I’m here to share some of what I’ve learned about writing biographies, because it’s truly a journey of bringing a person’s past back to life, showing who they were, and crafting a story from all the bits and pieces of their existence. It’s an incredible undertaking, but believe me, it’s full of challenges. From the massive amount of research to the delicate work of building a story, biographers often find themselves tangled in tricky ethical situations, missing information, and the sheer weight of someone else’s life and legacy. This guide is all about giving you, whether you’re just starting out or you’ve written a few, practical ways to tackle these hurdles. My hope is to help you turn those potential problems into stepping stones for a truly compelling and honest life story.
The Start of Something Great: Getting Over the First Big Humps and Figuring Out Your Idea
This whole adventure doesn’t start with a pen in hand, it starts with an idea – a strong urge to dive into someone’s life. But even right at the beginning, the challenges are already there.
1. Picking the Right Person: It’s More Than Just Being Fascinated
So many writers, myself included, are drawn to people from history or even living figures just because we find them absolutely fascinating. And while that passion is crucial, it’s not enough on its own. The “right” subject isn’t just interesting, they also come with the practical elements that make writing a biography actually do-able.
- The Challenge: You might dive headfirst into a subject where you just can’t find enough information, or even worse, it’s a person everyone has already written about a hundred times.
- What I Suggest You Do: Do a quick “audit” of the person’s life first.
- Can You Find the Information? Are there lots of primary sources out there – things like letters, diaries, old church records, interviews with people who are still alive? Can you actually get to these sources? For example, if you’re hooked on a forgotten Victorian poet, can you find their letters in university archives or someone’s private collection? If the really important documents are locked away or have been destroyed, your project immediately hits a huge wall.
- Does Their Life Have a Good Story Arc? Does their life naturally lead to a compelling story? Are there times of big changes, conflicts, triumphs, or struggles? A life lived in quiet obscurity without any clear movement might be historically interesting, but it’s going to be tough to turn into a gripping narrative. Think about someone like Amelia Earhart: her life has a clear path of ambition, achievement, and ultimately, an unsolved mystery, which practically creates its own dramatic arc.
- Is There a Readership (or Are You Just Super Driven)? Is there an audience for this person? Have definitive biographies already been written, making it hard for you to offer something fresh? If so, can you find a unique angle (like focusing on a specific time period, relationship, or something that’s never been looked at before)? If you’re doing this just for yourself, not necessarily to publish, then readership isn’t as big of a deal, but being able to actually complete the project is still super important.
- A Real Example: Let’s say you’re completely captivated by a lesser-known jazz musician from the 1940s. Before you fully commit, search library catalogs, academic databases, and music archives. Find out if their personal papers were donated to an institution, if anyone ever interviewed them, or if their bandmates are still alive and willing to talk. If you can’t find much significant material, it might be time to move on to another subject or at least narrow your focus to a specific, well-documented part of their life.
2. Finding Your Own Unique Angle: It’s More Than Just the Facts
Every single life is a collection of countless stories. A truly successful biography doesn’t just list facts; it interprets them and presents a clear, consistent point of view.
- The Challenge: You might end up just listing events in chronological order without a main idea or a fresh perspective.
- What I Suggest You Do: Figure out your “through-line” or main argument early on. What about this person’s story still matters today? What lasting impact did they have? What insights does their life offer into human nature, society, or a specific era?
- Focus on a Theme: Are you exploring their growth as an artist, their political influence, their psychological challenges, or their impact on a particular movement?
- Offer a New View: Are you challenging established myths or giving a new interpretation of their legacy based on new evidence?
- A Real Example: Instead of just writing a general biography of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, you might choose to focus on how his evolving views on slavery shaped his leadership. You could use his letters and speeches to show how his moral convictions and practical political skills grew. This gives you a clear framework for deciding what information to include and how to present it.
Navigating the Complex World of Research: From Old Papers to Usable Information
Research is the absolute foundation of any trustworthy biography. It can be incredibly exciting, but it can also feel completely overwhelming and be full of ethical dilemmas.
1. The Archives: Becoming a Master at Finding Original Sources
Primary sources are the raw ingredients of history. They offer direct glimpses into someone’s life. Being able to find and understand them is a skill in itself.
- The Challenge: You might struggle to find hard-to-get documents, gain access to archives that have restrictions, or even just deal with handwriting that’s hard to read or old-fashioned language.
- What I Suggest You Do:
- Plan Ahead and Make Contact: Get in touch with archives, libraries, and private collections long before you actually plan to visit. Understand their rules for access, their hours, and any fees. Some might require a formal letter of introduction or specific research credentials.
- Go Digital First, Then Dive Deep: Start with digital collections if they’re available. Lots of institutions are putting their manuscript collections online. This lets you do some initial scouting and helps you figure out which in-person visits are most important.
- Be Persistent and Polite: Librarians and archivists are the custodians of invaluable resources. Build a good relationship with them. Be clear about what you need to research, thank them for their help, and be patient with their procedures.
- Transcribe and Organize: Develop a really good system for transcribing difficult handwriting and organizing your notes. Tools like Evernote, Scrivener, or even just well-labeled physical folders can be incredibly helpful. Date and source every single piece of information meticulously.
- A Real Example: If you’re researching a Victorian explorer, you might spend weeks trying to decipher their handwritten field diaries. Focus on the parts that are relevant to your unique angle, noting any words you can’t read or any interpretations that are just guesses. Take pictures or scan pages for later review, rather than relying only on your memory.
2. The Art of Interviewing: Getting the Truth, Not Just a Performance
Talking to people who knew your subject – family, friends, colleagues, even rivals – gives you unique, often very nuanced insights that you won’t find in written records.
- The Challenge: Getting sources to really open up, dealing with stories that don’t match up, memories that are distorted, and even the subject themselves wanting to control their own story.
- What I Suggest You Do:
- Preparation is Critical: Research the person you’re interviewing thoroughly. Understand their relationship to your subject and any potential biases they might have. Prepare a list of open-ended questions designed to get them to tell stories, not just give yes/no answers.
- Listen Actively and Be Empathic: Create a comfortable, safe environment. Listen more than you talk. Show genuine interest and empathy. Avoid leading questions. Ask sensitive questions gently.
- Fact-Check and Cross-Reference: Never rely on a single interview for factual certainty. Always back up what someone tells you with other interviews and primary documents. If an interviewee disputes a widely accepted fact, make a note of it and look for more evidence instead of just dismissing what they said.
- Think Ethically: Always get informed consent before recording. Be clear about how their words will be used. Be ready for a source to want to withdraw information or ask to remain anonymous – always respect their wishes while still maintaining the integrity of your biography.
- A Real Example: If you’re interviewing the adult child of your subject, you might hear a very different interpretation of their relationship than what you find in public statements or letters. Ask follow-up questions like, “Can you tell me more about what that felt like?” or “Were there specific events that shaped that perception?” Then, compare this perspective with other accounts or the subject’s own private writings.
3. Navigating the Digital Wild West: Checking Facts in the Age of Too Much Information
The internet is a vast treasure trove of information, but a lot of it isn’t verified, is biased, or is just plain wrong.
- The Challenge: Figuring out which online sources are trustworthy and which aren’t; avoiding falling into an “echo chamber” where you only see information that confirms your existing beliefs.
- What I Suggest You Do:
- Prioritize Reputable Sources: Look for academic journals, university press publications, trustworthy news archives, and established institutional websites (like museums or national libraries).
- Cross-Verify: Never rely on a single online source. If a fact appears on a Wikipedia page, track down the sources it cites. If a claim is made on a blog, verify it with an independent, authoritative source.
- Be Wary of Opinions Posing as Facts: Learn to tell the difference between well-researched analysis and someone’s personal opinion or fan theories.
- A Real Example: You find a fascinating anecdote about your subject on a fan forum. Instead of including it right away, search for the verifiable source of that anecdote. If you can’t trace it back to an interview, a letter, or a credible news report, it probably belongs in the realm of folklore, not in your biography.
Building the Story: From Bare Facts to a Compelling Narrative
Once all the research is done, the real art begins: taking all those separate facts and shaping them into a unified, compelling story.
1. The Burden of Dates vs. The Power of Themes
While a person’s life unfolds chronologically, your biography doesn’t have to follow a strict timeline. Sticking rigidly to dates can often kill the flow of the story and hide important themes.
- The Challenge: Your writing might become a monotonous list of “and then this happened” events; you might fail to highlight key turning points or overarching themes.
- What I Suggest You Do:
- Find Your Key Moments: What are the crucial moments, decisions, failures, or triumphs in their life? These are the anchors for your story.
- Use Thematic Chapters: Instead of just “Childhood,” “Adolescence,” consider chapters like “The Formative Years: Seeds of Rebellion,” or “The Creative Crucible: Finding Voice.”
- Use Flashbacks and Flashforwards Carefully: A short flashback can shed light on an action happening now, or a flashforward can hint at a future outcome, adding dramatic tension. But avoid too much jumping around in time, which can confuse the reader.
- Focus on the “Why” Over the “What”: Concentrate on the motivations, the psychological shifts, and the long-term impact of events, rather than just listing them.
- A Real Example: Instead of “Chapter 3: 1920-1930,” you might have “Chapter 3: The Weight of Expectation: Early Artistic Struggles.” This allows you to jump across those years to bring together all instances of the subject grappling with parental pressure or creative block, rather than segmenting them by year.
2. Filling the Gaps: Smart Guesses vs. Making Things Up
No matter how much research you do, you’ll never have every single answer. There will always be missing pieces. Your challenge as a biographer is to bridge these gaps responsibly.
- The Challenge: You might either avoid important context because you’re missing information, or, even worse, you might invent details to fill those blanks, which destroys your credibility.
- What I Suggest You Do:
- “Show, Don’t Tell” Your Uncertainty: When you really have to speculate, make it clear to the reader by using phrases like “It is likely that…” “One can infer…” “Perhaps…” “It’s plausible that…” Based on known facts, you can construct a highly probable scenario.
- Use Circumstantial Evidence: If a letter is missing, but other letters frequently mention the sender, you can discuss what the likely contents or emotional tone were, based on the established relationship documented elsewhere.
- Never Fabricate: If you don’t know something, state that the information is unknown or undocumented. Inventing dialogue, scenes, or internal thoughts crosses an ethical line and breaks the reader’s trust.
- A Real Example: If you have no record of your subject’s reaction to a loved one’s death, but you have letters written immediately afterward that show a noticeable change in their correspondence patterns or tone, you can describe this change and suggest what it “indicated” or “suggested” about their grief, rather than inventing a scene where they break down crying.
3. The Voice of Authority: Balancing Objectivity and Interpretation
A biographer is both a reporter and a storyteller, an objective observer and an interpretive analyst. Maintaining this balance is absolutely vital.
- The Challenge: You might either present a dry, clinical recounting of facts with no personal voice, or you might inject too much subjective bias, becoming an advocate for or against the person rather than a biographer.
- What I Suggest You Do:
- Develop a Consistent Tone: Your narrative voice should be authoritative, clear, and engaging. It’s an invisible presence guiding the reader.
- Let the Evidence Speak: Support all your interpretations with documented evidence. When you make a statement, trace it back to your sources.
- Acknowledge Complexity, Avoid Simplification: Life is rarely black and white. Show the contradictions, the moral ambiguities, the evolving nature of the subject. Don’t smooth over inconvenient truths or present a glorified version or a hateful attack.
- Self-Reflect: During the writing process, regularly ask yourself: “Am I letting my existing opinions unfairly influence my interpretation?” “Am I giving fair consideration to all sides of an argument or event?”
- A Real Example: When discussing a controversial decision made by your subject, present the available evidence from all perspectives – their own justification, the critiques from their opponents, and the historical context. Then, offer your interpretation, clearly stating that it is informed by this evidence.
Ethical Minefields and Your Responsibility as the Author
Biography, more than almost any other genre, carries a huge ethical responsibility. You are dealing with a real life, real reputations, and often, real living descendants.
1. Privacy vs. Public Interest: Knowing Where to Draw the Line
Especially when you’re writing about living people or those with living relatives, the tension between revealing the full truth and respecting privacy can be incredibly intense.
- The Challenge: Uncovering deeply personal, potentially embarrassing, or damaging information; navigating family sensitivities.
- What I Suggest You Do:
- The “Need to Know” Test: Is this private information essential to understanding the public figure’s impact, motivations, or legacy? Does it shed light on a crucial aspect of their character that influenced their public life? A mental health battle that shaped an artist’s work might be relevant; a private affair with no public consequence might not be.
- Consult Legal Counsel (if you need to): If you’re dealing with potentially libelous material or highly sensitive living sources, seeking legal advice can protect both you and your publisher.
- Treat All Information Seriously: Every revelation carries weight. Don’t sensationalize or exploit. The goal is to illuminate, not to titillate.
- A Real Example: You discover your subject had a secret child. Is this relevant? If the child’s existence directly influenced their public actions, their art, or contradicted their public persona in a meaningful way, it might be. If it was a private matter, resolved without public consequence, its inclusion requires deeper scrutiny and justification.
2. Handling Conflicting Evidence and Rebuttals
Historical records and human memory are flawed. You will come across conflicting accounts.
- The Challenge: Presenting contradictory narratives without undermining your own authority or just giving up in despair.
- What I Suggest You Do:
- Acknowledge and Evaluate: Don’t ignore conflicting evidence. Present both sides. For instance, “Witness A stated X, while Witness B recounted Y.”
- Assess Credibility: Based on how close they were to the events, potential biases, and corroborating evidence, decide which account seems more reliable. Explain your reasoning to the reader.
- Embrace Ambiguity: Sometimes, the truest answer is that the truth is unknowable, or that multiple truths exist depending on one’s perspective. “The precise sequence of events remains unclear, with various accounts offering differing details.”
- A Real Example: Accounts differ on whether a subject intentionally sabotaged a rival or simply made a tactical error. Present the statements from both sides, any supporting documents, and conclude by stating that while the outcome was the same, the intent remains debated among historians.
3. The Subject’s Involvement: Respecting Their Voice While Staying Independent
It’s natural for a living subject (or their estate) to want to control their narrative. While their perspective is incredibly valuable, it shouldn’t dictate your biography.
- The Challenge: Dealing with pressure from the subject or their family to leave out or change information; avoiding becoming a “hired pen” who just writes what they’re told.
- What I Suggest You Do:
- Set Boundaries Early: If you’re working with a living subject, make it clear from the beginning that you maintain editorial independence and have the final say over the content. A clear contract is essential.
- Listen, Don’t Simply Obey: Take notes, consider their feedback, engage in dialogue. They may offer insights you hadn’t considered. However, the final interpretation and selection of material are yours.
- Beware of “Access as a Handcuff”: Sometimes, getting special access comes with unspoken expectations. If you feel compromised, be ready to walk away or find other sources.
- A Real Example: A subject’s family insists you remove a chapter detailing a period of their life they deem unflattering. If that period is crucial to understanding their character development or public impact, explain your journalistic and historical obligation to include it, referencing your unique angle and the evidence that supports your interpretation.
The Polishing Process: Making Your Masterpiece Shine
Once the narrative is complete, the crucial phase of refinement begins – turning a manuscript into a published work.
1. Getting Rid of the “Information Dump”: Trimming for Clarity and Impact
After gathering a vast amount of research, the temptation to include everything can lead to a messy and overwhelming story.
- The Challenge: Chapters that are too long, irrelevant tangents, and a lack of focus.
- What I Suggest You Do:
- Edit Ruthlessly: Every sentence, paragraph, and chapter must serve your main story and your unique angle. If it doesn’t move the story forward or shed light on the subject, cut it.
- “Kill Your Darlings”: You might have spent weeks researching an interesting but ultimately minor anecdote. Be prepared to delete it if it doesn’t fit your overall narrative.
- Act as a Reader: Imagine a smart, discerning reader. Are they getting lost? Are they bored? Is there too much detail in one place?
- A Real Example: You’ve found extensive details about a minor invention patented by your subject early in their career. If this invention had no lasting impact on their major achievements or character, condense it to a sentence or two, or exclude it entirely. Only include what actively contributes to the portrait you are painting.
2. Crafting a Captivating Beginning and End
The opening needs to grab the reader’s attention, and the conclusion needs to provide a deep sense of closure and lasting impact.
- The Challenge: A dry, academic opening; an abrupt or unsatisfying ending.
- What I Suggest You Do:
- The Hook: Start with an intriguing anecdote, a pivotal moment, a striking image, or a thought-provoking question that immediately draws the reader into the subject’s world or the central tension of their life.
- The Powerful Conclusion: The ending shouldn’t just state that the subject died. It should summarize the meaning of their life, their legacy, the enduring questions they raise, or their lasting impact. It should resonate and leave the reader with a sense of understanding and reflection.
- Echoes and Bookends: Consider subtly echoing a theme or image from your introduction in your conclusion for a satisfying sense of completeness.
- A Real Example: Instead of starting with “John Doe was born in 1900…”, begin with a dramatic moment from his later life, a flash-forward to his greatest triumph or deepest failure, and then go back to his origins. For the ending, don’t just state his death date, but reflect on how his life’s work continues to influence the world today, or what unanswered questions he left behind.
3. Navigating the Legal and Editorial Process
Publication involves a host of processes beyond just writing, from getting permissions to responding to editorial feedback.
- The Challenge: Dealing with copyright permissions, handling potentially tough editorial feedback, and the difficult indexing process.
- What I Suggest You Do:
- Get Permissions Early: Start securing permissions for copyrighted material (letters, images, song lyrics) early on. This can take a lot of time and money.
- Welcome Feedback: Editors and copyeditors are your allies. They offer a crucial fresh perspective. While you have the final say, consider their suggestions carefully. They often spot blind spots or confusing areas.
- Plan for Indexing: A good index is essential for a biography. Factor in time (or budget) for creating an accurate and comprehensive index.
- A Real Example: An editor suggests reorganizing several chapters because the narrative flow is disjointed. Instead of resisting, try implementing their suggestions for a section to see if it improves readability. For image permissions, identify all photos you want to use early and begin contacting archives or photographers for licensing information.
Writing a biography is definitely a marathon, not a sprint. It demands dedication, meticulousness, and an unwavering commitment to both truth and storytelling. By anticipating and strategically addressing these common challenges, you can transform the daunting task of capturing a life into a profound and rewarding journey, ultimately delivering a biography that truly connects with its readers.