There are many people who would like to write a book about their own life. But almost as many people ask themselves the question: How to write a biography? To find an informed answer to this question, you need to answer a number of other questions yourself. We have summarized these questions in this article. This will give you a whole series of tips that will help you answer the question: How to write a biography? If you are thinking about writing an autobiography, you have at least thought about why you want to write a book about your life. And that brings us to our first tip for your biography.
Tip 1: Answer the question why you want to write a biography
What was or is special in your life that makes you ask the question: How to write a biography? Do you want to process something you have experienced? Have you had any experiences that you would like to pass on to others so that they can learn from them? Is it your career that you have had in politics, business or sports? Were there any adventures or special journeys you experienced that you want others to share? If you have answered the question why you want to write an autobiography, then at least the content is already clear. And that brings us to our second tip.
Tip 2: Think about who should read your biography.
Should the book about your life be for your closest circle of relatives and friends, or do you also want to make it accessible to an anonymous readership? Because you must be clear about who should or wants to read the book about you, if you ask yourself: How to write a biography?
The readers in question have a decisive influence on the character of your book. For example, if you write a lot of things about your life that only friends or acquaintances can relate to, then your autobiography may become uninteresting or even boring to “outsiders”. With the answer to the question of who should read your biography, we inevitably come to the third of our 7 tips for a successful book about your life.
Tip 3: Determine how much openness you are comfortable with
The question of how much openness you trust in your biography brings us to a very important point. Because with this, you inevitably decide how much you want to go into depth? What do you want to reveal about your life? What should or may other people know about you? What is better not to tell? Of course, the principle applies: the more unknown details you divulge about your life, the more interesting your biography will be. Especially for the people who know you.
But be aware that everything you write must withstand the opinion of a critical public. Be careful not to damage your personal image. As you can see, there is a lot to consider in the question: How to write a biography?
Tip 4: Do not confuse openness with honesty!
How openly you deal with details from your life in your biography is up to you. We have dealt with this topic in the previous section. This is an area that you must have clear for yourself. But what applies to every biography is the principle of absolute honesty. What you write must in no case be untrue or serve to gloss over any facts.
The more public your autobiography is made, the more it must be able to stand up to objective scrutiny. Do not write anything down just to justify yourself for something or to put yourself in a better light. That’s why we think that absolute honesty is an absolute must when it comes to the question: How to write a biography?
And again, please do not confuse honesty with openness. If honesty in your biography puts you in an embarrassing or even damaging situation, then it is better to simply leave out the passage than to conceal it with untruths. There may always be someone who was there and knows better. Then it is all the more embarrassing.
Tip 5: The writing style - relaxed, humorous, authentic
This brings us to the fifth of our tips that we would like to give you to find answers to the question: How to write a biography. Your text should be easy to read. Tapeworm and nested sentences, foreign words, technical terms and anglicisms take the fun out of your biography for the reader. Try to write in a relaxed yet serious style.
Since you report on your life, bring also gladly a few humorous incidents to paper. After all, you don’t just want to tell your fellow human beings or posterity how bad your life was. Let some self-irony flow in. Bring episodes from your life, which humans did not know yet necessarily. Also, don’t be afraid to reveal one or two “secrets” that your fellow human beings have always speculated about anyway. The more surprises readers learn about you, the more interesting your autobiography will be.
Tip 6: Integrate appropriate images
A biography without pictures is not a real biography. That’s why we think pictures are a must. If you want to tell something about your life, you can enrich it wonderfully with pictures from your life or from the events you are writing about. It is more pleasant for the reader if the continuous text is interrupted by pictures from time to time. It is easier for him to understand the situations described if there are appropriate illustrations. The question: How to write a biography? – must therefore be expanded to include the question: Which pictures fit the respective text?
Tip 7: In doubt, let someone write the biography for you
Now we have given you a lot of tips on how to successfully write a biography. You see, you don’t necessarily have to have studied German to write a book about your life. But there are a few things you should keep in mind to make the text entertaining and reader-friendly.
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However, if you are now at a point where it is getting too complicated for you and you remember that you have already landed in the lower third with your essays in German classes, then we have a seventh and final tip for you on the question: How to write a biography? – Have it written! And not by some expensive ghostwriter, but by Meminto.
With the help of Meminto your biography will be written. In our next blog post we will explain how it works. How to get your biography in a relaxed way over a period of one year, and not just as a script, but as a printed book in fine quality with a fancy cover. Let us surprise you.
How to write a biography? – With Meminto!
