How can I write a compelling biography?

Question

Here's the scoop: In a college class, I am assigned to write a biography on a famous individual since 1500. I don't know where to begin, and I need some guidance on how to write a research paper on an individual's biography. Your help is greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

First, find a compelling individual. Famous doesn't necessarily mean compelling.

You need access to the specific details of a person's life as well. You'll need to decide what exactly makes a person compelling; is it things they overcame in their youth? Is it personal traits, tragedy, extraordinary skills?

You'll likely be able to do a much better job if you can identify with the particular individual.

Find someone who has some extraordinary skill / traits / events that you are able to identify with. Choose your starting point well. You don't have to begin with "So and so was born on the tenth of ....." You can begin with an event and describe it in detail. Perhaps a basketball player is shooting the winning shot of a game just as the buzzer sounds. A car narrowly avoids careering off a road. A midwife barely makes it to a home through a Northeaster and saves a young mother's life. Starting with a significant and exciting event can be a powerful technique.

Find more than one source of information. Reading a single book about an individual only provides you one author's viewpoint. Read about the area in which the person was raised. Read about historical events that happened while the person was growing up. Find out what shaped the person and molded them into who they are.

All of this takes time, but to write a compelling biography, you really need to know and understand the subject. You can't do this with input from only one author.

Read other biographies; not necessarily about your particular subject. What makes a good biography; what keeps you on the edge of your seat; what keeps you from wanting to put the book down? That's what style is about. What tools did they use to keep you entranced in the book?

So:

Find an interesting subject.

Learn about them from multiple sources; Movies, books, personal interviews, radio recordings, etc.

Try to identify with the subject.

Learn about multiple biographical styles and choose one, or elements of many that you would like to emulate.

Try to find an interesting way to tell the story; it doesn't need to be chronological.

Try to avoid common writing errors.

Have someone else read it and mark areas that are confusing, ambiguous or even boring. Make changes as necessary.

If something doesn't add to your story, get rid of it. Don't include content just to increase page count. Each word should have a purpose.

Tailor the language to the intended audience. A biography written for a scholarly audience will necessarily read differentlly from one written for the general public or for children.


Anyway, these are some of my thoughts. Hope they help.

Answer 2

Depending on the length required or wanted, my advice might not apply:
Write it with interesting sensory details and melodic tones, expressing the person's feelings. Make a story out of his life, not just a boring list-like eulogy. The key to being compelling is the wording. Some puns could be incorporated (but don't ever write NO PUN INTENDED) and some subtle alliterations liven things up.
Childlife is a very interesting topic, but it should not be the entire piece. Their childlife explains why they were the way they were.