How to Write a Good Autobiography

Author Writing on Her Computer

Some people's lives seem to read more like a story book than reality; if yours is such a life, then you may find that you have a solid book idea if you turn it into an autobiography. Not only is an autobiography a great way to leave your mark in time, but it also allows you to assess your life and focus in more closely on what you really have accomplished during your time on Earth--and what else you can still accomplish. Here are some suggestions to help guide you through both the writing and editing process of an autobiography.

Instructions

1. Practice free association and create a story map of your life. Write down the ten best moments of your life and then follow it up with a list of the worst five events that happened to you. Explore any links that are associated with both sets of events and write down any emotions that you associate with them. Look for the shared emotions between the two sets of events, and think about how you process events both when they are positive and negative. This is called free association, and in the end you may be surprised to see a clear picture of the way you operate outlined on paper.

2. Stop for a moment and think about the emotions that are reoccurring in your list. This is a clear sign of what moves you emotionally; think about how these emotions impacted your career choices, relationships and professional choices. Essentially, you are creating an emotional time line of your life to correspond with the physical time line of your life that you already have framed in your mind.

3. Take a step outside of yourself and talk to your closest friends and family members. Conduct an interview with them as if you were an objective third party, and encourage them to answer your questions as objectively as possible. Sometimes in order to form a better picture of ourselves we need to take a step outside and look through other people's perspectives. Also, your friends and family members may remember poignant details about significant time periods in your life that will provide deeper insight into who you were at that time in your life. You never know where a silly or serious anecdote that will fit into your book will come from.

4. Give yourself time in between drafts. This allows you to get away from writing and editing so that you are fresh and rejuvenated when you come back to your material. Write your first draft and stay on schedule, making sure to include breaks for yourself intermittently. If you try to push the development of your autobiography, you are likely to burn out and never finish.

5. Edit, edit, edit. Along the way you will have fresh insights and new subject matter to add to the content of your book. There is no such thing as adding too much material to a book, because an editor is going to delete sections out weather you want them to or not.

Tips & Warnings

• Assign yourself a writing room in a quiet location, along with a writing schedule. Denoting one area as your work area will help you quickly settle into writing as you begin and make it more natural as you continue in comfort. Your friends and family members are going to be the best editors for you, since they know you and will be the first to point out your errors in memory or when the story starts to drag--so use them! Remember to keep an open mind to criticism. Since you are writing about your life, it is easy to get defensive, but comments are usually directed towards the flow of the book and the style of writing, not at you, so stay objective and heed advice.

• Always ask permission when quoting someone, and make sure that you cite any copyrighted material you use in your book.