How To Start Writing A Book About Your Life?

Do you have a fascinating life story that you want to share with people? Are you interested in learning the art of how to start writing a book about your life? You’ve landed at the right place. This comprehensive guide will walk you through how to start writing a book about your life.

Writing a book about your life and publishing it is an entirely different process than writing and publishing a novel or someone else's memoir. However, your story is important. It holds meaning. It’s about your legacy.

This book about your life shall be passed on from your kids to their kids and, consequently, may stay in your family for years and years. So, when’s the appropriate time to begin writing your memoir?

When To Start Writing Book About Your Life

If your life was filled with adventure and drama, you could make one exciting and compelling memoir. For many of us, it’s just a way to let our descendants know about us. But would they be interested in learning about you? Let’s put it this way, wouldn’t you want to know about your great-grandparents or ancestors? The same would be with your descendants.

While many people think that the best time to start writing a book about your life is towards the last stages of life. When you can reflect back on your entire life and document it all. Nonetheless, there may be various explanations for why you shouldn’t wait till then:

• Death comes like an uninvited guest. You never know when you're getting close to the end of your life.
• At a later age, it may be not easy to figure out life back then
• You could lose your memory or not precisely remember details
• You could get caught up with other affairs.

A better time to begin writing your memoir would be now. But, before you start doing so, determine whether you want to write:

• An Autobiography – this covers all aspects of your entire life
• A Memoir – this may cover one or more aspects of life, but not the entire.

Start with documenting critical moments from your past, in the case of an autobiography. And critical moments, from that aspect of life, in the case of a memoir. One question may still bother you;

Why Should You Write A Book About Your Life?

Every individual has a unique life narrative. Nobody can live the same life as another. Everyone should take some time and document their lives, even if they don’t intend to publish it, do it for yourself.

• Your Story Defines You

Writing a book about your life lets you let go of the previous mistakes you’re holding on to. It enables you to embrace the past sorrows that haunt you to date. Talking about your story has a powerful impact on your personality.

The way you tell your story and interpret your life profoundly impacts what kind of a person you are and have become. It lets you get to know yourself and better comprehend the decisions you've made. This can help close issues that you’ve been guilty of. Writing your story can enlighten you.

• People Love To Learn Experiences

A lot of people think that to write a memoir or autobiography, they must be famous. However, that isn’t true. Conversely, people can benefit from the experiences of ordinary and not so famous people better than someone famous.

Because regular people can resonate with their stories, it’s easy for ordinary people to picture themselves in their place. Your book about your life can actually have an impact on people’s lives; they can benefit from your experiences.

Your book can help people learn from their mistakes and not repeat them. So, no matter how infamous or regular you are, you should share your experience.

• Negative Vs Positive Experiences

There’s always some hidden good in something terrible. While experiences may sound positive or negative, once you reflect back on them, only then do you understand the hidden good in them.

Sharing both experiences can be of great benefit to readers. For instance, if the reader is facing a similar situation, they can benefit from your experience. At the same time, positive experiences help add an optimistic touch and hope to the story. Saving it from being an entirely sad and negative narrative.

Pros Of Writing A Book About Your Life

There are many powerful advantages besides the ones discussed earlier, not only to your life but to your family and society as a whole. These reasons may compel you to put a hand on the keyboard right away!

• Leaving behind a legacy for your descendants
• An addition to history, who knows, your book may become part of course books too
• It provides the writer with a clear purpose.
• It’s therapeutic
• Let’s out your creativity
• Increase your income

Above all, it provides you with a sense of achievement each time they look at your book about your life.

How To Start Writing A Book About Your Life - Easy Steps

There are numerous approaches to writing a memoir or autobiography. But before that, you need to decide upon a few basic guidelines discussed below. Starting with:

1. How To Write a Book Title?

A good book title has five attributes:

• It captivates attention
• It’s easily memorable
• Gives an idea of the book
• Easy to pronounce
• Not offensive or problematic to say out loud.

But why does the title matter? Because a title is the first impression of your book. Before the cover, a prospect reads out the title. Hence, it must be captivating enough to grab the attention of the prospect instantly.

The title lets your readers determine whether or not they should read your book. Consequently, a good title will boost the performance of your book. And if the title doesn’t deliver, regardless of the quality of your book, people won’t read it.

Captivating attention and getting forgotten is easy. However, captivating attention and being memorable is often challenging. While a unique and captivating title may grasp the reader’s attention, it must not be so unique that the reader’s unable to recall it.

An informative title is a crucial aspect of a memoir or autobiography. Especially given that you aren't well-known. If people can’t comprehend your book from the title, there are fewer chances that they may buy your book.

To write a compelling and unique title for your book, start by clarifying your goals. Brainstorm a few potential titles. Check for keywords, copyrights, popularity and trademarks. And lastly, after running all checks, pick the best one.

2. Setting The Tone Of Your Memoir Or Autobiography

While a voice and tone may be connected, they are two different elements. For instance, if you’re writing a humorous memoir or autobiography, the tone will be light and funny, whereas the voice would have to adjust to the tone.

If your story is filled with pain, terror, dark and agonizing experiences, that doesn’t oblige the tone to be dark either. Neither does it compel the voice to be heavy, depressing and dark.

The tone of your memoir can be serious, angry, thoughtful, light-hearted and even sad. Or, you can even incorporate more than one tone throughout the book. However, you shouldn’t ever sound like you’re looking for sympathy or whining about your life experiences.

The audience will sympathise with a sad story, but make sure it doesn’t overtake the entire book. This will eventually annoy the reader. Because this can come across as complaining, as no one likes that even involuntarily in real life. So, what would make a reader voluntarily read your complaints?

You must make sure that your voice reflects the personality intended. In the case of a high entertainment voice, humour can be the personality.

Tones may vary from scene to scene, but the overall tone must be consistent. Some other basic tones include:

• Formal or informal
• Pessimistic or optimistic
• Sincere or hypocritical
• Hopeful or fearful

3. Writing The Intro Of The Your Memoir Or Autobiography

Beginning from the starting lines until the end of the first chapter of the book about your life, it should deliver a powerful, realistic and captivating opening. If you’re writing a book about your life for the first time, you would want to consider following these tips:

• Engage your readers from the very beginning

An excellent memoir would keep the reader hooked up from the very first word.

• Increase the reader's trustworthiness

The book about your life will be sharing your details with total strangers. From the beginning, you want to gain the readers’ trust. You want to start as if you’re telling an essential secret to the reader that no one knows till now. This will make the reader feel special and build their trust from the beginning.

• Emotional appeal

The book about your life must be capable of bringing out the readers’ emotions. You must pour out your heart in the beginning few pages to do so. Use a tone that resonates with your readers on an emotional level, but do so without the intention of gaining sympathy or whining.

• Add humour

Reading memoirs like those of David Sedaris can inspire you to add humour to yours. Someone who has read his memoir knows how well he has incorporated humour. He can make you laugh even in moments that are the saddest and most dismal.

So, even if you have to add a sad or depressing story, do so by adding humour so that the reader responds to the emotions and doesn’t feel depressed throughout the book of your life.

• Sprinkle some drama

Starting off your book about your life with a dramatic moment is a classical attempt to hook your readers from the beginning. While it isn’t necessary to explain the entire event at the beginning, you can give a glimpse of it. And then later revisit it in detail during later chapters.

Take it as a pivotal point for later in the book, to mention the powerful and compelling beginning.

• Keep it relevant

Telling a story face to face, you make sure you don’t get off track and just narrate one story at a time. Maintain that same approach for the book of your life. There are a gazillion details that you would want to share with your readers.

So, don’t get too overwhelmed, consequently mixing up details and confusing the audience. The reader wouldn’t be interested in knowing what your grandma made for Christmas unless the story revolves around it.

• Write the beginning at the end

When you start writing your book about your life, the perfect beginning may not be easy to come up with. In case your writer’s block is building a hindrance, remember that to begin writing, it’s not necessary to start with the beginning.

You can start with the end or the middle first, too, and then work on the beginning later on. It’s preferable, to begin with, the part that you’re passionate about the most. And while drafting your copy, you’ll surely figure out the perfect beginning.

You’re probably wondering where you should begin to write about your life? This leads us to the last part of our comprehensive guide.

4. From Where To Start Writing The Book About Your Life

Writing a memoir or autobiography requires a good, all-embracing story. The best way to start writing a book about your life is by starting to dig out your childhood memories. You can begin by inquiring among your family members.

If you have healthy living grandparents, start by interviewing them. Often grandparents love their grandchildren more than their own. So, they might have stored or recorded the tiniest pieces from your childhood. But, since they might be old, so be a bit gentle and don’t sound like you’re interrogating them.

Next, you can talk to your parents. Look if they’ve any video recordings of you from your childhood or any pictures. These can flash bits and pieces of memories. And then you can ask your parents for the entire story behind them.

Interviewing both your parents and grandparents individually can bring forward different versions of the same story. Then you'll be able to make the connection and form an entire scene more accurately. Also, while interviewing them remember to turn on your cell phone’s sound recorder.

Pick the most appropriate memories you've gathered for your book.

1. Start Writing From Childhood Memories

While writing childhood memories, make sure you highlight the lessons you’ve learned from them. We’ll share a few examples for you to take inspiration from:

• Cheaters never win

Once, I was tempted to cheat on my midterm exam. At the moment, I did score outstanding. However, I got so used to it that it ruined my concepts later on. And then I had to repeat an entire academic year to rebuild them.

Moreover, a decade later, when I volunteered to teach as part of a social internship program. One day, I was requested to invigilate an exam. When, during the exam, students were cheating. I looked back and felt so guilty for doing the same.

• Never tell people about your insecurities

I've always felt self-conscious about my nose and height. Once, I intentionally confessed to it before a very close friend. The next day she publicly announced it, which made people bully me.

• Grade don’t define your competence

A good GPA doesn’t guarantee a bright career. Neither does an F ruin your life. I still remember during elementary school, I never made it to the top 10. And let’s just admit it, we were all busy having fun.

Moving ahead, a few years later, in high school. Everyone, including me, struggled to make it to the top 10.  One of my Latin teachers told me that I was a sharp and astute student. It was then that I understood that grades don’t determine success.

I should instead build memories in school than put my nose in books, and memorise lessons.

And in case you’re finding it difficult to translate them onto paper, you can benefit from our book writing services.

• Enjoy your childhood to the fullest

Childhood is one of the happiest phases of an individual’s life. It is universal that we want to grow up soon as kids. While as adults, we wish we could rewind time—those carefree days when life was simple.

Getting excited to go to school on the first day. Learn to ride a bike with your dad. Witnessing old McDonald’s commercials can be pretty nostalgic. I wish I could be as impressive of a dad to my child as my dad was to me.

Following your childhood memories and lessons, you can continue with teenage, adulthood, etc. Or you can simply let us handle the writing while you reminisce about your old days. Simply reach out to us for our book writing services.

Conclusion

This comprehensive guide on how to start writing a book about your life walked you through when is the perfect time to start writing a book about your life—moving to why you should consider writing a book about your life.

And all the way to how to start writing a book about your life—concluding with a few samples. On that note, if you’ve got the motivation to write a book about your life, but writing isn’t just your thing, then you can always opt for our book writing services. Writing Services Hub has a team of professional writers that can help you with all your writing-related requirements.