Be A Better Writer -- BIOGRAPHY
Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2014 10:29 am
A biography is the story of a person’s life, told by someone else. Obviously, in just 750 words, you will not be able to write a person’s entire life story without simply summarizing or listing their milestones and achievements—and no one wants to read that. So for this challenge, you’ll probably have to highlight just a few specific events—or maybe only one event. However, it’s conceivable that you could write a person’s entire life—or the most significant years of it—if you come up with a creative, non-list-y way of doing it.
There’s not much to say about writing style or format, but the one that’s really necessary is that a biography should be written in third person.
However, a biography is more than just the relating of the events of a person’s life. A biography should also tell how the person reacted to the event(s), how the event(s) changed him or her, the consequences of the event(s) within the circles in which the person moves—family, community, perhaps even the whole world. In other words, the biographer definitely needs to go deeper than just surface level. In addition, beware of writing your biography in such a way that it sounds like a school report or an encyclopedia article. You still need to use all of the writing skills that make writing compelling: good word choice, good pacing and the like.
A biography need not be of a famous or notable person—but choose your subject carefully. Keep in mind that one of the judging criteria is How publishable is this for its intended audience? While you may find your great-aunt Griselda’s life fascinating, ask yourself if the intended audience (readers of biographies) will be equally fascinated. My family has lots of fascinating, funny, and touching stories—all families do—but they are mostly interesting to me because they are mine. Others lack the “insider” status that’s necessary to find them as entertaining as I do. It’s not forbidden to write about a family member or some other non-famous person; just be sure, if you do, that this person’s story has universal appeal. You could also write a biography of a fictional person, in a pinch.
Edit after posting: If you're writing about a notable person, or anyone not personally known to you, you should cite your sources. This could be done as an author's note at the end of your entry, or within the text. I recommend the author's note, as it's less disruptive to the flow of your writing. The author's note will not be counted as part of your word count.
So who should you choose to write about? I can’t really say, but I’ll certainly suggest that you brainstorm quite a bit on this one. There are a few people whose names will probably come up several times this week, and you don’t want to pick a subject who someone else has also picked—while the judges are impartial, readers may not be, and you don’t want them thinking, I already read a story about Joe Schmo. I can skip this one.
Here are some groups of people you might consider choosing a biographical subject from:
1. Artists, musicians, writers, dancers, actors, athletes, other performers
2. Activists for peace, freedom, justice , equality, liberty
3. Founders of charities, unsung heroes
4. Scientists, inventors, innovators, discoverers
5. Religious leaders, past or present
6. Firsts (first woman to…first American to…first African-American to…)
7. Criminals, antiheroes
8. Political figures. Think beyond ‘presidents.’
9. Overcomers (disability, poverty, prejudice, victimization)
10. Someone from an unusual country (not Britain, but Burkino Faso…) or an unusual time period (not the 1800s or 1900s, but the 1200s or the 600s…)
Be sure to do your research well, if you are writing about a noted person. If you decide that you want to write about Gertrude Gork, the gal who invented the tiny rubber bands that go on kids’ braces (I totally just made her up), and you’re not the foremost Gertrude Gork scholar, you really want to be sure to get your facts correct. Others who know more about Gert will inevitably catch you in any mistake or inconsistency that you make, and of course you don’t want to say something happened in a real person’s life when it actually didn’t. When you’re writing a memoir or autobiography, you’re permitted to take some license with your own life story and perhaps to condense events or create composite characters. But you really can’t take liberties with the facts of another person’s life.
Finally, if your subject is not a noted personality and is still alive—perhaps he or she is someone known to you—don’t write about them without their permission.
No homework this week, but I’d welcome:
1. Your comments or questions about this lesson.
2. Suggestions for future classes
3. Cookies
Biography - Part 2 - Examples
There’s not much to say about writing style or format, but the one that’s really necessary is that a biography should be written in third person.
However, a biography is more than just the relating of the events of a person’s life. A biography should also tell how the person reacted to the event(s), how the event(s) changed him or her, the consequences of the event(s) within the circles in which the person moves—family, community, perhaps even the whole world. In other words, the biographer definitely needs to go deeper than just surface level. In addition, beware of writing your biography in such a way that it sounds like a school report or an encyclopedia article. You still need to use all of the writing skills that make writing compelling: good word choice, good pacing and the like.
A biography need not be of a famous or notable person—but choose your subject carefully. Keep in mind that one of the judging criteria is How publishable is this for its intended audience? While you may find your great-aunt Griselda’s life fascinating, ask yourself if the intended audience (readers of biographies) will be equally fascinated. My family has lots of fascinating, funny, and touching stories—all families do—but they are mostly interesting to me because they are mine. Others lack the “insider” status that’s necessary to find them as entertaining as I do. It’s not forbidden to write about a family member or some other non-famous person; just be sure, if you do, that this person’s story has universal appeal. You could also write a biography of a fictional person, in a pinch.
Edit after posting: If you're writing about a notable person, or anyone not personally known to you, you should cite your sources. This could be done as an author's note at the end of your entry, or within the text. I recommend the author's note, as it's less disruptive to the flow of your writing. The author's note will not be counted as part of your word count.
So who should you choose to write about? I can’t really say, but I’ll certainly suggest that you brainstorm quite a bit on this one. There are a few people whose names will probably come up several times this week, and you don’t want to pick a subject who someone else has also picked—while the judges are impartial, readers may not be, and you don’t want them thinking, I already read a story about Joe Schmo. I can skip this one.
Here are some groups of people you might consider choosing a biographical subject from:
1. Artists, musicians, writers, dancers, actors, athletes, other performers
2. Activists for peace, freedom, justice , equality, liberty
3. Founders of charities, unsung heroes
4. Scientists, inventors, innovators, discoverers
5. Religious leaders, past or present
6. Firsts (first woman to…first American to…first African-American to…)
7. Criminals, antiheroes
8. Political figures. Think beyond ‘presidents.’
9. Overcomers (disability, poverty, prejudice, victimization)
10. Someone from an unusual country (not Britain, but Burkino Faso…) or an unusual time period (not the 1800s or 1900s, but the 1200s or the 600s…)
Be sure to do your research well, if you are writing about a noted person. If you decide that you want to write about Gertrude Gork, the gal who invented the tiny rubber bands that go on kids’ braces (I totally just made her up), and you’re not the foremost Gertrude Gork scholar, you really want to be sure to get your facts correct. Others who know more about Gert will inevitably catch you in any mistake or inconsistency that you make, and of course you don’t want to say something happened in a real person’s life when it actually didn’t. When you’re writing a memoir or autobiography, you’re permitted to take some license with your own life story and perhaps to condense events or create composite characters. But you really can’t take liberties with the facts of another person’s life.
Finally, if your subject is not a noted personality and is still alive—perhaps he or she is someone known to you—don’t write about them without their permission.
No homework this week, but I’d welcome:
1. Your comments or questions about this lesson.
2. Suggestions for future classes
3. Cookies
Biography - Part 2 - Examples