How to start an autobiography
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Autobiography story structure
by George Odhiambo
(Mombasa, Kenya)
Question: I am working on my autobiography and would like to get guidance on the structure. Can you please help?
Answer:The principles of story structure are the same, regardless whether the story is true or not.
The challenge with a real life story is that one life often contains many stories. So you have to carefully select which aspects of your story are the most relevant to the meaning you wish to convey.
Generally, a biography or autobiography covers an entire life. So the four acts of the story generally look like this...
Act 1: Setup (Childhood)
Here you convey the early influences, including the environment you grew up in and the significant people and events. Set a context for what comes later.
Act 2: Complication (early adulthood)
Here you describe the aspirations and challenges you faced early on, how you took advantage of opportunities, setbacks, etc. Sometimes this is where friends and enemies are made. It is the journey through life.
Act 3: Crisis
Here you describe the major turning
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How to Write an Autobiography: A Beginner’s Guide
Why to Write an Autobiography
Everyone has a good story to share. An autobiography is an opportunity to tell a life story and shape how others remember us. It’s an entire lifetime of experiences and memories, and a unique path through life’s ups and downs that is worth recording. This blog post will provide guidance and tools on how to write an autobiography.
A Memoir is an Autobiography, but an Autobiography is Not a Memoir
The difference between a memoir vs. autobiographies is that a memoir is a subset of an autobiography. Both a memoir and an autobiography tell the tale of a life, but an autobiography captures the whole story while a memoir describes a mere chapter. An autobiography walks the reader through a chronology of life, while a memoir moves back and forth through time as needed to illustrate the point. While an autobiography truly is a life story, a memoir can focus on certain aspects or time periods to tell a specific story.
What’s Included in an Autobiography?
An autobiography should include at least the followi
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Autobiography vs. Biography vs. Memoir
The three primary formats of a memory book, used to tell a life story, are a biography, an autobiography, and a memoir. Distinguishing between the three can feel a bit confusing since they all share several similarities. But there are some distinct differences.
Simply put, a biography is the life history of an individual, written by someone else. An autobiography is the story of a person’s life, written by that person. And a memoir is a collection of memories written by the person themselves.
What is a Biography?
A biography, also called a bio, is a non-fiction piece of work giving an objective account of a person’s life. The main difference between a biography vs. an autobiography is that the author of a biography is not the subject. A biography could be someone still living today, or it could be the subject of a person who lived years ago.
Biographies include details of key events that shaped the subject’s life, and information about their birthplace, education, work, and relationships. Biographers u
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