Writing a Biography

Learn to Write Biographies

This course is relevant to biographical writing for:

• Books and Screenplays
• Profiles (e.g. in a conference program, a government submission, or a business report),
• Resumes,
• Obituaries,
• Newspaper articles, Magazines, Web Sites, Social Media listing, or anywhere else

Biographies are hugely popular, whether you are a film star, have been resident in the White House, or are a war veteran, biographies provide a rich source of reading for many. They can provide information about eras, experiences, and about the world.

• Do you have an interest in people and in their experiences?

• Would you like to write about events and experiences that are an inspiration to others?

• Study Biographical Writing with ACS and learn about the processes of writing - from determining the initial concepts, through planning, and obtaining evidence, through to editing, publishing, and marketing a work.

Lesson Structure

There are 8 lessons in this course:

1. Scope and Nature of Biographical Writing
   • The difference between a biography and autobiography
   • Unauthorised biographies
   • Using ghost writers in biographies
   • Choosing your subject
   • What do biographies cover?
   • Timelines
   • Fiction versus Non fiction
   • Uses for biographies
   • Biography vs. Memoir
   • Sequels
2. Researching a Biography
   • Types of Evidence - primary, secondary
   • Using Evidence
   • Fair Use
   • Where to find evidence - newspapers, diaries, research, interviews
   • Conducting an Interview
   • Secondary sources - reference books, biographies, online sources, libraries, archives
   • How to deal with conflicting sources and information
   • Citations and Referencing
   • Ways to reference
   • The law - slander and libel
   • Information in the public domain
3. Developing Context
   • Using themes
   • Determining Your Theme
   • Mapping links
   • Defining purpose
   • Developing the theme
   • Themes and Structure
   • Using Context
   • General planning
   • Unauthorised versus authorised biographies
   • Considering rights
   • Protecting copyright
4. Short Biographies
   • Principles of the Short Biography
   • How to start
   • Distilling Information
   • Obituaries
   • Social media bios
   • Blog bio
   • Author bio
   • Magazine profiles
   • Professional bio
   • Preparing to write from life experience
   • Approach
5. Comprehensive Biographies
   • What makes a comprehensive biography comprehensive?
   • Writing about living versus deceased
   • Writing a Great Biography
   • Voice in Writing
   • Some essential writing skills
6. Planning a Biography
   • The Short Outline
   • The Detail-Heavy Outline
   • Outlining the biography
   • Defining a theme, writing to a central theme
   • Word Budget
   • Organising Chapter Content
7. Editing and Marketing a Biography
   • Editing
   • Writing a Sales Package
   • The Publishing Process
   • Publishing Processes for Ebooks
   • Self-Publishing Your Work
   • Distributing and Selling your Work
   • Grants for Writing
8. Project – Writing a Biographical Story
   • In this final lesson, you will bring together everything that you have been learning to undertake research and construct a first draft of a biographical piece of between 2,000 and 4,000 words.

WHAT YOU LEARN HERE HAS A MULTITUDE OF APPLICATIONS

Biographies are used in many different areas of writing.

Books may seem the most obvious area where a biography is written. There are a lot of authorised and unauthorised biographies available as books.  But not everyone wants to write a whole book about a particular person. There are other areas, such as – 

• Screenplays – biographies can be used to developed screenplays for films, such as the Frost/Nixon biography
• Business reports
• Obituaries
• Newspaper articles
• Magazine articles
• Website articles
• Social media listings
• Blogs
• Conference programmes
• Professional profiles
• Government submissions
• Resumes/CVs
• Biographies can be short stories, or a full-length book.  

Biography or Memoir?

While these terms are often used interchangeably, there is a distinct difference between biographies and memoirs. Biographies are dependent on research and can be written by the subject (autobiography) or about an other subject (biography). They may be considered historical documents. 

Memoirs are written by the subject and are not considered historical documents. There is usually little research involved, unless it is required for deepening an aspect of the telling or providing some context. This is because memoirs are about an individual perspective, as opposed to documenting or chronicling a life history. 

Although memoirs require less research, it is often a good idea to read around the general area you intend to write about and gather other perspectives. It can also help you situate your personal story, or think about in a new way, which may prove helpful to you.
Memoirs do not have to be comprehensive or linear. They can be written about a single period, life event, interest, or aspect.

Sequels

Comprehensive biographies rarely have sequels unless new information comes to light. This is especially true when the subject is deceased. If the subject is living, a sequel may be released after enough time has passed. This is commonly seen in celebrity biographies.

Shorter biographies may have follow-ups, which cover later life or earlier life. 

Memoirs may have sequels, because they cover a smaller portion of the subject's life. The writer and neurologist Oliver Sacks published many books, each dealing with a different section of his work or life.