How to Write a Book About Your Life

Ghost-writing personal stories isn’t just one of my favourite things to do.  It’s also the first thing I did as a professional writer.

Back in 2016 I printed up a sheaf of leaflets – see pic above, and yes I did design it myself, what of it? – which I then shoved through the willing letterboxes of Southend-on-Sea, in the hope that their owners would employ me to write for them.

(I say “willing” because you wouldn’t have got one if your letterbox had said ‘no junk mail’.  I’m considerate like that).

I only received one call from delivering those hundreds of leaflets, but it was from a retired, colourful ex-businessman who wanted me to ghost-write his autobiography.  The project took just over a year, was immensely rewarding, and kept my mortgage paid while I looked for more work.  What’s not to like about that?

Thing is, as I had to admit when I met this man for the first time, I had never ghost-written a book before.  I was going to have to do my research and learn from scratch, step-by-step.  Luckily, he agreed to go on the journey with me, and the resulting book is an absolute cracker (mostly due to his thrilling stories, rather than my retelling of them).

I’ve ghost-written a fair few books since then, so it could be said that I know a little bit more about the process these days.

And these are the questions I always ask people who want to write their life story.

Do you want to write an autobiography, or a memoir?

An autobiography recounts your entire life up to the point the book is written, while a memoir focuses on a specific event or time period (your harrowing ‘hard drugs and alcohol’ years, for example).

Autobiographies tend to be written by celebrities, politicians, and other famous figures, and memoirs by we plebs, about our stand-out life events.

Unless…

Who is your book for?

There aren’t any ‘rules’ about whether you should write a memoir, an autobiography, or anything else, unless your goal is to see it gracing the bestseller section at Waterstone’s.

If you want to write an autobiography and you’re not famous, this probably won’t happen (sorry).  But if you want to write an autobiography that you will later self-publish for your family’s bookshelves, feel free to make a start.

Memoir-wise, if something commercially amazing has happened to you, and there are unique lessons for readers to learn as well, then you might have a chance of getting it published.

If this is your ultimate goal, I recommend approaching literary non-fiction agents with a detailed book proposal before you start writing it (or indeed, spend any money on having it ghost-written).  But again, if you’re just writing it for yourself and your family then you can start straight away, in your own sweet style.

Headline news

If you’ve been putting off writing your life story because you don’t know where to begin or what to include, do as I suggested to a lovely client recently, and make a list of ‘headline events’.

In other words, all the things that spring to mind immediately.  All the things you couldn’t not include in a story about your life.

You can use this list to guide your writing, as you flesh out each part into larger chapters that flow nicely into each-other.  If it’s easier, you can make verbal notes and transcribe them (this works well for recounting natural speech) rather than writing everything down.

Use detail (but don’t get bogged down in it)

Most readers will be more interested in actions, feelings, and memories, than the finer specifics that created them.

To get the balance right, it might help to think of yourself as the central character in a fiction story.  You don’t want to know about her train journey to work, but the weird thing that happened when she got there.

We’ve all got something to say and a personal story to tell, and writing yours can be an exhilarating and immersive experience.

Why not give it a go?

If you’d like to find out how I might be able to help, you can click here, or book yourself in for a friendly chat.