Pet & Animal: How to Write an Autobiographical Essay

An autobiography is a written record of a person's life, written by the subject themselves.^[1] Many autobiographies are complete books or volumes, but you can write an autobiographical essay, too. The key to writing a successful essay in this style is to tell an engaging story about your life, rather than just writing a record of your past.

Steps

Starting Strong

Gather all your ideas. It is the most important thing in autobiography. Reading a few essays that are similar to your subject can give you an idea of the variety of styles and genres in which biographies and autobiographies are written. From there, you'll be able to pick aspects of each or elements of a few that you want to use to create your autobiography. This may also help you figure out how to decide on a concept, and it may also provide you with a variety of organizational patterns.
- Get your ideas down in note form or record a brainstorm first. This will help you as you dive into writing.

Begin with an engaging sentence that captures the reader's attention. Don't start with "Once upon a time" or "I was born in.." or "In this essay, I am going to write about my life."
- Is this an autobiography of your entire life? If so, you could start with, "When I was young, my family and I lived in ____", or "Things were good/bad/boring/exciting in my early life." Something like that will do.
- Start with something like, "I never expected to be as happy/sad/shocked/angry/embarrassed as I was on that day." Or, "Many things have happened to me in my life, but this was the best/worst/saddest/funniest," if this is an autobiographical essay about one incident that happened to you,
- You could also start with "Sitting here and looking back, I don't know where to begin. My life..." or something like that. In other words, you can begin from the present and travel back.

Write in a style that you are most comfortable with. Some good ways of writing your introduction are by narrating a specific event from a first person point of view that reflects the theme of your essay or by describing a certain scenario from a third person point of view.

Transition from the introduction into the real content. End your introduction with a sentence that leaves the reader excited to continue reading and learn more about the subject.

Tell your story. Get the main chunk of the essay out there. As you write, avoid redundancies, and avoid rambling. Don't write same things over and over again, and stay away from a clinical or dry account. It will bore the readers and will not make concepts any more clear.

Write in the first person. An autobiography is, by definition, an account about the author himself, so for the most straight-forward autobiographical essay, be personal and stick to the first person.

Adding Creativity

Don't restrict yourself to chronological order. This isn't always the best way to successfully tell your story. Go through a few different perspectives and organizational patterns before you pick one, keeping in mind that your first idea may not be the best strategy.
- Attempt a few, and think outside the box to make sure you're giving your tale the best telling possible.

Add some flourish. You might include some dramatic action in the story you're telling to help keep the reader hooked, or you can include some quotes related to your experience or the topic at hand.

Get creative, if that's within the parameters of your assignment. In some creative writing classes, you might be assigned to write an autobiography while pretending to be another person, object, or animal. If so, put yourself in the position of an animal or an inanimate object and imagine the things it would see, say, or think if it were alive.
- Don't make it too impossible. For example, If an animal died or a umbrella is destroyed fully, then it can't say an autobiography of itself. In other words, end your story before the object dies.

End with one or more inspiring passages. Autobiographies are about handing over your life to someone and saying, "This is what I went through, this is who I am, and maybe you can learn something from it." Many autobiographies end with the author summing up her insights into her own life in a few paragraphs. The tone is often uplifting and helps readers feel hopeful about life and the world in general.

Tips

When writing a personal statement about your life, it’s best to be simple and stay straightforward. Avoid using five words where three will do.

If you have to use a thesaurus, chances are the reader’s not going to know exactly what the words mean so stick with simple vocabulary.

Just be yourself, not who you think the judges want you to be. Your personal statement is an autobiography that speaks about your life, your experiences, and your reflections, so remember to tell the truth.

Don’t have to make up situations or add fluff to tell a poignant story.

Warnings

Don't disregard notes. It's easy to think that you remember everything, but the fact is that you may forget about things as you write, and end up remember three paragraphs later, or when the essay has already been handed in. Take notes of the events you want to include. From there, narrow down to the events that you think have most impacted you as an individual. You can use your concept here to guide you with what events are relevant, or vice versa; find your concept from the important points.

Don't forget your audience. In most the cases, it will be your teacher. Think about your audience, the expectations placed on this assignment, and the ideas that the audience is looking for. From there, only include what you think will be geared for your audience. That said, make sure you are comfortable including the information that you have chosen.