They say that reality surpasses fiction. And some people’s lives indeed surpass the plot of some of the best adventure novels. For this reason, many tend to share these experiences through a book, thus giving rise to the genre of autobiography, an opportunity to make known these episodes that, otherwise, would be forgotten.

If you believe that you have something interesting to tell through this narrative genre, in this paper writing, we will give you the basic tips to make a personal biography and, in this way, share your story with the world.

1. Draw a rough draft with the most important milestones of your life chronologically.

Well, before you start writing your autobiography, it is necessary to consider what to put in the biography. To do this, nothing better than reviewing your life, considering its most important aspects. One that should never be missing is your birth: where it was and your initial context. This will help the reader to approach your figure from the beginning.

From here, it is not superfluous to remember milestones that marked you in the future and that will be part of the story you want to tell. It is not superfluous to consider different blocks such as childhood, adolescence, adult life, the arrival of a child, etc. Once you have a list of these important episodes, it will be time to organize them (but we’ll get to that a little later).

2. Discard the least important. Think about the reader.

If you already know the most critical milestones in your life, it’s time to start sifting through them, considering their interest for the reader. Remember that, no matter how much an anecdote has marked you, it may not deserve the reader’s attention. The first step to know how to write an autobiography is to have your feet on the ground.

For example, the memories of those afternoons with your friends playing games may be a pleasant episode in your life, but if you share them with other people, you will see that they are just a common reminiscence. On the other hand, if something happened during these moments that really marked you, which is out of the ordinary, this is a milestone that should not be missing in your autobiography.

3. Connect everything in a common thread, and give meaning to all the chapters.

As in any book, a personal biography must maintain a common thread. It may seem simple: your life is the connection of everything. But we encourage you to go a step further. For example, you can talk about the biggest milestone you’ve ever had: starting a business, achieving an improbable success, etc.

While this event may be clear initially, you should add aspects of your life that, little by little, reach this point in your biography. Continuing with the example of a person who has managed to create an important company, some milestones that should not be missing are your education, your first steps in the working world, etc.). It is important to create a thread between all these points of history, not to make disconnected jumps and jumps between them.

4. Leave an ending to which you can give continuity. Remember that you can tell more things (you still have to live…).

Fiction has an introduction, knot, and outcome. The conclusion of your autobiography, that is, your life has not yet arrived. There are still interesting episodes that are worth telling. Therefore, don’t write a period, but a period… or a period. The story can surely continue somehow!

Returning to the example we mentioned in the previous point, that of someone who starts his company, you can continue the story with some important moments in the day-to-day running of this business, or the episode in which new generations join it and changes come to this model.

One of the characteristics of autobiographical texts is that as long as the author continues to gain experience, they can be expanded, or even give rise to a continuation in the form of a new literary installment.

5. Revise your autobiographical draft.

It is a good time to look for a beta reader. Well, that’s it, isn’t it? You have selected the most important episodes of your story, respected the main thread, and written your autobiography. Congratulations! But, sorry to say, there is still some work to do before you contact a publisher to publish this manuscript.

The first, and most important is to review this draft to see if it is of sufficient quality. Not only will it be necessary to look for possible spelling mistakes, but it will also allow you to see if some passages of the book can be eliminated, as we explained in point number two of this list.