A
dictum of journalism is that there are no boring stories, only boring
writers. With that in mind, everyone's life contains episodes and
anecdotes that could add to a creative autobiography. The important
ingredients of a compelling life story are authenticity, voice, emotion
and flow.
Frances Wilson is the author of Literary Seductions, The Courtesan's
Revenge, and The Ballad of Dorothy Wordsworth. She was an academic for
15 years before becoming a full-time writer, and is a fellow of the
Royal Society of Literature. She was a judge on the biography panel of
the Prize in 2006, and she reviews biography for the Sunday
Times.Frances Wilson is the author of Literary Seductions, The Courtesan's Revenge, and The Ballad of Dorothy Wordsworth. She was an academic for 15 years before becoming a full-time writer, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She was a judge on the biography panel of the Prize in 2006, and she reviews biography for the Sunday Times.Frances Wilson is the author of Literary Seductions, The Courtesan's Revenge, and The Ballad of Dorothy Wordsworth. She was an academic for 15 years before becoming a full-time writer, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She was a judge on the biography panel of the Prize in 2006, and she reviews biography for the Sunday Times.
Read.
To write creatively you must immerse yourself in creative writing.
There are tens of thousands of autobiographies and biographies that can
offer examples of the best and worst. Read the famous and the newly
famous. Contemporary authors who have penned memoirs that captivate
include J.R. Moehringer ("The Tender Bar"), Kelly Corrigan ("The Middle
Use
humor if you have a knack for it. Simple, observational humor can have
your readers chuckling as they turn the pages or nodding in recognition
at perhaps identifiable human foibles.
Begin
in the middle. Instead of starting your story from your birth or
before, grab your readers with a highlight they can identify with.
Capture their attention from the start and they will want to go back to
your beginnings with you as you weave your full life story.
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