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I Need Help Writing An Autobiography

25 days ago
I need help writing an autobiography, one that starts from birth and covers the main events in my life, but I need help with knowing how to write the parts of info that aren't the main events in my life, like info on my family, interests and friendships.

I know that I could just look this up on any other site, but I like asking y'all on here, especially since I will be posting my autobiography on this site first.

I Need Help Writing An Atuobiography

25 days ago

Stick with a purely first person POV and don't skip even a second since birth since otherwise it'll come across as lazy.

Jokes aside, these things can be cleared up with broad generalizations. For example, if you are an avid hiker and the biography is about you hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, you may have a sentence towards the beginning like, "my parents took me camping and hiking as long as I can remember so when I started along the trail, I knew exactly what to do."

There's no need to dive into details about camping as a child unless it is specifically integral to what you want the reader to understand about you. Maybe a funny story or something you learned such as the story of how you learned to start a fire, or even better, a time you failed to start a fire and what you learned from it. Biographies aren't generally the length of the encyclopedia, even when written about the most interesting people to have ever lived. The small details aren't really what matters here. Choose a handful of the most important and integral parts of your life and weave them into a collection of stories. The superfluous details can be either eliminated or glossed over in a quick summery. 

Autobiographies, or even biographies, about laymen aren't usually published but based on your post, I'm assuming that isn't the goal seeing as you plan to post it on CYS. I'd say one other thing to keep in mind is to be sure to establish themes. For example, every autobiography I've read has been mainly about one specific thing in that person's life. For example, struggling with addiction, what it's like to be a child actor, how different the life of a royal is. The autobiography should have a message, or something that you have experienced that other people have not, to be well received.  

I Need Help Writing An Atuobiography

25 days ago
I assume it's a school assignment, which makes me wonder why he didn't get more guidelines on it.

I Need Help Writing An Atuobiography

25 days ago
It is not an assignment, but that is a good assumption.

I Need Help Writing An Atuobiography

25 days ago
My brother in Christ, your life is NOT interesting enough for you to write an autobiography completely unprompted. Newsflash: nobody gives a shit about your upbringing in a predominantly white and Christian suburban environment.

I Need Help Writing An Atuobiography

25 days ago
Thanks, I want to make it for fun but also educational/encouraging, while still writing it correctly.

I Need Help Writing An Atuobiography

25 days ago

If it's educational, you can enter it for the Edutainment contest!

I Need Help Writing An Atuobiography

25 days ago
I guess educational is a stretch, but if it checks out, I might as well :)

I Need Help Writing An Atuobiography

25 days ago
No one needs a degree in the life of Blister, he'd be better off researching a subject that interests him and writing about it in a wa way that leaves some room for fictionalizing to keep it entertaining. Honestly this contest kind of fascinates me, there could be some crazy levels of variation and a lot of room for non traditional games in a subject this broad, but, the challenge is still how to make it entertaining.

I Need Help Writing An Atuobiography

25 days ago
I'm actually not sure how to take this to be honest. Part of me is thinking your saying my life is pointless, and the other thinks you're in some way trying to encourage me.

I'm not too sure if I would be able to make a story anywhere near as entertaining or well written compared to the people who are taking part of contest.

I Need Help Writing An Atuobiography

25 days ago
Maybe I should give more insight to what I'm trying to accomplish so there is no confusion. This is the description for the autobiography currently:

This is quite literally part 1 of my autobiography covering my life from birth to present

In this autobiography I cover topics from birth, multiple viewpoints and perspectives, and the choices I have made and how they lead to who I am today. There may be content that is sensitive for people under 18.

I'm writing this in third person with made up names and places, so technically it's still an autobiography. I will also give some perspective from family members and friends, but I CANNOT promise the dialogue to be exact, especially in my earlier years.

I do give the reader different choices, but most will lead to a dead end because the current path I'm writing only goes over what I did, so essentially try to guess what choice I choose and I will tell the reader if they're right and if it was the choice I believe was right, even now.

I will try to add some humor throughout and maybe add some unscripted, obvious humor that didn't happen.

I Need Help Writing An Atuobiography

25 days ago

Dude, two observations. 

First, you are way too young to have enough experiences for an autobiography.  How about just write it in about 30 - 40 years after you have actually done something with your life.

Second. Autobiography, not just biography. This is something that is to be written by you. And If you can't find enough ways to make these parts of your life interesting, nobody else will find them interesting either.

I Need Help Writing An Atuobiography

23 days ago
Thanks y'all, I think I will postpone this writing project for another time, I got more important stuff to do anyways, and it would probably take a lot of work and I'm not sure I'm ready to write something this big yet

I Need Help Writing An Atuobiography

23 days ago
This is an interesting idea. First, why do you feel the need to write an autobiography already? I can’t remember reading one written by anyone still in their teens or even their twenties. Though it’s a vanity project I still think it could be an interesting thing to do though so here is some advice. First, brainstorm interesting experiences that have happened to you and list them as anecdotes. They can be funny, sad, scary or whatever but the key thing is that they are interesting. Details are fine but they should be something people would want to hear about.

Second, read well-written autobiographies of others. I prefer those of comedians such as John Cleese, Stephen Fry or Spike Milligan as some of their experiences are laugh-out-loud. You don’t need to be famous to write a good autobiography but it certainly helps if you’ve either done interesting things or can write about them so they seem interesting. As you’ve put the project off consider keeping a diary or notebook when you can write up things that have happened or as they happen and later you can write them up and expand on them. Meanwhile, read and write as much as possible for inspiration and to develop your writing style. Good luck with the idea!

I Need Help Writing An Atuobiography

23 days ago
Thanks