Question for writers, how does a person formulate and start writing an autobiography?
A friend of mine recently told me that she’s begun writing down her first memories, on her word processor so she can add and change as things come to her. She didn’t write the emotions of the event, just the memory itself without any baggage attached. She’s been on it some time and is finally up to her high school years. She told me that she’s learned so much about herself this way and that once you start that ball rolling, it gets a momentum of its own. I’ve decided to give it a go. I think it’s admirable that you’re considering an autobiography. In many ways, it’s an extraordinary legacy to leave our families. Good luck!
First, get a life. If what you have to write isn’t interesting, it won’t be an autobiography, it’ll be a diary and nobody will read it. People read autobiographies only when someone’s life is interesting enough to make it worth their while. The rare exception is someone like Isaac Asimov, who never did anything but make words but was able to make them so engagingly that his thick two-volume autobiography sold quite well. Second, read other peoples’ autobiographies. The way to write good reading is to read good writing. Third, start writing other things for publication and sale. Unless you can persuade people to buy shorter things you have written, you’ll never persuade anyone, not even a library, to shell out for an autobiography.
