Steps to Writing a Biography

Writing a biography is much more than just listing life events in chronological order. Nobody is going to find that kind of writing very interesting. A good biography needs to be not only organized but it needs to bring out emotion in the readers. Here are some steps to writing a biography that everyone should know before attempting to write one.

Find an interesting person. This is perhaps one of the most important steps to writing a biography. A writer will find themselves much more able to write an interesting and compelling biography if the subject is someone who truly interests the writer as a person. This interest will be the motivating factor to push the writer in trying to find out everything that they possibly can about their subject. If a writer chooses someone that they have no personal interest in, then their biography is going to reflect that disinterest. The writing will suffer as a result of this. So, number one in the steps to writing a biography is choosing the subject, and in particular, a very interesting aspect of the subject that people may not know a lot about.

The next step to writing a biography is to decide how you want the story to go. Figure out the questions that you want to ask the subject or research about them. The next step to writing a biography is remember to always include the readers in your compilation of questions. Always keep in mind the sort of questions that the readers may have about the subject and include those. List the questions in a notebook where you can quickly reference it and make sure you have all your answers lined up with the correct questions.

Once you’ve decided on your subject and gathered all the pertinent questions that you think you’ll need to ask the next thing to do is to learn everything you possibly can about your subject. Read everything you can possibly find on them. Research every single interview this person ever gave. If the person is still alive, interview them. Do everything possible to learn as much as you can about your subject, this is an extremely important step to writing a biography.

Now you’re ready to write. Take all the information that you have been able to find on the subject through interviews, research and questioning and compile it all into a compelling story. As you begin writing, determine what information is duplicated and needs to be tossed, what particular topic may grab the reader’s interest and need to be elaborated on. There are so many ways, in the steps to writing a biography, to put the information together but only a few of them will work perfectly for your particular subject. Figure out who your potential readers may be. If you’re writing about some Hollywood celebrity then most of your readers may be young adults, teens or bored housewives. On the other hand if you’ve chosen the President of the United States as your topic then generally most of your readers will be of the more intellectual types. Determine your potential readers and write to them. Make the story interesting to their level.

Another important step to writing a biography is to determine the order of your story. Some may want it to be in chronological order but it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way. As long as there is some kind of order to the story, it’ll work. So, organize and make sure it all pulls together.

The last thing that needs to be done in your steps to writing a biography is to edit and edit again. Check your grammar, spelling and organization. Make sure the story grabs the reader’s interest and holds it to the very last page. Follow these steps to writing a biography, and you'll be sure to have a book worth reading.