We’ve all had that thought in our minds – “I should write down my life story and share it.” You may have endured several trials, climbed many mountains and witnessed several miracles in your timeline that could make even the most critical reader an instant fan. So, how do you start to put years of experience into a two- or three hundred-page book, preferably one that readers, outside of those you know, will want to pick up?
Well, it’s not an easy feat, but taking the right steps to prepare the book will make the autobiography less impossible and more possible. At Xulon Press, we regularly read our Christian authors’ autobiographies, so you might say we have an idea of what constitutes as an interesting life story. Here are some helpful hints to keep in mind as you tackle one of the most rewarding, and time-consuming, assignments of your life:
- A good first step is to write out what events in your life you want to include in your autobiography. Do you want to start from the doctor’s first words of “Here’s your baby” to present-day, or do you want to focus on a specific time in your life, such as your salvation testimony or overcoming your recent cancer battle? Deciding on this will influence you, as the writer, to consider what stories will appear in your book.
- Determine who your audience will be — teens, young adults with families, senior citizens, just your family, etc. Having in mind whom you want to benefit most from this exploration into your life will help to narrow down what approach to take. You don’t want to include a chapter about the pains of arthritis if this book is geared towards teens or young adults. This will also help you choose a tone as you don’t want to come off as sarcastic or emotional if that would not apply to your audience and autobiographical content.
- Once you have the basic approach, creating an outline of your book might be the next step. Establishing the main chapters of the book with a brief synopsis of each chapter will pave the way to organize your stories in a more attainable approach for writing. If a problem arises, you can always fall back on your original outline for guidance.
- Finally, now that you have started writing out your autobiography, keep in mind to not go on wild, descriptive tangents about certain stories that may go on for pages. Although readers will enjoy reading memories from your past, they may be bored if you go into a three-page discussion about everything you ate for Thanksgiving dinner when you were four years old (especially if it doesn’t apply to the proposed theme or audience of your book).
As we have learned from several of our treasured self-published authors, you will be amazed to see what you have been able to do in your life thus far and where God has taken you since birth. Some of our Christian authors have gone on to write a second autobiography or two, as they have determined there are several additional nuggets of advice and words of wisdom they would like to share with readers.
Whatever the goal may be, we hope and pray for several successes as you write your autobiography and would enjoy having the pleasure of reading your finished product as one of Xulon Press’ self-published authors.
