How to Write a Biography

Guide Note

A biography summarizes a person's entire life in an informative, yet still captivating, manner. But how do you toe the line between listing raw facts and telling a good story? This page will introduce you to all the methods you'll need to write a comprehensive and entertaining biography.

Table of Contents

How to Write a Biography Tips

  1. Find primary and secondary sources.
  2. Read other biographies on the subject.
  3. Find a theme that differs from current biographies.
  4. Research the subject's historical time.
  5. Get authorization from the subject or his/her estate.
  6. Take some limited artistic license, but keep it factual.

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Introduction

  • The biography is a unique type of historical writing: an analysis of a person’s life. A biography will usually center around someone who had a profound impact on his or her time, though this is not always the case. Depending on where the subject fits in history, the biographer’s job is to find as much information as possible about that person and condense it into a book. It’s a challenging process, but the end result can illuminate readers about a person’s life and accomplishments.

Step 1: Finding Sources

  • Finding sources is an enormously important part of writing a biography. The source material will depend on the era when the person lived. For example, contemporary figures will have modern sources, such as email or video, whereas older figures will have journals or letters. Sources come in three forms: primary, secondary and tertiary.1

Primary Sources

  • Primary sources come from the time when your subject lived. (Creative Commons photo by Benjamin Graves)
    Primary sources come from the time when your subject lived. (Creative Commons photo by Benjamin Graves)
    A primary source is anything written by the subject or during the time the subject was alive.2 For instance, a factual article in a contemporary newspaper about the subject is a primary source. A different biography is a secondary source.3
  • Types of primary sources:
  1. Letters/Email
  2. Journals or diaries4
  3. Published work5
  4. Interviews
  5. Television appearances6
  6. Contemporary fact-based articles (as opposed to editorials)7
  • Just because a person did not live in the recent past does not mean there are no possibilities for interviews. You can also interview authorities on a particular subject, such as college professors and the person who oversees a subject’s estate.8

Secondary Sources

  • The basic rule for primary vs. secondary source material is if the material is fact-based or an interpretation of life events.3 Secondary sources will include:
  1. Interviews with close friends or acquaintances9
  2. Interviews with scholars10
  3. Editorial articles
  4. Other biographies of the subject or related subjects
  • It’s also recommended that a biographer research the entire historical moment when the subject lived.11 So if the subject lived through World War II, extensive research on World War II may be necessary, separate from researching the subject directly. Also, if a biography already exists on the subject (as is very common) you should compare your biographical project to biographies that have already been written.12 What’s your unique spin on the subject? A biography is an interpretation, as much as it is based on facts, so the biographer's own take on the subject is important.11
  • Reading unrelated work, such as other well-written biographies, can help you get a handle on what it takes to compose a long-form biography.13

Tertiary Sources

  1. Encyclopedias
  2. Almanacs
  3. Bibliographies
  4. Textbooks
  5. Manuals14
  • These are very helpful for basic research. There are a number of tertiary sources available online, such as:
  1. The Encyclopedia Britannica15
  2. Bibliographies5
  3. Dictionaries16

Step 2: Getting Authorization

  • There are two major types of biographies: authorized and unauthorized. An unauthorized biography is one that has not been approved by the subject or the subject's estate, if he or she is deceased.18 It can be difficult to get access to primary sources if you do not first get approval from the subject’s estate or relatives.
  • For this reason it is useful to have credentials before researching a biographical subject, as it can be difficult to find people who are open to being interviewed if you do not have a publisher or a list of credits.19 It can also be difficult to get access to a biographical subject’s private journals or letters without proper authorization. However: it’s not mandatory to have a publisher. In order to get access to private records or to conduct interviews you should:
  1. Have a proposal ready for the book, showing how you intend to tackle the subject.20
  2. If possible, show past publishing credits.
  3. Conduct your interview professionally.21
Try to obtain research and publishing rights before you dive into the book stacks. (Creative Commons photo by Joel Bedford)
Try to obtain research and publishing rights before you dive into the book stacks. (Creative Commons photo by Joel Bedford)

Contacting Subjects

  • Contacting a subject depends if he or she is still living. If the subject is still alive, you should contact him/her via email or telephone.22 Obviously, if the person is very famous, this will be difficult, so you will need to contact the subject through other means:
  1. Through an agent (literary, talent, sports, etc.)
  2. Through a publisher.23
  3. Through a webmaster or contact info on a website.
  • If the subject is deceased, you need to find contact information about the subject's estate. If the subject did not leave behind a significant estate, you need to contact relatives. Again, this can be done through a publisher or you can find relatives or acquaintances online or via a printed directory.24 25

Researching Without Authorization

  • It is not a prerequisite to have a publisher lined up, but it is helpful, as this can gain you increased credibility as a researcher.19 If you are unable to gain access to personal files, you will have to look elsewhere for source material. The main places to conduct research are:
  1. The library, including both book and periodical resources.7
  2. The Internet24
  3. Fieldwork, such as visiting the subject’s hometown or other places where the subject lived.26
  • Important Note: an unauthorized biography can result in legal action, even if there is nothing libelous in the biography.18 The subject can sue for invasion of privacy. However, unauthorized biographies are also protected by the first amendment, so an authorized biography won't necessarily guarantee a lawsuit.

Step 3: Conducting Interviews

  • As you conduct your research into a person’s life, you should have a number of questions at the ready.27 In conducting your research you should be looking to prove a thesis, rather than just dryly listing facts about a person’s life. What this means is that you should be coming to your primary and secondary source material looking for certain answers.28 These questions can be answered via:
  1. Phone
  2. Mail
  3. Email
    1. Sending every question at once
    2. Sending a new question based on the previous response
  4. In person with a method of transcription:
    1. Recording device (also applies to phone conversations)
    2. Video
    3. Notepad
  • When you interview acquaintances or scholars you should be looking to answer set questions: such as how childhood impacted the person later in life.29 As you continue researching a subject, your thesis will expand, or even change.

Step 4: Writing the Biography

  • You've got your research materials together: periodicals, interviews, and other source material, as well as your outline and notes, and you're ready to write. The writing of the book should be looking to provide basic biographical information, as well as a unique take on the person's life.
  • The trick to writing a successful biography is to not be overly dry. Avoid merely listing a sequence of dates: a biography is meant to be an objective look at a person's life filtered through the biographer's interpretation.30 Of course you don't want to fictionalize, but the biographer can take some artistic license. So long as you have ample evidence from your research, you can fictionalize to some degree: write about what the subject might have been feeling or thinking at a certain point. However, you don't want to make anything up out of whole cloth.
    Remember to keep your facts straight, but also to keep things interesting. (Creative Commons photo by Eduardo)
    Remember to keep your facts straight, but also to keep things interesting. (Creative Commons photo by Eduardo)
  • Here are the main points to determine about a subject’s life.24
  1. Important dates in the person's life
  2. How the historical time impacted the subject.
  3. How he/she impacted history.
  4. How he or she learned from life experiences.
  5. Major events in the person’s life.
  6. Most influential relationships.
  7. Major and minor accomplishments.
  • Generally, biographies are written in chronological order. However, it’s not uncommon for the biography to begin with a major event from the person’s life and then backtracking to how it all began.

Composition

  • Each biographer is different, but it is very helpful to write an outline before beginning the major work on the biography.31 Determine what is the most compelling information about the person and what needs to remain on the cutting room floor.32 Choosing a subject that interests you is vital because a thorough biography can take years to complete - both research and writing.30
  • Along the way, it is useful to allow people to critique the work to ensure the work is gripping to readers. Parts of the biography can be given to friends, relatives, or an independent editor to help polish the biography as writing continues.33

Conclusion

  • Biographies can be several volumes or just several pages. Condensing a lifetime within the confines of a printed work can be a very challenging undertaking. So long as you research a biographical subject through a wide variety of sources, you'll be able to write an authoritative, and hopefully entertaining, biography.

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References for How to Write a Biography

  1. ↑ Auburn University Libraries: Identifying Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources
  2. ↑ Matthewson-IGT Knowledge Center: What is a Primary Source?
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Alabama Department of Archives and History: Secondary Sources
  4. ↑ Pikle: The Diary Junction
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 LitWeb: Your Source for Author Biographies and Bibliographies
  6. ↑ Paley Center for Media: About Us
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Cornell University Library: Finding Periodicals and Periodical Articles
  8. ↑ Scholastic: Write a Biography
  9. ↑ Freelance Writing Jobs: 8 Great Places to Find Interview Subjects
  10. ↑ Think Quest New York City: How to Find and Interview an Expert
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 42explore: The Topic: Biographies
  12. ↑ H.W. Wilson: Biography Reference Bank
  13. ↑ Metafilter: Great Biographies?
  14. ↑ University of Maryland: Tertiary Sources
  15. ↑ Britannica: Britannica Online Encyclopedia
  16. ↑ Dictionary.com: Dictionary
  17. ↑ Ars Technica: Wikipedia founder: "don't cite"
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 The Publishing Law Center: Publication Of An Unauthorized Biography
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Behler Blog: Credentials
  20. ↑ prlit.com: Writing a Book Proposal
  21. ↑ Free Management Library: General Guidelines for Conducting Interviews
  22. ↑ Access Washington: Request an Informational Interview
  23. ↑ WritersNet: Directory of Publishers
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 About.com: Top Ten Ways to Do a Free People Search On the Web
  25. ↑ Yellow Pages: Find a Person
  26. ↑ The American Folklife Center: How to Do Fieldwork
  27. ↑ Web-Biography.com: Some Biography Interview Questions
  28. ↑ Shaping a Life: Descriptive Questions
  29. ↑ North Virginia Community College: Tips for Preparing Your Biography Interview
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 WritersServices.com: Writing Biography and Autobiography
  31. ↑ Los Angeles Valley College: How to Write an Outline
  32. ↑ The Write Stuff: Steps to Writing a Biography
  33. ↑ Polished Prose: The Unexpected Benefits of Hiring a Professional Editor