A biography is the written history of a person's life. It seems that a biography is written about almost every famous person who has ever lived. Our society loves to read true stories about people's lives, especially the famous ones. Why? I believe it's because the stories of how these people became famous are interesting . Something has made them unique; whether it's intelligence, charisma, luck, brilliant ideas, exceptional talent or hard work, we want to hear about it; we want to read their biography, their life story. This web page gives advice on how to write a biography.

Biographies are big business. Go to any store or library and count the amount of biographies on the shelves--you'll soon give up; there are just too many. A person's life history is in high demand.

If you want to learn to write a biography, here are some tips:

Research. You've got to get the life story correct; if you don't, you lose credibility. Go to the subject of your biography and interview them extensively. Tape record the interview. You will have to work with them closely throughout the creation of the biography. Interview their friends, family, and acquaintances to get different points of view on their life story. Ask to read their personal letters, journals, emails, memoirs, anything anyone has written to them or about them or received from them. Research and verify their accomplishments--education, jobs, etc. The credibility of the biography is dependent upon the accuracy of the facts and opinions. If the person is deceased, thorough research becomes even more important.

Write Down the Main Highlights and Memories of the Person's Life. Let these highlights be reference points in your biography.

Outline the Biography. There are different ways to approach the writing of a life story. You can write it in a linear, timeline fashion, starting from childhood, progressing through adulthood. Often, it is more interesting to organize it like a tapestry, winding its way through themes in the person's life. Or perhaps you want to focus on just one segment of the person's life history, or one time period. It's up to you to decide what will make the biography more interesting to the public.

Become a Storyteller. Great biographies are not newspaper articles which include just facts and statements in chronological order; they are stories which have tone, dialogue, plot, character development, conflict, emotion, etc. Your biography will become better as you write it more like a story.

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