Writers’ Journal

On Writing Biography ~ Ten Hats You Might Have to Wear

By Susan Stroh

Ever wonder what it’s like to write a biography?  I wrote one and loved it, then created a niche for myself.  The following questions are frequently asked questions.

“Who do you have to be to write biographies?”  You might have to be researcher, journalist, organizer, interviewer, counselor, editor, creative non-fiction writer, and archivist and even, upon occasion, photographer.  I’ve been called upon to produce the technical elements of a book: handling typesetting, art design, printing and packaging. I also produced an audio book version of the book for one client.

How do you get work as a biographer?  My first biography came from Guru.com, an online writers’ resource for jobs. Although I’d never written a book-length biography, I’d published human interest profiles, short employee bios and edited a book-length memoir about a female fire-fighter.  From the time I was ten, I had listened to enough strangers tell me their life stories on trains and planes to convince me how easily people talk about themselves. I had interviewed dozens of people on film and video.  I thought, how difficult could this be?

After my proposal was accepted, I was asked to give ideas on how to enhance and expand an earlier unpublished manuscript written about the subject (my client’s father). To my critique, I attached a re-written, greatly expanded chapter one.  That being approved, the next step was an interview with the client. I competed with two other authors, both of whose bids came in considerably lower than mine.  In the evening, I received a call. “Susan Stroh, you’ve got the job and you will soon receive your retainer of $2,000 to start.”

How does one start a biography?  The thought that you hold a person’s life in your hands can be intimidating, but I suggest you leap in by doing research: fact-finding, studying resources, time-line development.  Look for realities: what happened when, where and under what circumstances.  Character and behavior patterns pop out. For your unique take on this individual, isolate what you admire, what captures your attention and revs up your desire to know more.

What are the main tasks in writing a biography?  The list includes: research, interviewing, digesting and dissecting transcripts, gathering all primary and secondary source material, writing, editing, polishing, inserting photographs into the text and in the case of corporate work, getting approval along the way.  By the way, primary sources include things like the subject’s personal correspondence and diaries, works of art and literature done by the subject, their speeches, any oral histories, audio and video recordings of the subject, photographs and posters, and newspaper ads and stories where the subject is quoted. Secondary sources include other books and articles about the subject, interpretative material such as book or film reviews would be secondary sources.

Once you feel grounded by facts found in your initial research, find out whom to interview.  If the subject of your biography is living, do a series of interviews at a time and place that is comfortable for him and that provides you with good recording atmosphere.  In other words, don’t interview your subject in his favorite café on Jazz night.  It may serve you to videotape your subject, especially if he is elderly or you think a film might be needed sometime in the future to document his views, stories and philosophy.  If this is the case, hire a professional crew to light, film and gather the sound.  When conducting an audio taped interview, take time checking your recording equipment: batteries, volume and always have plenty of spare fully-charged batteries and two back-up audio recording devices.  At the beginning of each tape, record the date, the subject being interviewed, the spelling of the name for the transcriber and where you are interviewing him.

Interview questions should elicit factual, emotional and philosophical answers, and anecdotes about what happened between the subject and key people and events in his life.  Feel free to double check the names of places and people, dates, and correct spellings.  Your questions should keep the subject interested, so find what he considers captivating, memorable or of interest.  Since art includes creating emotional effects on its audiences, look for the affecting components of things with good taste and confidence. You want to create a safe space in which your interviewees feel comfortable recalling and expressing deep-seated feelings and ideas.

Always ask for photos, documents, journals and other materials to accessorize and support the text.  Take your time, indulge in the sometimes slow remembrance of things past and create a wonderful rapport with your subject. You’ll learn when to let the interviewees digress and talk about something even more interesting than your question and when to skillfully return them to your line of questioning. One of the great things about interviewing occurs when the subject happens to mention something you’ve never heard and which, it turns out, no one else knew.  These are the surprises, the nuggets of gold that suddenly appear while you are digging.

In reviewing the transcripts of interviews, find those pivotal events that launched the subject into one of his purposes in life.  I had a handful of sketchy facts about a childhood event especially meaningful to my subject, but could find no one to fill in the details. Sometimes you must use intuition and ingenuity to fill in the cracks where no “facts” can be found—creative non-fiction can be applied.  This is different from making something up and passing it off as “fact.”

How do you sift through all the information you gather?  Make two copies of your transcripts.  Highlight stories, thoughts and quotes that show character and elucidate themes. Cut and paste transcript excerpts and file them into folders according to stages of life, places, people, research topics, title ideas, cover art, back cover copy and so on. Generate a list of pivotal events along a time-line.  Start filing materials like newspaper articles, copies of journal entries, photographs and even employment and military records into your chapter or subject files and archival boxes.

How do you know what to include and exclude in a biography? You’ve already asked yourself what is vital, fascinating, captivating and necessary for understanding the subject of your biography. You’ve made some files and boxes of materials according to chapter headings, eras and themes. You’ve organized, indexed, labeled and have handy in archival boxes all the materials you can find. The more you can gather all archival records together before outlining, the better.  When you have everything you can find you will be able to outline and structure your book with more authority. The job of selection requires collaboration with the client and often the subject’s family and confidantes.  Vision, organization, outlining and approval—those are the steps needed in a legacy biography.

Aside from exciting excerpts culled from the past videotapes taken of my subject, the most engaging anecdotes and fascinating facts came from the interviews I conducted with my subject’s son, wife, employees and family.   All of these interviews yielded pay dirt and occasional “dirt” dirt.

A word about “dirt”.  Recently, in a class I took on planting vegetables in pots, my instructor clearly differentiated between “dirt” and “soil.”  The first is lifeless; the second teems with insects, bacteria and other things which turn dirt into viable soil.  As a writer, I grew my book on the soil of life-sustaining stories and heartfelt memories of a man who enhanced the lives of thousands.  I left the “dirt” strictly alone and not a speck found its way into my book.  I was hired in part because my orientation both to life and to writing is to celebrate what is right with people—that philosophy proving valuable for a commemorative book. My criterion for inclusion of negative things in a biography is: if the subject admits his wrongs, has learned from his mistakes and divulges this in an interview or journal, I would consider including it if it clarified some aspect of his life.

How long did it take you to write the book?  After the outline was approved, I wrote for about four months after which I searched through more boxes of memorabilia, photograph albums that had been unearthed while I was writing and editing. This went quickly when I kept in mind the purpose of each chapter, reviewed the themes I wanted to get across and the stories and passages that demonstrated these. I gave each chapter a lead: a juicy tidbit from an interview, a recounting of a dangerous or suspenseful occurrence, a good quotation, even a humorous bit of banter.  Anyone interested in writing biography should read several biographies and books about biography by biographers!  I did and it helped. Most biographies structure their books around a chronology of events, but other structures can be evolved.  Study the table of contents of biographies to get ideas.

What benefits did you get from writing biography?  Writing biography expanded my worldview, knowledge, skills and my sense of responsibility towards community.  I formed a team of professionals whose expertise contributed to the high quality product we delivered.  After the book was published, the client asked me to produce, write and direct a DVD about his father.  My team consists of a typesetter, designer, audio engineer, proof reader, transcriber, printer, a CD and DVD duplicating house and a film and video production company.

What part of writing biography do you like best?  I like practicing the skill of being the person about whom I write.  Being able to step into his or her shoes is fun! By “being” I mean taking the subject’s points of view, empathizing with her feelings, thoughts and vision—thinking what she thinks, imagining what she imagines.  A biographer has to become bigger than self to wrap his wits around the enormity and complexity of another human being—to embrace essence.  Sometimes being another person requires a leap of faith.  You, as biographer, might say to yourself, “I am a great inventor” or “I am a brilliant scientist” or “I am a world famous singer” even if you can’t change a printer cartridge, remember if frogs come from tadpoles, or carry a tune.

While I was writing about an inventor/entrepreneur, I discovered what it is like to be an inventor—to think like one, to be constantly on the lookout for something to make life simpler or easier or more efficient.  I write biographies because people’s lives, motivations, deeds and stories fascinate me and I want to celebrate them, their accomplishments and contributions.  I feel I am entrusted to tell the best about a life, not as a “puff” piece, exaggerating positive traits, but as a concatenation of true stories revealing character and one person’s journey mastering life.

How to Conjure up Ideas in 10 Easy Steps

By Heide P. Boyden and Susan B. Stroh

Tired of snapping pencils in half and playing computer solitaire while waiting for your muse?  And when she finally does make an appearance do her ideas stink?  Or are they so impractical that you can’t turn them into anything that would sell in the next millennium?  Here’s our advice, writer to writer.  Give your muse a vacation and do a little magical inspiring of your own.  All you need are your sorcerer’s tools: a pencil (your wand), a notebook and a wee bit of time.  We promise that our technique for conjuring ideas that you’ll want to write is easier than pulling a rabbit out of a hat and much more useful.

But let’s start with the basics.  Crack open your dictionary and look up the word “idea.”  Get a clear understanding of what an idea is to you.  We like this definition from Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary because it shows action: What exists in the mind as a representation (as of something comprehended) or as a formulation (as a plan.)

To loosen up your creative muscles write your own definition of the word idea.  As writers we’ve come up with this:  an idea is a thought, feeling or occurrence that can be written and communicated to an audience.

Now that you know exactly what an idea is, it’s time to conjure them up and brew your next saleable writing project.  Here’s how:

Step #1:  Think of and write down in your notebook, the titles of ten movies you absolutely love—films that moved you, changed you and made you say, “I wish I had written that!”  (If you have trouble recalling titles of your favorite films and books, you may want to complete steps #1-#4 at your local library or book store.)

Step #2:  Write down the titles of your ten all-time favorite books.  If writing something that sells “big-time” appeals to you, stick with best sellers or classics.  On the other hand, don’t be driven solely by commercialism.  Allow your heart and intellect to guide you in this search for what truly excites you.

Step #3:  Write down the titles of your ten favorite children’s books.

Step #4:  Write down the names of ten magazines that you can’t wait to read.  What’s your first choice from the stack in the dentist’s office waiting room?

Step #5:  Study your lists.  What do the movies you’ve noted have in common?  Are they comedies?  Do they have action?  Are they quirky?  What are their themes?  What impact did each movie have on you?  Make a list of these common points and then do the same for the top ten books, children’s books and magazines that you like.  Now compare your lists.  Underline words or concepts that come up more than once.  (See sidebar.)  These words are the clues as to what type of literature and entertainment you enjoy.  For example if the words you underline boil down to humor, history, fantasy, action, and morals you may write a summary statement such as: I like funny, action-packed, up-lifting stories with strong characters placed in a historical or fantasy setting.  Or maybe your summary will read something like: I am inspired by strong characters that overcome huge odds to discover or rediscover love and integrity.  If you like to be entertained and moved by this type of story, chances are you will also like writing this type of story.

Step #6:  Take fifteen minutes and brainstorm ideas based on the summary statement concluded from step #5.  For example, using the summary created in step #5, think of a historical or fantasy story that is funny, action-packed, with strong characters and a moral.  Your idea doesn’t have to encompass all of these points, but a majority of them.  One idea might be: Two fourth graders, a boy and a girl who do not get along, bungle their science project and end up switching bodies.  He must live life as a girl and she as a boy until they can cooperate and undo their experiment.

When brainstorming ideas, draw from your life, your experience or what you want to experience and conjure up as many ideas as you can.  Write all of them down.  Caution!  A hex on those who think a particular idea is worthless.  There are no bad ideas—at this point.

Step #7:  Repeat step #6 two more times.  Don’t lose heart and decide that you can’t think of one more idea.  Use your intuition, imagination, education and life experience to formulate ideas with wild abandon—no judgment, no censorship.  You’re head magician here, make those nebulous ideas materialize, take shape and then capture them on paper.

Step #8:  Read through your list of ideas and select your three favorites.  Flesh out each.  Who is the protagonist?  What’s the setting?  Is there a hook?  What’s the theme?  Jot down these thoughts, dedicating a page for each in your notebook.

Step #9:  Read through your expanded ideas and assign each the genre that suits it best.  Is your idea a good screenplay?  Is it a short story?  A poem?  You decide.  Note that assigning your idea a genre is just a starting point.  Who knows?  It may begin life as a poem and turn into a novel.

Step #10:  Choose your favorite idea, the one you can’t wait to write, the one that is completely yours—original and unique.  Now take that brilliant idea and write and edit it until it is contained in one clear, concise sentence.  Yes, one sentence.  This charmed sentence should include the genre and purpose of the piece.  Here’s an example:  “How to Conjure up Ideas in 10 Easy Steps” is an article that provides writers with a simple process in which to come up with at least one marketable idea they can’t wait to write.    Another magical idea might be:  “Fitting In” is a comedic movie about a beautiful female celebrity who moves to a remote Alaskan town in order to be anonymous and discovers that she must now cope with the trials and tribulations of being a regular kind of gal.

And that’s all there is to it!  If you have completed steps one through ten you are now in possession of a bewitching idea that is all yours.  It may be so spellbinding that you’re itching to write, package and send it out into the world.  Trust us, this is no illusion, you now have in your bag of tricks, the magic necessary to forever more conjure up captivating and capitalizing ideas.

Sidebar:

Step #5:

1. List the common features for each category (movie, book, children’s book and magazine) and underline repeated concepts.  For example:

• Common features in movies:  humor, period pieces, action, quirky, fantasy, good conquers evil
• Common features in books: historical, fantasy, horror, strong protagonists
• Common features in children’s books: poetic, moral, action, heartwarming, fantasy, humor, the good guy wins
• Common features in magazines: how-to, pictures, good old-fashioned values, people profiles

2. Write a summary statement incorporating the common traits:  I like funny, action-packed, up-lifting stories with strong characters placed in a historical or fantasy setting.
3. Now go to Step #6 and use this summary statement as the basis for brainstorming bewitching ideas.