How to Write an Autobiography of Myself
An autobiography, in simple terms, is a story of a person’s life written by himself or herself. This is according to wisegeek.org. While many people in the world feel that their lives are worthy writing about, they lack relevant skills to pen their stories for the world to read. Because of this, most personal stories are written by other people or co-written. To master the art of how to write an autobiography of myself, you must understand all facets of your life from childhood, including everything that you wish the world to know.
Whether the subject writes the words of his life or hires another person, an autobiography is written from a first person perspective. This creates the existing distinction between autobiographies and biographies. With autobiographies, the writer goes beyond giving facts and dates to personalize the story. Below are some of the tips on how to write an appealing autobiography.
Six Steps on How to Write an Autobiography of Myself That Is Appealing To Readers
When you choose to put your story on paper, do not always start thinking of turning your autobiography into a book to sound successful. Many people write excellent autobiographies without publishing them as books. The most important thing is the insight you gain as you compile your ideas.
Here are some helpful guidelines on how to write an autobiography of myself:
Step 1 Start your story randomly. Put down all that you vividly remember. Do not ignore anything because it appears insignificant. Chances are you remember them because they are meaningful to your story.
Step 2 Review your notes. Go over your notes and try to identify a theme, which the memories depict. In most cases, autobiographies have one theme.
Step 3 Put your thoughts together. Figure out how you want to do your story by organizing your thoughts. You can organize your book thematically, start with remarkable events in your life or start with the present going back to the past.
Step 4 Talk to family members and friends. Engage your loved ones to help you fill your memory gaps as you remember different experiences in life. Since including other people in your autobiography could affect your relationship with them, consider concealing their identities.
Step 5 Be as descriptive as possible. Do not just give a chronology of events in your life. Hold the reader by painting an image of how everything looked like, sounded, smelled, etc.
Step 6 Be honest as you write. An autobiography will lose its value if you are not honest with your life experiences.
Sample #1 Autobiography:
I was born in Houston, Texas in a nuclear family. I grew up in a small family of four, comprising of my parents and my brother. I enjoyed school days because I learned new things in life. I had special interest in subjects like history, science and languages. However, I hated the mechanical learning process, which teachers employed.
Even though I was good in class work, I had passion for sports, drawing and music. I concentrated on understanding concepts and not merely memorizing ideas. Upon graduating with a major in chemistry, I changed the course of my career life by taking up environmental journalism. I attribute my life today to this turning point.
Now that I currently work and enjoy my passion as an environmental journalist, I want to focus on transforming the society by advocating for a green economy.
Full autobiography at buzzle.com.
This excerpt highlights some of the elements discussed in the above guide when writing an autobiography. For example, the writer describes his childhood, including what he loved and hated. He also captures a major turning point when he took up environmental journalism. In terms of being sincere, the author notes how he hated the mechanical learning process in school.
How to Write Your Autobiography with Chronological Organization
Perhaps an interesting aspect of autobiographies is the use of chronological organization. This is arranging events in the order in which they happened. For example, you could describe your life from your birth up to today. When figuring out how to write an autobiography of myself, it is necessary to revisit specific events in your life, which would attract readers. Take a look at this first paragraph of Dan Mahoney’s autobiography:
I was born in 1974 in Manhattan, just five minutes after the birth of Steven King in Maine. I spent my childhood in Manhattan and Queens, before realizing that I was the first born in a family of five. At the age of sixteen, I had already graduated from high school. This meant that I could not get a driving license in New York. At 17, I joined the Marine Corps, after working as an auto mechanic for a year. Within a short span, I was in Vietnam operating guns with the 9th Marines. For me, it was the worst job on earth.
Retrieved from danmahoney.com.
From this first paragraph of the autography, Mahoney vividly recalls his childhood, growing up in Manhattan as a first-born. He remembers clearing high school while still too young to drive in New York, enlisting in the Marines and finding himself in Vietnam. Here, the reader can follow the sequence of events from when the writer was young to when he joined the 9th Marines at the age of seventeen years.
Besides having a chronology of everything that happened in your life, you may choose a specific period and relate different events the way they happened. Since none of us remembers being born, start your autobiography with your childhood. Alternatively, you may focus on an exciting time of your life, say, joining campus, marrying, or landing your dream job.
Take look at another example of an autobiography:
My name is John Kay. I was born in Taiwan in 1969 Taipei, where I lived for over thirty years. During that time, my father worked as a civil servant while my mother was a homemaker. She spent all her time at home taking care of us.
Visit elc.byu.edu to view the rest of the autobiography.
In this example, the writer talks about his parents, describing their occupation when he was growing up.
Why You Should Choose Chronology When Writing Your Autobiography
When working out on how to write an autobiography of myself, consider chronological organization because of the following reasons:
- Chronology is straightforward
- Easy for the reader to understand flow events
- Easy to get the context of events
Since not every event in life is interesting, avoid boring moments that are likely to put off readers. Thus, there are alternative approaches to apply when writing an autobiography. Get more details about these approaches in the following sections.
More tips on how to write an autobiography of myself
Another way of writing your autobiography is by putting life events together, depending on particular attributes, which make them similar. This is called thematic organization. For example, if you have several children, you may choose to compare and contrast their behaviors, tastes and preferences, and hobbies among others. Alternatively, you may have a chapter on weddings, where you describe all the family weddings you witnessed and took part.
The example below shows you how to write an autobiography of myself with thematic organization:
I was born and raised in Marin County. I schooled at Marin Catholic High School before graduating in 1977. I immediately joined the University of California at Berkeley between 1977 and 1980. While at the university, I majored in Computer Science. However, I studied other courses alongside my major. I enrolled for Classics, Dutch and Astronomy. After the years, I took a break of one year, but to the disappointment of my parents, I never went back to campus.
Retrieved from: idiom.com
The theme in the above paragraph of an autobiography is education. The writer recalls his high school, and campus years at the University of California where he studied computer science but dropped out.
Importantly, you are at liberty to choose the themes of your choice, which will help you tell your story with a lot of ease. Also, ensure that you explore a particular theme completely before moving to the other.
Thematic organization is important because a reader interested in a particular theme, say, marriage can quickly turn to it without having to go through the whole write-up.
How to Write an Autobiography of Myself with Anecdotal Organization
Being creative is important in knowing how to write an autobiography of myself. With anecdotal approach, you piece together amusing stories of your life for your readers. Most comedians and humorists use this approach when writing stories about their lives.
Anecdotal writing makes reading enjoyable since everything in the autobiography will be amusing to the audience. However, its undoing is that it may force you to leave out parts of your life that are not amusing, leading to an incomplete portrayal of yourself.
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ONLINE SOURCES:
http://danmahoney.com/newbio.html
https://blog.udemy.com/how-to-write-an-autobiography/
http://www.scanyourentirelife.com/how-write-a-autobiography-vs-memoir-difference-life-story-secret-tips/
http://www.howcast.com/videos/346332-how-to-write-an-autobiography/
http://www.wikihow.com/Write-an-Autobiography