How to Make a Short Autobiography of Yourself

An autobiography provides insight into your life.

An autobiography is a retelling of your life through your own words. While most autobiographies are rather lengthy -- generally, autobiographies are books -- the story of your life can also be summarized and shortened to any length you wish. You can write your own autobiography or have a professional writer produce it for you, as long as the work is subjective, reflecting your personal thoughts and opinions.

Instructions

1. Ask yourself as many questions about your life as possible and explore what makes you different from others. Pretend you are a journalist interviewing yourself about your life's events.

2. Write down the top five highlights of your life, as well as the low points. Consider the path you followed in your life and the catalysts that took you from one life stage to the next.

3. Compare the ambitions you had earlier in life with your actual achievements or shortcomings and examine what potentially caused discrepancies between them, if any.

4. Speak with family members and close friends, and interview them about their thoughts on your life. Don't shy away from tough questions and broach subjects that are not typical of conversations you have with these individuals.

5. Organize all the notes you have from your introspection and interviews with family and friends. Highlight the portions that stick out. From these, pick three to five highlights that you consider to be most informative and interesting.

6. Create a first draft of your autobiography. Write the autobiography in chronological order and in first person.

7. Allow your first draft to sit for a few weeks without reading or editing the work. This allows you to clear your mind and approach the autobiography with a fresh perspective when you're ready to pick it up again.

8. Read and edit your first draft. Ensure the draft is succinct and flows from one portion to another. Don't list every single detail in the highlights you're including, but create a clear picture of what you're trying to convey.

9. Allow the autobiography to sit again for a few weeks before picking it up a final time to check for spelling, grammar and succinctness. Type up a final draft and come up with a title for your autobiography.

Tips & Warnings

• Ensure that the portions you are including in your short autobiography make sense to anyone who may read it, even if they don't know you. Assume the reader knows nothing about your life when writing.

References

• David Douglas Ford: How to Write an Autobiography
• Sitepoint: How to Write an Attention-Grabbing Professional Bio
• Family History Products: Sample Autobiography