How to Write an Autobiography?

Writing an autobiography is an ideal way to capture the stories of your life and the times you’ve lived in, and unless you're famous, an autobiography or memoirs may be the only way your stories get preserved. If you are famous, an autobiography may be the only way to tell your side of the story and defend your legacy against those infamous "unauthorized biographies."

Steps

Understand your reasons for writing an autobiography. Your autobiography will turn out best if you write it simply because you want to, perhaps to share the experiences of your life with others, to give as a gift for your family, to try and understand your life and the forces that have shaped you, to preserve your legacy, or simply to exercise your desire to write. If money is your primary motivation, keep in mind that, unless you have some renown, your story will be a hard sell. While it's possible to sell a book about a relatively unknown person, the book really has to be something special.
Read some autobiographies. The best way to get a feel for autobiographical writing is to read several good autobiographies. Ask friends, family, and your local bookseller for recommendations. The more you read, the more approaches you'll be exposed to. You can get a lot of good ideas about how to organize your story and make it interesting.
Think about your audience. Your approach to writing will be a lot different depending on who your intended audience is. If you're just writing for friends and family, you can take certain shortcuts because chances are your readers will already be familiar with many of the characters and stories. Writing for publication, however, requires a more thorough approach. Not only will you need to edit the manuscript to perfection, but you'll also need to constantly keep in mind that your readers may not know anything about the people or events in your autobiography.
Develop your theme. A story is generally more satisfying if it has a unifying theme or two. Rather than just reciting the events of your life like a timeline in a history book, think about what the main idea of your story -- the driving force of your life -- is. Maybe you're a rags-to-riches story, or maybe the central theme of your life has been the love of your spouse. Having a theme in mind will make your story more compelling and help you weed out all those unimportant details.
Organize your autobiography. For obvious reasons, chronological order is the most popular style of autobiographical organization. You needn't just go through your life year by year, however. You may want to organize your story more thematically. However you choose to organize your autobiography, it's a good idea to plan it out in an outline.
Jog your memory. The best way to remember the past is to try and find things you have kept from that time, such as photos and letters. They may spark just one memory or a whole chain of them.
Start writing. When you open the floodgates of memory, you will probably be eager to capture everything just right. Don’t spend too much time thinking about style and grammar, just write. You’re probably not trying to win any prizes, and even if you are, don't let the "art of writing" prevent you from telling your story. You can edit later.
Edit your completed work. Once you've hammered out your life story, let your manuscript sit for a few weeks before proceeding to edit it. You may find it helpful to ask others to read your story and comment on it. Take out the extraneous details, tie up the loose ends, and make sure your writing is crisp and readable throughout.
Preserve your work. Ensure you have at least one copy in a place which is safe. If your story is saved on your computer, make sure to save a backup copy. You may even want to back your autobiography up online. In most cases, you'll also want to have a plan for passing on your autobiography. You can do this either by trying to get the book published, publishing it yourself, or distributing copies to friends and relatives.

Tips

Make your story vivid. Use descriptive words. Think about the Who, What, Where, When, How and Why of each memory. Use your senses to help describe your stories. Show, don't tell. At the same time, don't get bogged down in unimportant details.
Honesty is the best policy, but you don't have to include every horrid secret you may be hiding if you don't want to. Conversely, you may decide to spruce up your legacy a bit by embellishing your accomplishments just a little. After all, it's your story.
If your writing is atrocious, or if you just need some help getting your thoughts in order, consider hiring a ghost writer or a professional personal historian. Celebrities do it all the time.
Other things to include in your autobiography: Dedication, Foreword, Vital Statistics, Chronology Sheets, Family Tree, Epilogue.

Warnings

An autobiography is different from a memoir. This wikihow combines the two; make sure you know which you want to write. An autobiography is like a self-written biography; it outlines the events and experiences of the author in a factual way. A emoir, however, is more intimate and focuses on emotion and perspective. Be sure you use the right term for your work, the different titles target different audiences.

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