Writing Your Autobiography

Writing your autobiography isn't as intimidating as you may think. Whether you've lived a life of great adventure or suffered through one hardship after the next, chances are you have an interesting story to tell. Writing an autobiography is an ideal way to capture the stories of your life and may be the only way these stories will be preserved.

Before beginning, ask yourself why you want to write your autobiography. Your autobiography will turn out best if you write it simply because you want to, perhaps to share the experiences of your life with others, to try to make sense of your life and the forces that shaped you, or simply to exercise your desire to write. If money is your main motivation, your autobiography-unless you're famous-will be a hard sell. In other words, you need to care most about the writing, not the money.

It's also important to read lots of autobiographies before beginning. The more you read, the more ideas you'll get on organizing your story and making it interesting, and the more approaches you'll come across on what works and what doesn't.

It's important to develop a theme to make your story more satisfying. Rather than simply reciting the events of your life chronologically, think about what the main idea of your book-of your life-has been. Has there been a constant theme in your life? Something you've been searching for? Some sort of quest? Think about what's most important to you and build your story around that. A theme will make your story much more compelling.

For obvious reasons, chronological order is the most popular style of organizing an autobiography. A logical beginning would be your childhood but you may want to discuss your ancestors briefly if they helped shape who you are. You may also want to skip over certain years. You don't need to go through every year of your life and probably shouldn't. It's a good idea to have an outline before you begin.

Try jogging your memory for long-forgotten events by looking through photos, letters and diaries, and asking friends and families for their own memories. You may also want to re-vist places you haven't been since childhood. All kinds of memories are locked in our brains which can be revived if only we look for them. The sense of smell is especially effective in bringing back old memories since it's so closely tied to the part of the brain where memories and emotion are held. Try smelling-as in inhaling deeply-things you haven't smelled in decades-lilacs, honey, the ocean, certain perfumes-to see what memories resurface.

While writing, think about what stories you've told people about your life. Try to write the way you'd tell a good story around a campfire, so people will hang on to your every word.

Once you start writing, the floodgates of memory will begin to open. Don't worry about style and grammar in the beginning. Just write and let your mind take over and worry about those things later.

Once you've finished, let your work sit for a while before going back to it and beginning the editing process. It's also a good idea to ask others to read your story and make comments on it. Listen to their suggestions. It's amazing what others pick up that we ourselves don't see.

Good Luck!

Laurie has 18 years experience in editing and writing and would love to polish your work so it sings. She specializes in cutting out the clutter, ensuring that every sentence is clear and necessary, and enjoys tweaking writing so it says what it needs to say. As a published author with Penguin and Bantam, AND as an editor at a publishing house, Laurie has been on both sides of the business and so understands the need to preserve your style yet make your work professional and error-free. Laurie is an editor at http://www.editingoffice.com