Biography Writing Format

Biography writing format has a lot in common with personal character reference writing. You’ll be creating a character analysis about your history and accomplishments.

You'll be writing a Bio in Third Person. This eliminates the unintentional boastfulness that can come from writing in First Person and having to use “I” again and again... and again.

Writing a Bio serves many purposes and can be reprinted in your Media Kit and other promotional materials when you’ve got a special project to tout. It serves as your personal character reference.

In providing a biography writing format, what better example do I have for writing a Bio then to examine the specifics of my own history, as pertains to my writing life?

In order to display the types of information that should be included in a biography writing format, and nothing more, I’ve first presented a little background information about my writing history and myself.

When examining the sample biographies presented on subsequent pages, Short Biography and Long Biography, after reading this page, you will see what is NOT included when writing a Bio.

You’ll then be able to decide what specifics to include when you write your personal summary.

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Final Notes - Back to Top

That's me...

I’ll admit that I practiced a lot of journal writing techniques in order to keep a running history of my writing endeavors.

When I first began, all I can say is that what I wrote could never serve as personal character reference writing. I wouldn't think of letting anyone see those notes.

A Biography writing format was the farthest thing from my mind.

All my life I’ve jotted ideas on everything from the proverbial table napkin to the soles in the arches of my high heels! After all, they weren’t meant for anyone else to see. Later, I'd transfer the notes to something more permanent.

My scribbling was like a diary, a journal, or scattered in loose pages and stuffed into binders and files.

I had an accumulation of imperfect poems, short stories, quips and anecdotes, and more.

For a while during the 1970s I managed to get several nonfiction pieces published. They are now buried somewhere in my hard copy archives and have little relevance in today’s publishing markets.

Curiously though, if I remember correctly, the articles were more like personal character reference writing because I wrote about people in the neighborhood whom I knew. Unbeknownst to me, I had written in a Biography writing format for each of them!

More recently, writing short pieces caused my Muse to pour out longer stories, even longer pieces of poetry.

Suddenly, I began conjuring plot after plot for stories to write at some future time.

I found myself writing a character analysis for each character that came to mind. I wanted to give my fictional people strong personal character traits.

I couldn’t help myself. I felt compelled to develop these heroines and heroes. For each, I spent time writing a character analysis. Now I have characters with full descriptions and no stories for them. What a hoot!

Judging from the story lines of each new piece my Muse offered up, they were more than short stories. They were ideas for novels!

Sadly, I couldn’t write them all at once.

I wasn't too sure what my friends thought about my writing habits. One person commented that I should apply personal character reference writing to myself. I should apply the Biography writing format to my own history!

I returned to my journal writing techniques and established a separate set of notebooks just for the many story ideas that kept popping up. These notebooks were filled with personal character reference writing, including writing a character analysis anytime I felt compelled.

Then finally, in the late 1980s, I purchased my first computer and transferred all my notes into it. The computer, as a writing aid, remains a blessing.

In 1990, I began seriously writing stories, poetry, and other short pieces, testing my talents as a writer.

As stated, some of my pieces were published way back in the early 1970s. I thought I had passed through the writing phase and moved on. To my surprise, two decades later, a lot of my work was being published!

I then began to write my first novel. Some of the characters came straight out of my file titled "Personal Character Reference Writing."

As my friends learned what I was doing, a few wanted to learn as well. They said they loved my descriptive writing. Some of those friends had also written for years and stored away the pages.

My first novel was written to first draft in two and one-half months.

As I worked through the editing process, my short pieces were getting published. I was happy.

I still had not envisioned applying the Biography writing format for to my endeavors. I just didn’t have that much of a career about which to write. Still, by then, I had developed a fairly decent Biography writing format and rules we could all use.

Writing History - Final Notes - Back to Top

In 1995 I moved to Kauai, Hawaii. My connections to my writing friends and classes were managed through emails. I could email my Biography writing format to new friends in one click. I loved teaching and advertised for clients on my Web site.

Then here, where I live on the northern-most island of Kauai in Hawaii, I met a woman attempting to organize a writer’s club. She gave me free rein and together we formed Kauai Writer’s Roundtable.

A club was great way to impart knowledge to those who seriously participated in the group’s activities.

By then, I was really into teaching that personal character reference writing could be applied to more than just letters.

Even though most of us were not widely known as writers, we hoped to be in the near future. That called for each member becoming familiar with my Biography writing format. Of course.

Once completed and shared among our group, we learned that some members already had surprising accomplishments and great talent. You never know until you make a record of such important details.

Each club member had different writing needs. That's when I began formulating my plan to write How to Organize a Writer's Club.

In time, my writing and editing tasks had increased tremendously.

After serving my 1996 to 1997 tenure as club President, I resigned to work on my own and ready my books for publication.

Forcing myself to use my own Biography writing format for the first time during the Club’s activities was a blessing in disguise.

Up to that time, I had written a long mainstream romance and a sea/island life adventure. The latter was completed while spending four years researching Egyptian dynasties for a fantasy novel.

During the research period, I published a trilogy of entwined novellas, The Tropics: Child of a Storm-Caught in a Rip-Hurricane Secret, through print-on-demand.

Also during the research period, I wrote my first mystery/suspense novel to first draft.

This I put aside once I began to write the Egyptian novel titled The Ka.

In writing The Ka, so many characters are included that I ended up using the Biography writing format, in much deeper detail, as a character analysis for each. It was necessary in order to remain true to each character’s personality.

I referred to the analyses frequently. That is, until those characters were firmly fixed in my mind. Once that happened, anything each might do was a surprise and always meshed into the story.

Writing a Bio for each of the story people was also great practice for readying the character lists that are included in the novel.

When I finished The Ka, and while I searched for literary agency representation, I wrote a second mystery/suspense novel, also to first draft. Then I edited and polished both mysteries.

Waiting on the back burner, in addition to the characters, for which I continue developing personal character reference writing, is my list of some 35 plots for books.

I wonder if I will get to them in this lifetime. I did manage to combine two plots into one when writing one of my mysteries. That was exciting and I can’t wait to discuss it soon as it’s published.

I don’t limit myself in years that I may have left to write all these stories, but I do get sidetracked into other forms, other genres, of writing.

Almost everything I do is fodder for a plot, be it fiction or nonfiction.

Now that I’m querying literary agents for representation for my two mysteries, and since I’ve learned to better manage myself on the Internet, I’m again using cyberspace to teach, even using Biography writing format, as applied to myself, to teach writing a Bio.

A lot of personal history goes into the making of who you are. The public will never know most of it – until such time as you may be challenged to back up your statements about your experience.

It is my intention, through this Web site, to help others on their way to becoming successful authors and writers, be it of books, poetry, business writing, or whatever form they desire to produce.

One of the primary items that can promote success is using the proper Biography writing format.

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Writing History - Back to Top

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To my own Biography writing format, I’ve entwined industry standard requirements. They mesh seamlessly.

Here are versions of my own Bios with analyses to help you apply industry standard Biography writing format to your history.

Long version

Medium, Short and Mini samples

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