Biography is basically jotting down someone’s life in the form of a story and for that, you need a little more than just facts. Gather all the information that is noteworthy and interesting about the subject’s life like their achievements, major turning points in life, and patterns of behavior connected with historical events.
To write a good biography, one should try to encapsulate the entire life of the subject with a hint of personal details and character development. Professional biography writers adopt an engaging method of writing so the readers can connect with the real-life events of the subject and have an intimate look at the outlook of their entire life. In order to write a good biography, some tips and tricks could come in handy which are explained below.
Ask Permission
Seek permission of the subject after selecting an appropriate topic of biography. In cases of death of the subject or the subject being a public figure for example a politician, celebrity or anchor, etc, this step can be skipped. However, in any other case, receiving permission will ease the writing process by covering the research portion of the biography. If the person in question agrees to be biographied, they might fill you in with major and minor details of their life which will make your work a lot more compelling. With the help of one on one interaction, you will also be able to read the person firsthand and identify their basic behavioral patterns to aid your writing.
Do Ample Research
Even if you have gathered all information from the subject itself, extensive research should be followed afterward. Your research will help draw a detailed picture of the person’s motto of life. Were they a historical figure or a scientist or sorcerer? In each case, include relevant information like what time period they existed in and explain their major identity traits. Add a little detail of the surrounding environment and how it affected them.
The primary sources are reliable and prove to be firsthand accounts of your subject’s life. These sources may include entries in a journal, conducting interviews, emails, and memoirs. If the subject has provided information on a personal web address, social media accounts or Twitter/professional bio, this also comes under the domain of a primary information source. For further details after confirming the accuracy of primary sources, secondary sources like magazines and documentaries can be utilized as well.
Form A Thesis
A thesis makes an initial declaration about what the rest of the biography may entail. Subtle hints of all the relevant information and supporting facts that will be later described in the biography are provided within a thesis. Readers should be informed about what they are getting themselves into when they read the first paragraph or chapter of the biography. Make your thesis precise but detailed such that the reader doesn’t feel overwhelmed with information but gets a basic idea about the writing outlook. Use clear words and add a mix of unusual and apparent details.
Make A Timeline
All the main events and situations in a person’s life form the structure of a good biography. These details should be mentioned in chronological order i.e. going from the latest to the oldest events.
Any major circumstances and key events in the subject’s life should be organized according to the required order before you begin writing. This will save a lot of time and energy later. With an organized timeline in hand, you can easily explain each event and even add the relation between two major events, if any exists. By making a timeline, you will save yourself the hassle of reorganizing the story again and again.
Use Flashbacks
In a lot of instances, a certain event in the subject’s life requires supporting details from an event that happened in the past so the reader can fully extract its meaning. An intercut between an event from the subject’s adult life and that of a high school experience might help the readers connect dots with relevant information.
Division of information about the subject’s history avoids the scenario of bogging down the readers with paragraphs over paragraphs exposing their background. The authors can make use of flashbacks to introduce and incorporate past information without making things boring.
Add Your Personal Thoughts
Aside from mentioning facts and life events, a biographer can express themselves in a biography as well. Share your personal opinions about certain events in the subject’s life, tell the reader how you feel about the way the subject interacted with their surrounding environment.
Create links between a noteworthy action of the subject and the effect of that over the larger picture of society. How did the time period and subject’s support system contributed to their achievements? All these details will support the need of writing a biography on that particular individual. With the support of the author’s personal opinions, the audience will find interest and will keep reading from the first sentence to the last.
Throughout the entire process, keep the purpose of writing the biography in mind. You may find the story of your subject interesting and worth sharing or you may want to interconnect the theme of their life to recent times. In short, you find your own reason to choose a subject and bring forth their story in your biography. If you are overburdened and can not find the time to write a biography yourself, try Write My Essay 4 You. They provide assignment, essay, and biography writing services etc with the help of a network of professional writers.