGIN STORY
This is perhaps one of the most important things that you must include in your autobiography.
Whenever we go to see a movie or read about someone, we want to know their origin and how they have become what they are.
It is important to know the background and history of something and someone if you want to relate to that person and feel what they are feeling and understand their journey.
This is exactly the same thing with an autobiography because you as the author need to express your life to others and in order to do that you must first start with your origin.
That origin should include where you are from and what was your childhood like as well as a detailed account of your family and some key figures who helped you in your childhood.
Then you must move forward with the story of your teens as well as your young adult life.
This will vary from person to person depending upon who they are but moreover, people are really interested in how this person has become the person they are and the best way to start this journey and story is to start with their childhood.
EXPERIENCES
Our experiences in our lives play an important role in shaping us into whatever we are today.
This experience is can be quite uplifting and also quite damaging but they are truly an important element in our life.
And that is why whenever you are trying to write your autobiography you must never miss out on the experiences that you had.
There must be significant experiences as well as real and eye-opening ones that have led you to become the person you are.
These experiences may be something that you have seen and also something that you have experienced yourself and were a part of.
These experiences should be the things that changed your opinions about things and these experiences should be the things that changed your worldview and your perception of the world.
You must also describe how these experiences have managed to make you into the person that you are today.
DETAILS
Whenever we are talking about an autobiography, details really count because details are the nails in that picture frame of your autobiography on your life.
The details are the milestones that people are going to remember well and details are the fences that will allow your readers to separate and understand the various moments of your life.
These details may be in the form of smells, sights, feelings, emotions as well as descriptions of objects and how important they were.
If Newton was writing his autobiography, he would have mentioned what the Apple tree looked like and what that morning was like and even what that Apple locked like and how red it was.
Similarly, if you are to want your readers to experience the same that you felt while you were experiencing your life then details are one of the most important things that you must keep in mind.
PROFESSIONAL LIFE
While it is important to have accounts about your childhood as well as detailed accounts about things and places that have shaped you as a person however there is something even more important.
You have probably become this person and much of that credit goes to your professional life.
Therefore, you must dedicate a big part of your autobiography to include your professional life.
It must contain everything from your failures to your success from the different moments you experienced to the different moments you thought you needed to experience but you missed out on.
Your professional life is the moment that has shaped you into what you are today and that will be the most interesting and inspiring moment that you would want to share in your autobiography.
NARRATION
Although you will probably know that you must use 1st person narrative voice but in case you did not know this, we are still going to mention this.
It is quite important that you choose the 1st person narrative voice because that will bring in a level of naturalness into your autobiography.
You might think that using a 3rd person narrative voice would be appropriate and it would probably be but it will be like calling your brother his brother.
3rd person voice is generally reserved for and is usually associated with biographies and the difference between an autobiography and a biography is quite simple.
You can write a biography about anyone but only you can have important input about your autobiography even if you do not physically write it and hire a ghostwriter to write it.
These were a few important elements that you must keep in mind while you are trying to write your autobiography. You must additionally make sure that the title of your autobiography is an interesting one and for this, you can take a look at a few famous autobiographies.
However, not everyone is lucky to have the time and resources to write their own autobiography and many cannot write simply because they are too old for doing such hard work in writing.
Maybe they are busy in their professional life to write their autobiography but they really want to write it and, in that case, the best option is to hire a ghostwriter who is an expert in writing an autobiography.
If you want professional ghostwriters or any writers for hire then we are here to help you because we are Get Best Writers, India’s most trusted Professional ghostwriting agency. We can provide you with writers of every kind for all your content needs.