Our Biography 101 starts with a definition of what a biografie is. Firstly it's a person's life story written by someone else for the needs of public entertainment and as a historic document. It can take the kind of a book, a film, an on line web entry or blog post. It may be a family scrapbook documenting the history of its varied members and in its shortest form could be a transient profile of a person from a specific facet of their lives for instance a sportsperson.
Irrespective of which media it is revealed in, a biography should be a factual document that unearths somebody's character, the events and landmarks in their lives and their triumphs and tribulations. It will give an insight into what has shaped a person and developed them into the individual they became. The biography wants to capture chronologically the path of life quite literally from cradle to grave or to present day.
Some people have such vivid and packed lives their biographies run to above one volume and in the case of highly favored subjects; the next volume of their biography is enthusiastically awaited by the fans.
A biography does not have to be written about a living subject either, many wonderful biographies have been written with astonishing awareness of detail about historic figures from sovereigns to priests, royalty to riff-raff and saint to sinner. Whoever the topic, the analysis abilities of the memoirist and his writing style can make or break the admiration for a biography. Too factual and it becomes boring, too anecdotal and it lacks gravitas (however for many current day celebrity biographies the more lurid the better).
The right balance is a work that gives us the facts, figures and dates we need for the timeline and the events, memories, stories and occasions experienced by the topic to give a pleasantly-rounded view.
Irrespective of which media it is revealed in, a biography should be a factual document that unearths somebody's character, the events and landmarks in their lives and their triumphs and tribulations. It will give an insight into what has shaped a person and developed them into the individual they became. The biography wants to capture chronologically the path of life quite literally from cradle to grave or to present day.
Some people have such vivid and packed lives their biographies run to above one volume and in the case of highly favored subjects; the next volume of their biography is enthusiastically awaited by the fans.
A biography does not have to be written about a living subject either, many wonderful biographies have been written with astonishing awareness of detail about historic figures from sovereigns to priests, royalty to riff-raff and saint to sinner. Whoever the topic, the analysis abilities of the memoirist and his writing style can make or break the admiration for a biography. Too factual and it becomes boring, too anecdotal and it lacks gravitas (however for many current day celebrity biographies the more lurid the better).
The right balance is a work that gives us the facts, figures and dates we need for the timeline and the events, memories, stories and occasions experienced by the topic to give a pleasantly-rounded view.
About the Author:
Julian Roon is a dutch writer specialised in Biographies. This subniche is named biografie schrijven in the Netherlands. Other areas include (in Dutch) : Biografie, biografie schrijven, levensverhaal laten schrijven, biografie laten schrijven, levensverhaal schrijven, autobiografie schrijven, levensverhaal en eenbiografie maken.
