Writing an autobiography outline worksheet

Put It Together - Answer the questions. Then use your answers to write a short autobiography.

Importance - The most important thing I have learned about life so far is...

Planner - Add bullet points about each topic. Talk to your family members, too. They may have something to share that will help you as your plan your autobiography.

School Highlights - Make notes about important things that happened to you related to your school experience. Add notes about each topic. Talk to your family members, too. They may have something to share, especially about your younger years.

Me! - This is helpful to stimulate the brainstorming process.

The Influence of Place - The place where we are born and the place(s) where we live our lives has a powerful influence on us. We have no control over where the earliest years of our lives unfold; only when we reach adulthood can we choose where we want to live. Think about the place(s) you have been and how they have impacted your life and the person you are becoming.

My Hero - Answer these questions about the person you most respect and admire. It can be someone who is in your life, or it can be a fictional character.

My Childhood - Tell us all about it in a drawing and written prompts.

My Pivotal Moment - A pivotal moment is a moment in which everything changes. Before a pivotal moment things are one way; after it, they are different. A pivotal moment can be about anything that shaped who you are today and who you are becoming.

Bubbles of Your Thoughts - Think of a major event or an influential person from your life. Write a few notes about it in the largest, center shape. Then, begin to fill in the other shapes as you think about how that event or person has had an impact on your life. Use the bigger shapes for the most important things.

What Approach Should You Take When Writing Your First Autobiography?

You might see the title of this and ask if you should have more than one autobiography. Many people have been credited with writing several over the course of their life. It all depends on how complicated your life has been. If you look at Ernest Hemingway, who was a prolific writer, he has eight under his belt. What is often funny is that we begin to learn how to compose autobiographies at a time in our life where our story barely has a chapter two because we have so much life yet to live.

In order to tell your story, you will need to be well planned. The first step is to get down on paper a list of all the major life experiences that you would like to explore with your readers. Once you have that list complete, start brainstorming and create a sublist of all the aspects of those events that you wish to prepare for your readers. It is not always necessary, but it may be helpful to create a timeline of all of these events to help give you something to work off of, when you are writing. Once we get all that out, we can now put together a detailed outline of our entire work.

I often think it is a good idea to consider the next phase the research step. You are not researching yourself; you are filling in the blanks. If you bring up a teacher that you had as a student from twenty-years ago, make sure you have their name right and see where they are today. This can help ignite some more memories or just make your work more robust.

At this point you are ready to create your first draft. This is one of the few bodies of work where many times the first draft and final draft could be light years apart and almost look as if another writer stepped in. This is because writing autobiographies is often a process in self-discovery. When you begin to create this work, you must decide who the work is for, you or your audience. That will help you frame that final draft much quicker.