“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
― Maya Angelou, American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist.

You may have been thinking about writing your life story for many years, or perhaps Biografica has been given to you as a gift. If so, you have a whole new unknown experience ahead of you, that we know you'll love. So, to help you with inspiration and get you thinking about how to approach your life story on Biografica we have provided some ideas below.

Think about who will read your story and tailor the content to suit. We have a whole blog post with more discussion of your audience here.

Thought starters

To limber up your mind and get the inspiration flowing, let's get you started on your life story with a few simple items to consider:

  • What are 3 landmark moments in your life and write down a few memorable points about each.
  • Identify 2 important people and make a few notes about what they mean to you.
  • Identify 2 places and make a couple of notes about what they mean to you.

Inspiration, not detail yet

Start jotting down notes and thoughts, but don’t get deep into the detail initially. It's all about inspiration at this point:

  • If you begin writing one anecdote and that reminds you of another, get the bones of the first one down, then move on to the new one and get the bones of that down.
  • You can come back later, but at least if you have the idea down on paper, you will not forget it – in fact – it will probably become easier to write more when you return to it.

Out LifeQuestions will guide you through writing your life but you could start thinking about key elements of life your story relating to people or events:

  • your mother and father
  • your children
  • your grandparents
  • holidays you've taken
  • places you love
  • memorable events you've been to
  • favourite pastimes

Different memories

Remember that most people usually have different memories of events. Your friends or sibling may have a different memory of how particular events transpired. This is your story, so you don't need to have every fact correct. In fact, your impressions are what will be most interesting to people, so don't worry if you can't recall exact dates or addresses. If you receive different details from others, you can always weave those into your recollections. For example: "But my sister, X recalls, it happened like this…”.

What to leave in and what to leave out?

When deciding what to include in your life story when answering our LifeQuestions, try to include anecdotes and details that are:

  • interesting
  • relevant
  • engaging
  • emotional
  • personal

Evocative memories

Colours, smells, sights, sounds. These all help to evoke inspirational memories that will help you write vivid anecdotes. Think about sensory experiences from your life. We've written a whole blog post called Reach out with your senses because we believe they are the key to unlocking wonderful memories, so we urge you to read more there.

 

 

Get Started

 

 

Read more and join our discussion on Facebook or follow us on Instagram for more inspiration to help you write your best life story.