how to start a biography of someone

How to Write a Biography

Learn how to write a biography with our comprehensive guide.

Last updated on Dec 8th, 2023

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How to write a biography can be a fun challenge as you share someone’s life story with readers. You may need to write a biography for a class or decide to write a biography as a personal project. Once you’ve identified the subject of your biography, do your research to learn as much as you can about them. Then, immerse yourself in writing the biography and revising it until it’s best. What I am going to share with you in today’s post is how to write a biography. If you want to know the rules of how to write a biography correctly then this post of ours is essential for you. 

Introduction

While it’s true that most biographies involve people in the public eye, sometimes the subject is less well-known. But most of the time, famous or not, the person we’re talking about has an incredible life. Although your students may have a basic understanding of How to write a biography, you should take some time before putting pen to paper to come up with a very clear definition of biography.

Before knowing how to write a biography, let’s first understand what a biography is. A biography is an account of a person’s life written by someone else. Although there is a genre called fictional biography, by definition biographies are mostly non-fiction. In general, biographies trace the subject’s life from early childhood to the present day or until death if the subject is deceased. 

Biography writing is not limited to describing the bare facts of a person’s life. Instead of just listing basic details about their upbringing, interests, education, work, relationships, and deaths, a well-written biography should also paint a picture of a person’s personality as well as that person’s life experiences.

Tips and Tricks For How To Write a Biography

1. ask the subject’s permission to write a biography.

Here are the first tips on how to write a biography. Before starting your research, make sure you get your subject’s consent to write their biography. Ask them if they’re ready to be the subject. Getting their permission will make writing a biography much easier and ensure that they are open to information about their lives.

If the theme does not allow you to write a bio, you can choose another theme. If you decide to publish a profile without the subject’s permission, you may be subject to legal action from the subject. 

If the topic no longer exists, you don’t need to ask permission to write about them. 

2. Research primary sources on the topic

Primary sources may include books, letters, photographs, diaries, newspaper clippings, magazines, Internet articles, magazines, videos, interviews, existing biographies, or autobiographies on the subject. Find these resources in your local library or online. Read as much as you can about the topic and highlight any important information you come across in your sources. 

You can create research questions to help you focus your research on this topic, such as: 

What do I find interesting about this topic? Why is this topic important to readers? 

3. Conduct interviews with subjects and their relatives

Interviewing people will turn your research into reality: the people you interview will be able to tell you stories you can’t find in history books. Interview the subject as well as people close to them, such as spouses, friends, business associates, family members, co-workers, and friends. Interview in person, over the phone, or via email.

For in-person interviews, record them with a voice recorder or voice recorder on your computer or phone. You may need to interview the subject and others multiple times to get the documents you need.

4. Visit places important to the topic

Whenever you want to know how to write a biography, to understand the history of the subject, spend time in places and areas that are significant to the subject. This may be the subject’s childhood home or neighborhood. You can also visit the subject’s workplace and regular meeting places. 

You may also want to visit areas where the subject made important decisions or breakthroughs in their life. Being physically present in the area can give you an idea of what your subjects may have felt and help you write about their experiences more effectively.

5. Research the time and place of the subject’s life

Contextualize your subject’s life by observing what’s going on around them. Consider the period in which they grew up as well as the history of the places they lived. Study the economics, politics, and culture of their time. See current events happening where they live or work.

When you studying how to write a biography, ask yourself about time and place: 

What were the social norms of this period? 

What happened economically and politically? 

How has the political and social environment influenced this topic?

6. Make a timeline of a person’s life

To help you organize your research, create a timeline of a person’s entire life, from birth. Draw a long line on a piece of paper and sketch out as many details about a person’s life as possible. Highlight important events or moments on the timeline. Include important dates, locations, and names. 

If you think about how to write a biography You can also include historical events or moments that affect the topic in the timeline. For example, a conflict or civil war may occur during a person’s lifetime and affect their life.

7. Focus on important events and milestones

Major events can include marriage, birth, or death during a person’s lifetime. They may also achieve milestones like their first successful business venture or their first civil rights march. Highlights key moments in a person’s life so readers clearly understand what’s important to that person and how they influence the world around them.

For example, you might focus on one person’s achievements in the civil rights movement. You could write an entire section about their contributions and participation in major civil rights marches in their hometowns.

8. Cite all sources used in  biography

Most biographies will include information from sources such as books, journal articles, magazines, and interviews. Remember to cite any sources that you directly quote or paraphrase. You can use citations, footnotes, or endnotes. If the biography is for a course, use MLA, APA, or Chicago Style citations according to your instructor’s preference.

9. Reread the biography

Check the biography for spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Circle all punctuation marks in the text to confirm they are correct. Read the text backward to check for spelling and grammar errors. 

Having a biography full of spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors can frustrate readers and lead to poor grades if you submit your work to the class.

10. Show your biography to others to get their feedback

It is a momentous step of how to write a biography. Once you have completed your draft biography, show it to your colleagues, friends, teachers, and mentors to get their feedback. Ask them if they have a good understanding of someone’s life and if the biography is easy to read. Be open to feedback so you can improve the biography and make it error-free. Revise profile based on feedback from others. Don’t be afraid to trim or edit your biography to suit your readers’ needs.

11. Use flashbacks

Flashbacks happen when you move from the present to the past. You can start with the present moment, and then bring in a scene from the person’s past. Or you could have one chapter focusing on the present and one focusing on the past, alternating as you go.

The flashback scene must be as detailed and realistic as the present-day scene. Use your research notes and interviews with subjects to better understand their past to reminisce. 

For example, you can move from a person’s death in the present to reminiscing about their favorite childhood memory.

12. Outline Your Story Chronologically 

This is another important step in how to write a biography is to write an outline that describes your story in chronological order. An outline is a tool that helps you visualize the structure and key elements of your story. This can help you organize your story into chapters and sections. 

You can write your plan in a digital document or draw it with pen and paper. Remember to store your outline in an easily accessible place so you can refer to it throughout the writing process.

What citation style should I use for my biography?

Use MLA, APA, or Chicago Style citations based on your instructor’s preference when citing sources in your biography.

Should I include personal opinions in a biography?

No, a biography should be objective and based on facts. Avoid injecting personal opinions or bias into the narrative.

What’s the difference between a biography and an autobiography?

A biography is written by someone else about a person’s life, while an autobiography is written by the subject themselves about their own life.

Can I write a biography about a living person?

Yes, you can write a biography about a living person with their consent. Ensure you respect their privacy and follow ethical guidelines when writing about them.

Conclusion 

Other than creating a sense of closure, there are no set rules about how a biography ends. An author may want to summarize their main points about the subject of their biography. If the person is still alive, the author can inform the reader about their condition or circumstances. If the person has died, inheritance can be discussed. Authors can also remind readers how they can learn from the biographical subject. Sharing a closing quote or about a person can leave the audience with a point to consider or discuss in more detail.

For further insights into writing and to avoid common mistakes, check out our article on Most Common Mistakes in Writing . Additionally, explore the Best Writing Tools for Writers to enhance your writing skills and discover the tools that can assist you. If you’re looking to improve your typing speed and accuracy, our article on How to Type Faster with Accuracy offers valuable tips.

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How to Write a Biography: A 7-Step Guide [+Template]

From time to time, nonfiction authors become so captivated by a particular figure from either the present or the past, that they feel compelled to write an entire book about their life. Whether casting them as heroes or villains, there is an interesting quality in their humanity that compels these authors to revisit their life paths and write their story.

However, portraying someone’s life on paper in a comprehensive and engaging way requires solid preparation. If you’re looking to write a biography yourself, in this post we’ll share a step-by-step blueprint that you can follow. 

How to write a biography: 

1. Seek permission when possible 

2. research your subject thoroughly, 3. do interviews and visit locations, 4. organize your findings, 5. identify a central thesis, 6. write it using narrative elements, 7. get feedback and polish the text.

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While you technically don’t need permission to write about public figures (or deceased ones), that doesn't guarantee their legal team won't pursue legal action against you. Author Kitty Kelley was sued by Frank Sinatra before she even started to write His Way , a biography that paints Ol Blue Eyes in a controversial light. (Kelley ended up winning the lawsuit, however).  

Whenever feasible, advise the subject’s representatives of your intentions. If all goes according to plan, you’ll get a green light to proceed, or potentially an offer to collaborate. It's a matter of common sense; if someone were to write a book about you, you would likely want to know about it well prior to publication. So, make a sincere effort to reach out to their PR staff to negotiate an agreement or at least a mutual understanding of the scope of your project. 

At the same time, make sure that you still retain editorial control over the project, and not end up writing a puff piece that treats its protagonist like a saint or hero. No biography can ever be entirely objective, but you should always strive for a portrayal that closely aligns with facts and reality.

If you can’t get an answer from your subject, or you’re asked not to proceed forward, you can still accept the potential repercussions and write an unauthorized biography . The “rebellious act” of publishing without consent indeed makes for great marketing, though it’ll likely bring more headaches with it too. 

✋ Please note that, like other nonfiction books, if you intend to release your biography with a publishing house , you can put together a book proposal to send to them before you even write the book. If they like it enough, they might pay you an advance to write it.  

Book Proposal Template

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Once you’ve settled (or not) the permission part, it’s time to dive deep into your character’s story.  

Deep and thorough research skills are the cornerstone of every biographer worth their salt. To paint a vivid and accurate portrait of someone's life, you’ll have to gather qualitative information from a wide range of reliable sources. 

Start with the information already available, from books on your subject to archival documents, then collect new ones firsthand by interviewing people or traveling to locations. 

Browse the web and library archives

Put your researcher hat on and start consuming any piece on your subject you can find, from their Wikipedia page to news articles, interviews, TV and radio appearances, YouTube videos, podcasts, books, magazines, and any other media outlets they may have been featured in. 

Establish a system to orderly collect the information you find 一 even seemingly insignificant details can prove valuable during the writing process, so be sure to save them. 

Depending on their era, you may find most of the information readily available online, or you may need to search through university libraries for older references. 

For his landmark biography of Alexander Hamilton, Ron Chernow spent untold hours at Columbia University’s library , reading through the Hamilton family papers, visiting the New York Historical Society, as well as interviewing the archivist of the New York Stock Exchange, and so on. The research process took years, but it certainly paid off. Chernow discovered that Hamilton created the first five securities originally traded on Wall Street. This finding, among others, revealed his significant contributions to shaping the current American financial and political systems, a legacy previously often overshadowed by other founding fathers. Today Alexander Hamilton is one of the best-selling biographies of all time, and it has become a cultural phenomenon with its own dedicated musical. 

Besides reading documents about your subject, research can help you understand the world that your subject lived in. 

Try to understand their time and social environment

Many biographies show how their protagonists have had a profound impact on society through their philosophical, artistic, or scientific contributions. But at the same time, it’s worth it as a biographer to make an effort to understand how their societal and historical context influenced their life’s path and work.

An interesting example is Stephen Greenblatt’s Will in the World . Finding himself limited by a lack of verified detail surrounding William Shakespeare's personal life, Greenblatt, instead, employs literary interpretation and imaginative reenactments to transport readers back to the Elizabethan era. The result is a vivid (though speculative) depiction of the playwright's life, enriching our understanding of his world.

Many readers enjoy biographies that transport them to a time and place, so exploring a historical period through the lens of a character can be entertaining in its own right. The Diary of Samuel Pepys became a classic not because people were enthralled by his life as an administrator, but rather from his meticulous and vivid documentation of everyday existence during the Restoration period.

Once you’ve gotten your hands on as many secondary sources as you can find, you’ll want to go hunting for stories first-hand from people who are (or were) close to your subject.

With all the material you’ve been through, by now you should already have a pretty good picture of your protagonist. But you’ll surely have some curiosities and missing dots in their character arc to figure out, which you can only get by interviewing primary sources.

Interview friends and associates

This part is more relevant if your subject is contemporary, and you can actually meet up or call with relatives, friends, colleagues, business partners, neighbors, or any other person related to them. 

In writing the popular biography of Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson interviewed more than one hundred people, including Jobs’s family, colleagues, former college mates, business rivals, and the man himself.

🔍 Read other biographies to get a sense of what makes a great one. Check out our list of the 30 best biographies of all time , or take our 30-second quiz below for tips on which one you should read next. 

Which biography should you read next?

Discover the perfect biography for you. Takes 30 seconds!

When you conduct your interviews, make sure to record them with high quality audio you can revisit later. Then use tools like Otter.ai or Descript to transcribe them 一 it’ll save you countless hours. 

You can approach the interview with a specific set of questions, or follow your curiosity blindly, trying to uncover revealing stories and anecdotes about your subject. Whatever your method, author and biography editor Tom Bromley suggests that every interviewer arrives prepared, "Show that you’ve done your work. This will help to put the interviewee at ease, and get their best answers.” 

Bromley also places emphasis on the order in which you conduct interviews. “You may want to interview different members of the family or friends first, to get their perspective on something, and then go directly to the main interviewee. You'll be able to use that knowledge to ask sharper, more specific questions.” 

Finally, consider how much time you have with each interviewee. If you only have a 30-minute phone call with an important person, make it count by asking directly the most pressing questions you have. And, if you find a reliable source who is also particularly willing to help, conduct several interviews and ask them, if appropriate, to write a foreword as part of the book’s front matter .

Sometimes an important part of the process is packing your bags, getting on a plane, and personally visiting significant places in your character’s journey.

Visit significant places in their life

A place, whether that’s a city, a rural house, or a bodhi tree, can carry a particular energy that you can only truly experience by being there. In putting the pieces together about someone’s life, it may be useful to go visit where they grew up, or where other significant events of their lives happened. It will be easier to imagine what they experienced, and better tell their story. 

In researching The Lost City of Z , author David Grann embarked on a trek through the Amazon, retracing the steps of British explorer Percy Fawcett. This led Grann to develop new theories about the circumstances surrounding the explorer's disappearance.

Hopefully, you won’t have to deal with jaguars and anacondas to better understand your subject’s environment, but try to walk into their shoes as much as possible. 

Once you’ve researched your character enough, it’s time to put together all the puzzle pieces you collected so far. 

Take the bulk of notes, media, and other documents you’ve collected, and start to give them some order and structure. A simple way to do this is by creating a timeline. 

Create a chronological timeline

It helps to organize your notes chronologically 一 from childhood to the senior years, line up the most significant events of your subject’s life, including dates, places, names and other relevant bits. 

You should be able to divide their life into distinct periods, each with their unique events and significance. Based on that, you can start drafting an outline of the narrative you want to create.  

Draft a story outline 

Since a biography entails writing about a person’s entire life, it will have a beginning, a middle, and an end. You can pick where you want to end the story, depending on how consequential the last years of your subject were. But the nature of the work will give you a starting character arc to work with. 

To outline the story then, you could turn to the popular Three-Act Structure , which divides the narrative in three main parts. In a nutshell, you’ll want to make sure to have the following:

• Act 1. Setup : Introduce the protagonist's background and the turning points that set them on a path to achieve a goal. 
• Act 2. Confrontation : Describe the challenges they encounter, both internal and external, and how they rise to them. Then..
• Act 3. Resolution : Reach a climactic point in their story in which they succeed (or fail), showing how they (and the world around them) have changed as a result. 

Only one question remains before you begin writing: what will be the main focus of your biography?

Think about why you’re so drawn to your subject to dedicate years of your life to recounting their own. What aspect of their life do you want to highlight? Is it their evil nature, artistic genius, or visionary mindset? And what evidence have you got to back that up? Find a central thesis or focus to weave as the main thread throughout your narrative. 

Or find a unique angle

If you don’t have a particular theme to explore, finding a distinct angle on your subject’s story can also help you distinguish your work from other biographies or existing works on the same subject.

Plenty of biographies have been published about The Beatles 一 many of which have different focuses and approaches: 

• Philip Norman's Shout is sometimes regarded as leaning more towards a pro-Lennon and anti-McCartney stance, offering insights into the band's inner dynamics. 
• Ian McDonald's Revolution in the Head closely examines their music track by track, shifting the focus back to McCartney as a primary creative force. 
• Craig Brown's One Two Three Four aims to capture their story through anecdotes, fan letters, diary entries, and interviews. 
• Mark Lewisohn's monumental three-volume biography, Tune In , stands as a testament to over a decade of meticulous research, chronicling every intricate detail of the Beatles' journey.

Finally, consider that biographies are often more than recounting the life of a person. Similar to how Dickens’ Great Expectations is not solely about a boy named Pip (but an examination and critique of Britain’s fickle, unforgiving class system), a biography should strive to illuminate a broader truth — be it social, political, or human — beyond the immediate subject of the book. 

Once you’ve identified your main focus or angle, it’s time to write a great story. 

While biographies are often highly informative, they do not have to be dry and purely expository in nature . You can play with storytelling elements to make it an engaging read. 

You could do that by thoroughly detailing the setting of the story , depicting the people involved in the story as fully-fledged characters , or using rising action and building to a climax when describing a particularly significant milestone of the subject’s life. 

One common way to make a biography interesting to read is starting on a strong foot…

Hook the reader from the start

Just because you're honoring your character's whole life doesn't mean you have to begin when they said their first word. Starting from the middle or end of their life can be more captivating as it introduces conflicts and stakes that shaped their journey.

When he wrote about Christopher McCandless in Into the Wild , author Jon Krakauer didn’t open his subject’s childhood and abusive family environment. Instead, the book begins with McCandless hitchhiking his way into the wilderness, and subsequently being discovered dead in an abandoned bus. By starting in medias res , Krakauer hooks the reader’s interest, before tracing back the causes and motivations that led McCandless to die alone in that bus in the first place.

You can bend the timeline to improve the reader’s reading experience throughout the rest of the story too…

Play with flashback 

While biographies tend to follow a chronological narrative, you can use flashbacks to tell brief stories or anecdotes when appropriate. For example, if you were telling the story of footballer Lionel Messi, before the climax of winning the World Cup with Argentina, you could recall when he was just 13 years old, giving an interview to a local newspaper, expressing his lifelong dream of playing for the national team. 

Used sparsely and intentionally, flashbacks can add more context to the story and keep the narrative interesting. Just like including dialogue does…

Reimagine conversations

Recreating conversations that your subject had with people around them is another effective way to color the story. Dialogue helps the reader imagine the story like a movie, providing a deeper sensory experience. 

One thing is trying to articulate the root of Steve Jobs’ obsession with product design, another would be to quote his father , teaching him how to build a fence when he was young: “You've got to make the back of the fence just as good looking as the front of the fence. Even though nobody will see it, you will know. And that will show that you're dedicated to making something perfect.”

Unlike memoirs and autobiographies, in which the author tells the story from their personal viewpoint and enjoys greater freedom to recall conversations, biographies require a commitment to facts. So, when recreating dialogue, try to quote directly from reliable sources like personal diaries, emails, and text messages. You could also use your interview scripts as an alternative to dialogue. As Tom Bromley suggests, “If you talk with a good amount of people, you can try to tell the story from their perspective, interweaving different segments and quoting the interviewees directly.”

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These are just some of the story elements you can use to make your biography more compelling. Once you’ve finished your manuscript, it’s a good idea to ask for feedback. 

If you’re going to self-publish your biography, you’ll have to polish it to professional standards. After leaving your work to rest for a while, look at it with fresh eyes and self-edit your manuscript eliminating passive voice, filler words, and redundant adverbs. 

Then, have a professional editor give you a general assessment. They’ll look at the structure and shape of your manuscript and tell you which parts need to be expanded on or cut. As someone who edited and commissioned several biographies, Tom Bromley points out that a professional “will look at the sources used and assess whether they back up the points made, or if more are needed. They would also look for context, and whether or not more background information is needed for the reader to understand the story fully. And they might check your facts, too.”  

In addition to structural editing, you may want to have someone copy-edit and proofread your work.

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Importantly, make sure to include a bibliography with a list of all the interviews, documents, and sources used in the writing process. You’ll have to compile it according to a manual of style, but you can easily create one by using tools like EasyBib . Once the text is nicely polished and typeset in your writing software , you can prepare for the publication process.  

In conclusion, by mixing storytelling elements with diligent research, you’ll be able to breathe life into a powerful biography that immerses readers in another individual’s life experience. Whether that’ll spark inspiration or controversy, remember you could have an important role in shaping their legacy 一 and that’s something not to take lightly. 

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How to Write a Biography: 10 Step Guide + Book Template

POSTED ON Nov 14, 2023

Written by Nicole Ahlering

So you’d like to know how to write a biography. We can help with that! In this guide, we show you how to get from the initial book idea to publishing your book , and we throw in a free template to help you on your way. 

Let’s jump right in. 

This guide teaches you how to write a biography in the following steps:

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Step 1: Read other biographies 

Austin Kleon, Author of Steal Like an Artist , says “the writer tries to master words. All of these pursuits involve the study of those who have come before and the effort to build upon their work in some way.”

In other words, to be a great writer, you need to read the best biographies written by other excellent authors!

In this case, it would behoove you to read several biographies – whether historical or celebrity biographies is up to you and your sub-genre. 

A good author to start with? Walter Isaacson . He’s written highly acclaimed biographies on everyone from Abraham Lincoln and Steve Jobs to Leonardo Da Vinci and Elon Musk. 

Step 2: Identify your subject

Next, it’s time to choose who you’d like to write about – if you don’t already have someone in mind.  

The most important factor will be, of course, your interest in the person you’re planning to write about. You’ll spend months (or even years) deep-diving into this person’s history, so you want to choose someone who you’re unlikely to tire of. 

Here are a few other factors to consider: 

• How impactful has your potential subject’s life been? In other words, will people care to learn more about this person? 
• How readily available is information about your potential subject? Biographies require extensive research, so it’s critical to choose someone who has enough information out there to dig into! Consider whether your subject has done interviews, written journals, has family or a partner willing to speak with you, and more. 
• Are there already books written about your potential subject? Just because there’s an existing biography about the person you’re interested in doesn’t (necessarily) mean you can’t write another one. But if there are two or three biographies, you may want to reconsider. If you do choose to write about someone who has already been well-documented, be mindful about approaching the topic with a new angle or perspective. For instance, there are several biographies about George Washington, but author Alexis Coe wrote one about how Washington isn’t “quite the man we remember.” This brilliant iteration has over 12,000 ratings on Goodreads .
• Is there a market demand for a book about your potential subject? If you’d like to publish your book, you need to be mindful of whether folks will want to read it. Do some research to determine if readers will be receptive to a book about the person you’re interested in. 

Related: Is a Biography a Primary Source?

Step 3: Get permission to write about your subject

We’ll start by stating the obvious. It’s a good idea to get permission to write about your subject, even if you’re not legally required to. For one thing, it’s just good manners. Plus, you’re much more likely to get unfettered access to the information and sources you need to write your book. 

But do you have to get permission? It depends.

In some cases, if your subject is considered a “public figure,” permission may not be required. The definition of a public figure varies depending on your jurisdiction, so you should always consult a lawyer before writing a biography. 

If you do decide to proceed without permission, be mindful of how your book will be received and any legal issues that may arise. 

Related : Difference Between A Memoir and Biography

Step 4: Create an outline

It’s critical to outline your biography before you begin writing it. Among other things, it helps ensure you cover every topic you’d like to and get the book in the correct chronological order. It also helps you identify themes that emerge as you organize your ideas. 

Need help creating your outline? Learn how to do it (and take advantage of free templates!) in our guide to outlining a book . 

Step 5: Select a working title (using a title generator) 

Now is the fun part! It’s time to create a working title for your book. A working title is just what it sounds like: it’s a title that works – for now. 

Of course, it’s helpful to have something to call the book as you’re working on it. And it encourages you to think about the message you’d like your book to convey. When your biography is complete, you can always do a little more research on how to write book titles for your specific sub-genre and update your working title accordingly.

Or, you can decide you still love your initial title and publish your book with that one! 

We’ve made it easy for you to develop a working title – or multiple – using our book title generator . 

Don't like it?

Step 6: Write a rough draft 

Okay, now it’s time to start writing your rough draft. Don’t be intimidated; just focus on getting something down on the page. As experts on all things writing and self-publishing, we’ve got a rough draft writing guide to help you get through this phase of writing a biography.

Remember to be as balanced and objective as possible.

Make good use of your primary and secondary sources, and double-check all of your facts. You’ve got this!  

Step 7: Self-edit

There are several different types of editing that we recommend each manuscript undergo. But before you give your rough draft to anyone else to review, you should edit it yourself. 

The first step to self-editing?

Take a break! It’s essential to give your mind some time to recuperate before you go over your work. And never self-edit as you go!

After you’ve completed your break, here are a few things to consider as you edit: 

• Grammar. This one is self-explanatory and usually the easiest. You can use an AI editor to make a first pass and quickly catch obvious spelling errors. Depending on prompts and your experience with the tool, you can also use AI to catch some grammar and syntax issues as well.
• Content and structure . This is the time to make sure the bones of your piece are good. Make sure your content flows logically (and in chronological order), no important pieces of information are missing, and there isn’t redundant or unhelpful information. 
• Clarity and consistency. Keep an eye out for any confusing copy and ensure your tone is uniform throughout the book.
• Try reading your draft aloud. You’d be surprised at how many errors, shifts in tone, or other things you’d like to change that you don’t notice while reading in your head. Go ahead and do a read-through of your draft out loud. 

Step 8: Work with an editor

Once you’ve created the best draft you can, it’s time to hire an editor. As we mentioned, there are multiple types of book editing, so you’ll need to choose the one(s) that are best for you and your project. 

For instance, you can work with a developmental editor who helps with big-picture stuff. Think book structure, organization, and overall storytelling. Or you might work with a line editor who focuses on grammar, spelling, punctuation, and the like. 

There are also specialized copy editors, content editors, fact-checkers, and more.

It’s in your best interest to do a substantial amount of research before choosing an editor since they’ll have a large impact on your book. Many editors are open to doing a paid trial so you can see their work before you sign them on for the entire book. 

Step 9: Hire a book cover designer + get an ISBN 

Once you’ve worked with your editor(s) to finalize your book, it’s time to get your book ready to go out into the world. Your first step is to hire a book cover designer to create a cover that grabs readers’ attention (pssst: did you know that all SelfPublishing authors get done-for-you professional book design? Ask us about it !).

Then, you’ll need to get an ISBN number for your book – or an International Standard Book Number. It’s a unique way to identify your book and is critical for ordering, inventory tracking, and more. 

Bear in mind that each rendition of your book – regardless of when you publish them – will need their own ISBN numbers. So if you initially publish as a softcover and hardcover book and then decide to publish an ebook with the same exact content, you'll need 3 total ISBN numbers.

To get an ISBN, head to ISBN.org and follow the steps they provide.  Or reference our guide right here for step-by-step instructions (complete with photos) on how to get an ISBN number for self-published books.

Step 10: Create a launch plan 

Now is the most exciting part. It’s time to get your book out into the world! You’ll need to map out your plan, schedule events , finalize your pricing strategy, and more. 

We have an entire guide to launching a book to help you figure it out. 

Get your free book template!

Learning how to write a biography can be challenging, but when you have a clear plan and guidance, the process is much easier. We've helped thousands of aspiring authors just like you write and self-publish their own books. We know what works – and how to become a successfully published author faster.

Take the first step today and down the book template below!

And, if you need additional help writing your biography, remember that we’re standing by to help. Just schedule a book consultation and one of our team members will help answer any of your questions about the writing process.

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How to Write a Biography

How to write a biography to share someone's life story.

Thinking about how to write a biography means you’re interested in telling a detailed story about someone’s life. It includes more than just facts. It features intimate details of the person’s life and experiences.

What’s the Difference Between a Biography and an Autobiography?

A biography is a story of someone’s life, but it is written by another person. An  autobiography is a story of a person’s life, written by that same person. An easy way to distinguish the two is the use of the first-person point of view. First-person is a key element of an autobiography. A biography uses third-person point of view.

Another way to distinguish the two is whether they are subjective or objective. An  autobiography is subjective because it’s written from a personal perspective and is formed from a person’s own thoughts on events in their life. A biography is objective, or unbiased, because it is not based on someone’s personal viewpoints. A biography just deals with the facts, not feelings.

One of the biggest things to consider about how to write a biography is who you want to tell the story. Do you think you can write your own story, or would you rather have a family member, friend or professional take on the task for you?

A Brief History of the Biography

If you look back in time, biographies focused on important historical figures and basically gave the facts of their lives and why they were important. It was more history writing than anything else. More distinct biographies did not appear until the 18th century.

The Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell is considered to be the first modern biography. It was published in 1791 and covered the entire life of Samuel Johnson, who was a famous English writer. This biography was unique because Boswell used research, interviews, and eye-witness accounts to tell the story.

What is the Purpose of a Biography?

The major purpose of writing a biography is to share the life of another person with your audience. Most authors choose to write about a person who has interesting stories to tell. The stories could help inspire and encourage others by detailing how the subject overcame adversity. Authors also might choose to write a biography about someone who isn’t as well known to many people.

The Key Elements Included When Learning

When you think about good biographies, they all have some key elements. If you’re thinking about how to write a biography, here are some things to consider.

• The details of your subject’s birth and death
• Where they are currently living, or where they grew up
• Their educational background
• Their professional background
• Areas of expertise
• Major achievements
• Major challenges

You can use all of these elements when considering how to structure and write a biography. It’s not always in chronological order, but it can be. It’s up to you to figure out how to best tell their life story.

Tips on How to Write a Biography

A good biography should include more than just the facts. You really need to dive deep to find out all the interesting moments, achievements, and turning points that have shaped a person’s life. You want your biography to draw your reader in, keep them engaged, and give them a full picture of what your subject’s life was like.

Here are some steps to take to get started on writing a biography:

• Get permission - Once you decide who to write about, try to get their permission to write about them. While it isn’t necessary, it can make it much easier to get in-depth details about the person and make your biography more complete and compelling.
• Do your research - It’s important to gather all the facts you can. You want to tell a thorough story, and you can’t do that without a little research. Look for emails, interviews, memoirs, etc. about your subject. You can also look at their social media, website, and professional information. Maybe there were magazine articles, videos, or other publications your subject was featured in.

Interview others - Talk to anyone who might have relevant stories to share about your subject. It’s important to gather information from people close to them to offer another point of view.

• Write your thesis - What is the main reason you are writing about this person? You need to tell your reader what the point of your biography is, right from the beginning.
• Develop a timeline - Most biographies tell the story in chronological order. If you have everything in its place when you start to write, it can save you time instead of organizing it later.
• Use flashbacks - A biography can be pretty cut and dry if you just stick to telling the story straight through. When you can, add in interesting facts from the past that might be relevant to who your subject is today.
• Share your thoughts - If you chose to write a biography about someone, you believe they have a story worth telling. Don’t be afraid to include your opinions and feelings about important things your subject did. Your thoughts will help show your reader why your subject is significant.

Steps to Take When You’re Ready to Write a Biography

Now that you’ve gathered all of your information and done your research, it’s time to start writing. 

Follow these steps to write a good biography:

• Outline it - Figure out how you want to organize how you tell the story. Decide it if you want to go with a chronological method, which tells the story as it happened throughout the person’s life. Or, you could choose to focus on specific time periods or themes during their life. The My LifeJars app can easily help you do this. The Memory Jars allow a person to document all the phases of their life, so you can pull the information from there when structuring how to tell their story.
• Write a first draft - Don’t worry too much about errors at this point. Focus on telling the person’s life story in a compelling manner. You want to make sure you hook your reader.
• Take a break, then proofread and fact check - Step away from the project for a few days. Then, come back to it and fix any typos. Plus, make sure it flows nicely and all your paragraphs are in the right places.
• Ask someone else to read it - It’s always helpful to get another opinion on something you’re so close to. Ask a trusted friend or colleague to read your biography and offer suggestions.
• Send a copy to your subject - It’s a good idea to make sure you have all your facts correct. If you can, ask your subject to review your biography about them. 

The Importance of Biographies

When you think about it, so much of what we know is learned by reading. Stories give us an opportunity to expand our knowledge and shape how we see the world. The same is true for biographies. If someone chooses to write a biography of someone, it gives us a more in-depth look at that person’s life and experiences.

Important things you can learn from reading biographies include:

• Life lessons - It’s always easier to relate to someone, if you’ve gone through similar experiences. Your challenges might not be exactly the same, but you can use your own experiences to empathize with the subject of a biography. You can learn from that person and how they handled the challenges in their life.
• How to overcome situations - Let’s say the subject of the biography you are reading has gone through numerous challenges, but always finds a way to end up on top. As you learn this person’s strategies, you can see the ways you can adapt if you’re ever faced with the same struggles.
• Motivation - Depending on our own experiences, we all relate to things differently. Biographies include a number of defining moments throughout a person’s life. There will be certain events each of us identify with and use to motivate us in our own lives.

If you choose to have someone write your own life story, you know how important it is to preserve your legacy and create a permanent record future generations can read. You will want to make sure you store your biography in a place that’s easily accessible when you’re gone. 

How Does My LifeJars Make Writing a Biography Easier?

My LifeJars has an easy to use template and prompts that creates an outline to write a person’s life story.

A family member or friend can write your life story for you, you can write it jointly, or do it by yourself very easily by setting sharing permissions in My LifeJars.

With My LifeJars, you can embellish a life story with images, voice recordings, and video snippets. You can even record yourself reading every memory so your story becomes an audio book, spoken in your voice.

Storing Your Important Documents in One Place

As much as we don’t like to think about dying, it’s important to make sure everything is in order for the family we leave behind. That’s where we step in to help. My LifeJars offers you a safe and secure online place to store everything your family needs when you’re no longer with them. It’s the safest place to keep a digital copy of your biography and autobiography, so your story is protected and accessible to your loved ones. 

Our app is the perfect place to organize and share all of your important documents, like your last will and testament, your advance care directive, your health care proxy, your enduring power of attorney, and your enduring guardian. We make it simple for you to give access to all the people who will need this information in the future.

What Are the Benefits of My LifeJars?

My LifeJars offers a basic account that is free forever and never expires, as long as you are active and assign a My LifeJars Guardian.

With this basic account store 24 memories, 24 things, 16 passwords upload file sizes up to 10MB and access 2GB of data storage. Create a life profile for yourself as well as for 4 other family members or friends and 4 legacies.

Only switch to a Gold paid account if you want to add unlimited memories, things & passwords, unlimited life profiles & legacies, upload file sizes up to 500MB including videos and store 200GB of data across all the profiles and legacies you create.

The My LifeJars app offers the following benefits:

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How to Write a Biography

Biographies are big business. Whether in book form or Hollywood biopics, the lives of the famous and sometimes not-so-famous fascinate us.

While it’s true that most biographies are about people who are in the public eye, sometimes the subject is less well-known. Primarily, though, famous or not, the person who is written about has led an incredible life.

In this article, we will explain biography writing in detail for teachers and students so they can create their own.

While your students will most likely have a basic understanding of a biography, it’s worth taking a little time before they put pen to paper to tease out a crystal-clear definition of one.

What Is a Biography?

A biography is an account of someone’s life written by someone else . While there is a genre known as a fictional biography, for the most part, biographies are, by definition, nonfiction.

Generally speaking, biographies provide an account of the subject’s life from the earliest days of childhood to the present day or, if the subject is deceased, their death.

The job of a biography is more than just to outline the bare facts of a person’s life.

Rather than just listing the basic details of their upbringing, hobbies, education, work, relationships, and death, a well-written biography should also paint a picture of the subject’s personality and experience of life.

Full Biographies

Teaching unit.

Teach your students everything they need to know about writing an AUTOBIOGRAPHY and a BIOGRAPHY.

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Features of a Biography

Before students begin writing a biography, they’ll need to have a firm grasp of the main features of a Biography. An excellent way to determine how well they understand these essential elements is to ask them to compile a checklist like the one-blow

Their checklists should contain the items below at a minimum. Be sure to help them fill in any gaps before moving on to the writing process.

The purpose of a biography is to provide an account of someone’s life.

Biography structure.

ORIENTATION (BEGINNING) Open your biography with a strong hook to grab the reader’s attention

SEQUENCING: In most cases, biographies are written in chronological order unless you are a very competent writer consciously trying to break from this trend.

COVER: childhood, upbringing, education, influences, accomplishments, relationships, etc. – everything that helps the reader to understand the person.

CONCLUSION: Wrap your biography up with some details about what the subject is doing now if they are still alive. If they have passed away, make mention of what impact they have made and what their legacy is or will be.

BIOGRAPHY FEATURES

LANGUAGE Use descriptive and figurative language that will paint images inside your audience’s minds as they read. Use time connectives to link events.

PERSPECTIVE Biographies are written from the third person’s perspective.

DETAILS: Give specific details about people, places, events, times, dates, etc. Reflect on how events shaped the subject. You might want to include some relevant photographs with captions. A timeline may also be of use depending upon your subject and what you are trying to convey to your audience.

TENSE Written in the past tense (though ending may shift to the present/future tense)

THE PROCESS OF WRITING A BIOGRAPHY

Like any form of writing, you will find it simple if you have a plan and follow it through. These steps will ensure you cover the essential bases of writing a biography essay.

Firstly, select a subject that inspires you. Someone whose life story resonates with you and whose contribution to society intrigues you. The next step is to conduct thorough research. Engage in extensive reading, explore various sources, watch documentaries, and glean all available information to provide a comprehensive account of the person’s life.

Creating an outline is essential to organize your thoughts and information. The outline should include the person’s early life, education, career, achievements, and any other significant events or contributions. It serves as a map for the writing process, ensuring that all vital information is included.

Your biography should have an engaging introduction that captivates the reader’s attention and provides background information on the person you’re writing about. It should include a thesis statement summarising the biography’s main points.

Writing a biography in chronological order is crucial . You should begin with the person’s early life and move through their career and achievements. This approach clarifies how the person’s life unfolded and how they accomplished their goals.

A biography should be written in a narrative style , capturing the essence of the person’s life through vivid descriptions, anecdotes, and quotes. Avoid dry, factual writing and focus on creating a compelling narrative that engages the reader.

Adding personal insights and opinions can enhance the biography’s overall impact, providing a unique perspective on the person’s achievements, legacy, and impact on society.

Editing and proofreading are vital elements of the writing process. Thoroughly reviewing your biography ensures that the writing is clear, concise, and error-free. You can even request feedback from someone else to ensure that it is engaging and well-written.

Finally, including a bibliography at the end of your biography is essential. It gives credit to the sources that were used during research, such as books, articles, interviews, and websites.

Tips for Writing a Brilliant Biography

Biography writing tip #1: choose your subject wisely.

There are several points for students to reflect on when deciding on a subject for their biography. Let’s take a look at the most essential points to consider when deciding on the subject for a biography:

Interest: To produce a biography will require sustained writing from the student. That’s why students must choose their subject well. After all, a biography is an account of someone’s entire life to date. Students must ensure they choose a subject that will sustain their interest throughout the research, writing, and editing processes.

Merit: Closely related to the previous point, students must consider whether the subject merits the reader’s interest. Aside from pure labors of love, writing should be undertaken with the reader in mind. While producing a biography demands sustained writing from the author, it also demands sustained reading from the reader.

Therefore, students should ask themselves if their chosen subject has had a life worthy of the reader’s interest and the time they’d need to invest in reading their biography.

Information: Is there enough information available on the subject to fuel the writing of an entire biography? While it might be a tempting idea to write about a great-great-grandfather’s experience in the war. There would be enough interest there to sustain the author’s and the reader’s interest, but do you have enough access to information about their early childhood to do the subject justice in the form of a biography?

Biography Writing Tip #2: R esearch ! Research! Research!

While the chances are good that the student already knows quite a bit about the subject they’ve chosen. Chances are 100% that they’ll still need to undertake considerable research to write their biography.

As with many types of writing , research is an essential part of the planning process that shouldn’t be overlooked. If students wish to give as complete an account of their subject’s life as possible, they’ll need to put in the time at the research stage.

An effective way to approach the research process is to:

1. Compile a chronological timeline of the central facts, dates, and events of the subject’s life

2. Compile detailed descriptions of the following personal traits:

•      Physical looks
•      Character traits
•      Values and beliefs

3. Compile some research questions based on different topics to provide a focus for the research:

• Childhood : Where and when were they born? Who were their parents? Who were the other family members? What education did they receive?
• Obstacles: What challenges did they have to overcome? How did these challenges shape them as individuals?
• Legacy: What impact did this person have on the world and/or the people around them?
• Dialogue & Quotes: Dialogue and quotations by and about the subject are a great way to bring color and life to a biography. Students should keep an eagle eye out for the gems that hide amid their sources.

As the student gets deeper into their research, new questions will arise that can further fuel the research process and help to shape the direction the biography will ultimately go in.

Likewise, during the research, themes will often begin to suggest themselves. Exploring these themes is essential to bring depth to biography, but we’ll discuss this later in this article.

Research Skills:

Researching for biography writing is an excellent way for students to hone their research skills in general. Developing good research skills is essential for future academic success. Students will have opportunities to learn how to:

• Gather relevant information
• Evaluate different information sources
• Select suitable information
• Organize information into a text.

Students will have access to print and online information sources, and, in some cases, they may also have access to people who knew or know the subject (e.g. biography of a family member).

These days, much of the research will likely take place online. It’s crucial, therefore, to provide your students with guidance on how to use the internet safely and evaluate online sources for reliability. This is the era of ‘ fake news ’ and misinformation after all!

COMPLETE TEACHING UNIT ON INTERNET RESEARCH SKILLS USING GOOGLE SEARCH

Teach your students ESSENTIAL SKILLS OF THE INFORMATION ERA to become expert DIGITAL RESEARCHERS.

⭐How to correctly ask questions to search engines on all devices.

⭐ How to filter and refine your results to find exactly what you want every time.

⭐ Essential Research and critical thinking skills for students.

⭐ Plagiarism, Citing and acknowledging other people’s work.

⭐ How to query, synthesize and record your findings logically.

BIOGRAPHY WRITING Tip #3: Find Your Themes In Biography Writing

Though predominantly a nonfiction genre, the story still plays a significant role in good biography writing. The skills of characterization and plot structuring are transferable here. And, just like in fiction, exploring themes in a biographical work helps connect the personal to the universal. Of course, these shouldn’t be forced; this will make the work seem contrived, and the reader may lose faith in the truthfulness of the account. A biographer needs to gain and maintain the trust of the reader.

Fortunately, themes shouldn’t need to be forced. A life well-lived is full of meaning, and the themes the student writer is looking for will emerge effortlessly from the actions and events of the subject’s life. It’s just a case of learning how to spot them.

One way to identify the themes in a life is to look for recurring events or situations in a person’s life. These should be apparent from the research completed previously. The students should seek to identify these patterns that emerge in the subject’s life. For example, perhaps they’ve had to overcome various obstacles throughout different periods of their life. In that case, the theme of overcoming adversity is present and has been identified.

Usually, a biography has several themes running throughout, so be sure your students work to identify more than one theme in their subject’s life.

BIOGRAPHY WRITING Tip: #4 Put Something of Yourself into the Writing

While the defining feature of a biography is that it gives an account of a person’s life, students must understand that this is not all a biography does. Relating the facts and details of a subject’s life is not enough. The student biographer should not be afraid to share their thoughts and feelings with the reader throughout their account of their subject’s life.

The student can weave some of their personality into the fabric of the text by providing commentary and opinion as they relate the events of the person’s life and the wider social context at the time. Unlike the detached and objective approach we’d expect to find in a history textbook, in a biography, student-writers should communicate their enthusiasm for their subject in their writing.

This makes for a more intimate experience for the reader, as they get a sense of getting to know the author and the subject they are writing about.

Biography Examples For Students

• Year 5 Example
• Year 7 Example
• Year 9 Example

“The Rock ‘n’ Roll King: Elvis Presley”

Elvis Aaron Presley, born on January 8, 1935, was an amazing singer and actor known as the “King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.” Even though he’s been dead for nearly 50 years, I can’t help but be fascinated by his incredible life!

Elvis grew up in Tupelo, Mississippi, in a tiny house with his parents and twin brother. His family didn’t have much money, but they shared a love for music. Little did they know Elvis would become a music legend!

When he was only 11 years old, Elvis got his first guitar. He taught himself to play and loved singing gospel songs. As he got older, he started combining different music styles like country, blues, and gospel to create a whole new sound – that’s Rock ‘n’ Roll!

In 1954, at the age of 19, Elvis recorded his first song, “That’s All Right.” People couldn’t believe how unique and exciting his music was. His famous hip-swinging dance moves also made him a sensation!

Elvis didn’t just rock the music scene; he also starred in movies like “Love Me Tender” and “Jailhouse Rock.” But fame came with challenges. Despite facing ups and downs, Elvis kept spreading happiness through his music.

Tragically, Elvis passed away in 1977, but his music and charisma live on. Even today, people worldwide still enjoy his songs like “Hound Dog” and “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” Elvis Presley’s legacy as the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll will live forever.

Long Live the King: I wish I’d seen him.

Elvis Presley, the Rock ‘n’ Roll legend born on January 8, 1935, is a captivating figure that even a modern-day teen like me can’t help but admire. As I delve into his life, I wish I could have experienced the magic of his live performances.

Growing up in Tupelo, Mississippi, Elvis faced challenges but found solace in music. At 11, he got his first guitar, a symbol of his journey into the world of sound. His fusion of gospel, country, and blues into Rock ‘n’ Roll became a cultural phenomenon.

The thought of being in the audience during his early performances, especially when he recorded “That’s All Right” at 19, sends shivers down my spine. Imagining the crowd’s uproar and feeling the revolutionary energy of that moment is a dream I wish I could have lived.

Elvis wasn’t just a musical prodigy; he was a dynamic performer. His dance moves, the embodiment of rebellion, and his roles in films like “Love Me Tender” and “Jailhouse Rock” made him a true icon.

After watching him on YouTube, I can’t help but feel a little sad that I’ll never witness the King’s live performances. The idea of swaying to “Hound Dog” or being enchanted by “Can’t Help Falling in Love” in person is a missed opportunity. Elvis may have left us in 1977, but he was the king of rock n’ roll. Long live the King!

Elvis Presley: A Teen’s Take on the Rock ‘n’ Roll Icon”

Elvis Presley, born January 8, 1935, was a revolutionary force in the music world, earning his title as the “King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.” Exploring his life, even as a 16-year-old today, I’m captivated by the impact he made.

Hailing from Tupelo, Mississippi, Elvis grew up in humble beginnings, surrounded by the love of his parents and twin brother. It’s inspiring to think that, despite financial challenges, this young man would redefine the music scene.

At 11, Elvis got his first guitar, sparking a self-taught journey into music. His early gospel influences evolved into a unique fusion of country, blues, and gospel, creating the electrifying genre of Rock ‘n’ Roll. In 1954, at only 19, he recorded “That’s All Right,” marking the birth of a musical legend.

Elvis wasn’t just a musical innovator; he was a cultural phenomenon. His rebellious dance moves and magnetic stage presence challenged the norms. He transitioned seamlessly into acting, starring in iconic films like “Love Me Tender” and “Jailhouse Rock.”

However, fame came at a cost, and Elvis faced personal struggles. Despite the challenges, his music continued to resonate. Even now, classics like “Hound Dog” and “Can’t Help Falling in Love” transcend generations.

Elvis Presley’s impact on music and culture is undeniable. He was known for his unique voice, charismatic persona, and electrifying performances. He sold over one billion records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling solo artists in history. He received numerous awards throughout his career, including three Grammy Awards and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Elvis’s influence can still be seen in today’s music. Many contemporary artists, such as Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga, and Justin Timberlake, have cited Elvis as an inspiration. His music continues to be featured in movies, TV shows, and commercials.

Elvis left us in 1977, but his legacy lives on. I appreciate his breaking barriers and fearlessly embracing his artistic vision. Elvis Presley’s impact on music and culture is timeless, a testament to the enduring power of his artistry. His music has inspired generations and will continue to do so for many years to come.

Teaching Resources

Use our resources and tools to improve your student’s writing skills through proven teaching strategies.

BIOGRAPHY WRITING TEACHING IDEAS AND LESSONS

We have compiled a sequence of biography-related lessons or teaching ideas that you can follow as you please. They are straightforward enough for most students to follow without further instruction.

BIOGRAPHY LESSON IDEA # 1:

This session aims to give students a broader understanding of what makes a good biography.

Once your students have compiled a comprehensive checklist of the main features of a biography, allow them to use it to assess some biographies from your school library or on the internet using the feature checklist.

When students have assessed a selection of biographies, take some time as a class to discuss them. You can base the discussion around the following prompts:

• Which biographies covered all the criteria from their checklist?
• Which biographies didn’t?
• Which biography was the most readable in terms of structure?
• Which biography do you think was the least well-structured? How would you improve this?

Looking at how other writers have interpreted the form will help students internalize the necessary criteria before attempting to produce a biography. Once students have a clear understanding of the main features of the biography, they’re ready to begin work on writing a biography.

When the time does come to put pen to paper, be sure they’re armed with the following top tips to help ensure they’re as well prepared as possible.

BIOGRAPHY LESSON IDEA # 2:

This session aims to guide students through the process of selecting the perfect biography subject.

Instruct students to draw up a shortlist of three potential subjects for the biography they’ll write.

Using the three criteria mentioned in the writing guide (Interest, Merit, and Information), students award each potential subject a mark out of 5 for each of the criteria. In this manner, students can select the most suitable subject for their biography.

BIOGRAPHY LESSON IDEA # 3:

This session aims to get students into the researching phase, then prioritise and organise events chronologically.

Students begin by making a timeline of their subject’s life, starting with their birth and ending with their death or the present day. If the student has yet to make a final decision on the subject of their biography, a family member will often serve well for this exercise as a practice exercise.

Students should research and gather the key events of the person’s life, covering each period of their life from when they were a baby, through childhood and adolescence, right up to adulthood and old age. They should then organize these onto a timeline. Students can include photographs with captions if they have them.

They can present these to the class when they have finished their timelines.

BIOGRAPHY LESSON IDEA # 4:

Instruct students to look over their timeline, notes, and other research. Challenge them to identify three patterns that repeat throughout the subject’s life and sort all the related events and incidents into specific categories.

Students should then label each category with a single word. This is the thematic concept or the broad general underlying idea. After that, students should write a sentence or two expressing what the subject’s life ‘says’ about that concept.

This is known as the thematic statement . With the thematic concepts and thematic statements identified, the student now has some substantial ideas to explore that will help bring more profound meaning and wider resonance to their biography.

BIOGRAPHY LESSON IDEA # 5:

Instruct students to write a short objective account of an event in their own life. They can write about anyone from their past. It needn’t be more than a couple of paragraphs, but the writing should be strictly factual, focusing only on the objective details of what happened.

Once they have completed this, it’s time to rewrite the paragraph, but they should include some opinion and personal commentary this time.

The student here aims to inject some color and personality into their writing, to transform a detached, factual account into a warm, engaging story.

A COMPLETE UNIT ON TEACHING BIOGRAPHIES

Teach your students to write AMAZING BIOGRAPHIES & AUTOBIOGRAPHIES using proven RESEARCH SKILLS and WRITING STRATEGIES .

• Understand the purpose of both forms of biography.
• Explore the language and perspective of both.
• Prompts and Challenges to engage students in writing a biography.
• Dedicated lessons for both forms of biography.
• Biographical Projects can expand students’ understanding of reading and writing a biography.
• A COMPLETE 82-PAGE UNIT – NO PREPARATION REQUIRED.

FREE Biography Writing Graphic Organizer

Use this valuable tool in the research and writing phases to keep your students on track and engaged.

WRITING CHECKLIST & RUBRIC BUNDLE

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (92 Reviews)

To Conclude

By this stage, your students should have an excellent technical overview of a biography’s essential elements.

They should be able to choose their subject in light of how interesting and worthy they are, as well as give consideration to the availability of information out there. They should be able to research effectively and identify emerging themes in their research notes. And finally, they should be able to bring some of their personality and uniqueness into their retelling of the life of another.

Remember that writing a biography is not only a great way to develop a student’s writing skills; it can be used in almost all curriculum areas. For example, to find out more about a historical figure in History, to investigate scientific contributions to Science, or to celebrate a hero from everyday life.

Biography is an excellent genre for students to develop their writing skills and to find inspiration in the lives of others in the world around them.

HOW TO WRITE A BIOGRAPHY TUTORIAL VIDEO

OTHER GREAT ARTICLES RELATED TO BIOGRAPHY WRITING

How to write an Autobiography

How to Write a Historical Recount Text

15 Awesome Recount & Personal Narrative Topics

Personal Narrative Writing Guide

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How to Outline a Biography

Last Updated: July 4, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Stephanie Wong Ken, MFA . Stephanie Wong Ken is a writer based in Canada. Stephanie's writing has appeared in Joyland, Catapult, Pithead Chapel, Cosmonaut's Avenue, and other publications. She holds an MFA in Fiction and Creative Writing from Portland State University. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 51,889 times.

Writing a biography can seem daunting, as you are trying to explore the entirety of someone's life on the page. The key to writing a good biography is outlining it before you dive in. A strong, detailed outline will work through key events chronologically. To outline a biography, start by discussing early life and childhood. Then, go into adulthood and current life, or later life and death if the person is no longer alive.

Discussing Early Life and Childhood

• For example, you may write, “RuPaul Andre Charles, born November 17, 1960 in San Diego, California.”

• For example, you may write, “RuPaul's mother, Ernestine Charles, was from Louisiana. RuPaul's father was Irving Charles. They divorced in 1967.”

• For example, you may write, “RuPaul grew up in San Diego, California and moved to Atlanta, Georgia with his sister when he was 15.”

• For example, you may write, “At 15 years old, RuPaul attended a performing arts school in Atlanta. After he graduated, he focused on his budding stage career, opting not to attend college.”

• For example, you may write about the person's experience with abuse at the hands of a parent. Or you may mention that the person struggled with a learning disability in middle school that would go undiagnosed until later in their life.

Outlining Adulthood

• For example, you may write, “Martha Graham went to Brown University from 1967-1981, majoring in dance. She worked under famous dancers and choreographers in the performance industry at Brown. She graduated with honors.”

• For example, you may write, “Martha Graham met choreographer Dash Nam in a dance class at Brown. They became romantic and professional partners, collaborating on a number of early performances. Nam would later play a major role in Graham's performing company in New York City.”

• For example, you may write, “Martha Graham worked as a bartender while at Brown to support herself. She then created performances for a small stipend until she was able to open her own performing company in 1987 with the help of Dash Nam.”

• For example, you may write, “Martha Graham was rejected from several major dance companies and was unemployed for several years. In frustration, Graham decided to open her own dance company and studio, using funds from friends and colleagues. It later became the premier dance company in America.”

Detailing Current Life and Impact

• For example, you may write, “RuPaul currently resides on a ranch in Wyoming with his partner of twenty years, Australian painter George LeBar. He continues to produce several successful television shows and is a continued advocate for the LGBTQ community.”

• For example, you may write, “In her later life, Graham fell into a depression and battled alcohol addiction. She died in 1991 at the age of 96 from pneumonia. She was cremated and her ashes were scattered over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in Northern New Mexico.”

• You can also include your own opinions about the person's overall life. You may include a short section on the impact the person had, or continues to have, on you.
• For example, you may write about how the person influenced a generation of artists or how the person impacted the way we view technology in the 21st century.

Expert Q&A

You might also like.

• ↑ https://grammar.yourdictionary.com/writing/how-to-write-a-biography.html
• ↑ https://www.apsu.edu/writingcenter/writing-resources/Biography-Outline.pdf
• ↑ https://www.grammarly.com/blog/how-to-write-bio/

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How to Write a Biography in 8 Easy Steps

by Bennett R. Coles

This article will provide you with the basic building blocks required to write a biography starting from a blank page. Before we get into the nuts and bolts, let’s define what a biography is:

A biography is the full account of another person’s life (unlike an autobiography, which is the account of the author’s own life). For a biography to work, it must tell the story of an extraordinary or otherwise captivating life.

For this reason, most popular biographies center around famous people, be they politicians, artists, entrepreneurs, entertainers, or other well-known individuals. But this isn’t a must. Many biographies are also written about ordinary people who lived extraordinary lives outside the public spotlight.

Now, there are two main categories of biographies: authorized and unauthorized.

Authorized biographies are written with the explicit permission of the subject of the biography. The main advantage of authorized biographies is that they provide easy access to family members, friends and acquaintances — and even the subject themselves — during the very important research phase.

Unauthorized biographies, on the other hand, are written without the permission of the subject and therefore the authors usually have no access to their inner circle. As a result, authors must draw all of their information from sources that are at arms-length of the subject and therefore may be less reliable or truthful.

Let’s now begin to outline the process for creating a biography from the ground up.

Step 1: Choose the Biography’s Subject

The first thing you need to do is to choose the subject of your biography. In most cases this will be an obvious choice – that is, you’ll select someone you’ve been following and have admired for a long time.

You’ll already know their life story and will therefore know the aspects of their life that will be inspiring and compelling to your readers. In essence, you’ll be writing your biography for an audience of like-minded people who admire your subject as much as you do and who already have a deep thirst for any information about them.

Your subject might be a public figure, a politician, a business person, a scientist, an academic, or as stated in the introduction, an ordinary person who’s lived an extraordinary life. In every case, I advise that you seek their permission to write and publish the biography.

If granted, you’ll be able to gain immediate access to the subject and also family members and friends, who in many cases will provide you with exclusive details not published anywhere else.

Now, if you do get your subject’s permission, it’ll likely come accompanied with a first right of refusal for any information that they deem is not accurate as written and you’ll have to allow for the possibility of people changing their minds about certain aspects of your work as you go on.

You’ll just have to be flexible and accommodating, and sometimes this will be frustrating. But in the grand scheme of things, it’s a small price to pay for almost unlimited access to credible and in many cases unpublished information.

If you’re unsuccessful in obtaining your subject’s permission, you can still write an unauthorized biography, but there are some caveats you should be aware of:

• Stay away from writing unauthorized biographies about private persons (no matter how extraordinary their lives may be) because you’ll risk breaching privacy laws with serious legal consequences — in other words, those people may wish to remain private and will certainly not appreciate someone writing an unauthorized biography of their private lives.
• If you write about public figures, make sure you stick to publicly available information and that you don’t publish any private, sensitive or otherwise embarrassing information that is not in the public domain or that was illicitly obtained (e.g. through hacked or stolen information)
• If you choose to write a biography about some well-known figure in the public domain who you despise and you want to expose their “bad” side to the world, I advise that you consult with an attorney before you proceed, since you’ll be embarking on a journey potentially fraught with expensive litigation

Step 2: Study Popular Biographies

Before you proceed to the writing stage, you’ll be well-served to learn valuable lessons from those who’ve walked this path this before you, especially those who’ve found success in the marketplace.

Find 2-3 biographies about similar subjects to yours that have made it to the bestseller lists. For example, if you’ll be writing about a tech CEO, then find bestselling biographies of two or three other tech CEOs. Also, ensure that those biographies are of the same type as yours (i.e. authorized or unauthorized).

If cost is an object, get those books from the library but, if you can, purchase them instead so that you can make notations and underline text right on the page.

Next, read them twice cover-to-cover — first as a reader and then as a writer.

In your first reading pass, put on your audience hat and enjoy the read. Don’t pause to make notes yet so as not to disrupt the experience. In your second pass, however, make frequent stops to take notes about how the author uses literary devices, such as storytelling, hooks, descriptive techniques, and so on to drive their narrative.

If you read a story or passage that you deeply connect with, analyze it and try to figure out what it is about it that makes it work so effectively. Make note of the author’s literary choices, their use of language, the flow of the story, etc.

When you’re done with this initial genre research, you’ll be ready to start working on your biography!

Step 3: Choose Your Central Theme

Biographies are not unlike any other nonfiction book: you need to know who the target audience is before you write them (in this case it’ll be you and people like you). But just as importantly, you need to have a central theme that permeates the book.

In most cases, the central theme of your biography will be the aspect that has personally attracted you to your subject, such as:

• Their sense of urgency in enacting change in their personal lives and around them, which your readers will find inspiring
• Their wisdom and brilliance in their specific approach to life, business, etc., which will inform your readers about proven strategies that they’ll be able to use themselves
• Their prophetic power about certain world events, which could help readers make better choices about their investments, their choice of careers, etc.
• Or just their raw courage in the face of extreme adversity, a quality many people strive to achieve in their own lives

You always need to have a clear central theme your biography, an essence that goes beyond a strictly chronological account of someone life (which doesn’t make for a particularly engaging read).

Step 4: Research Your Subject

Now it’s time to begin your research about your subject and their lives.

There are two types of sources of information that you’ll need to rely on for your biography:

1) Primary sources, which originate from your subject and their close circle, and 2) Secondary sources, which originate from people at arm’s length to your subject. Here are some examples:

Primary sources:

• Anything publicly written or recorded by the subject
• Anything privately written or recorded by the subject (you’ll need their written consent to publish this information)
• Anything publicly written or recorded by direct witnesses to events that involved the subject
• Anything privately written or recorded by direct witnesses to events that involved the subject (again, you’ll need their permission to publish this information)

A Note on Privacy:

Whenever you publish information about a subject that’s not already in the public domain, particularly if the subject is not a public figure, you must ensure that you have their written permission to do so.

If you don’t and choose to publish anyway, you’re opening yourself to expensive litigation. People are entitled to their privacy and if you reveal unauthorized information that they deem to be embarrassing or injurious to their reputation in any way, expect them to seek financial damages through libel litigation and other legal remedies.

Secondary sources:

Writings or recordings by people who don’t know the subject personally and who haven’t directly witnessed events involving the subject. Examples are:

• Documentaries
• Magazine articles
• Online articles or recordings

A Note on Secondary Sources:

Before you use these sources, you’ll need to establish their credibility and the veracity of their accounts. Whenever you do refer to secondary sources in your biography, make sure to include the proper citations so that your readers can access the original information if they desire.

Also, make sure that you don’t infringe the copyright of your secondary sources by reproducing entire passages from their works, unless you obtain their written permission first (which usually carries a financial cost).

Step 5: Organize the Information

Once you’ve collected all the relevant information for your project, it’s time to put it into perspective by first creating a timeline for your subject’s life. You want to be able to see where it all fits chronologically so that you can begin to draw a through-line in relation to your biography’s central theme.

Your timeline will allow you to see the sequence of events that formed the character, ability or special circumstances that led your subject to live an extraordinary life. Also, this through-line will allow you to draw inspiration to choose specific time periods and past events should you wish to use flashbacks as a device in your narrative.

Once you’ve defined the proper chronology of events in your subject’s life, you can begin to draft a general outline for your biography, driven by your central theme. Begin by choosing the main milestones on your subject’s journey. These are the building blocks of your central theme. Then, break them down further into as many layers as necessary.

Finally, label your outline entries and, looking at your timeline, allocate your research materials throughout the outline by assigning them to the relevant label.

Step 6: Write Your Manuscript

You now have a fleshed-out timeline, an outline that aligns with your central theme, and lots of well-researched notes. In other words, you’re ready to begin the writing process ! But first, you’ll need to develop a clear writing routine.

When it comes to book writing , there’s no substitute for rubber to the road and this means that you’ll need to get into the habit of writing for a set amount of time every day. Like professional authors do, you’ll need to budget this time religiously and have clear boundaries.

Consistency is key, especially if you’ve never done a project like this before. What you don’t want to do is to write for 4-5 hours straight one day and then take a break for the next day or two.

How long should you write each day? I recommend between 2 and 3 hours but no longer than that — you don’t want to end up creatively spent by the end of a writing session.

Now, it’s critically important during this time that you have no disruptions such as phone calls, notifications from electronic devices, people walking in and asking you for help, etc.

So, enlist the help of those around you to keep you undisturbed, turn your smartphone and tablet to airplane mode, and mute the sound of your laptop.

Step 7: Hire a Professional Editor

When you complete the first draft of your manuscript, take a break to re-calibrate before you begin the re-writing process. Then revisit your manuscript from top to bottom as many times as necessary. This should take you a few weeks.

Keep in mind that the revision process is as creative as your original writing process but in a different way. While your initial writing is more like a stream of consciousness, the revision process is much more clinical and measured. What you’re looking for here is attention to detail, not the broad strokes.

But at some point, you’ll begin to experience diminishing returns for your efforts and here’s when you’ll need to hire the services of a professional editor. In fact, professional editors are paramount to the success of all authors, not just first-time authors but also those with long and illustrious careers.

No author worth their salt would dare publish an unedited book and neither should you. Your biography will be your calling card as an author and you never want to present a less than professional image. So, make sure you budget for a professional editor to take your diamond in the rough and make it shine!

Step 8: Hire a Professional Book and Cover Designer

Now that you have a fully edited manuscript, it’s time to focus on book design. Biographies need to not only be well-edited, but also to be well-produced. That means, they need to have a professional cover design that reflects your central theme, and a book interior as well-designed as your traditionally published competitors.

Don’t fall for the temptation to use free layout templates and book cover maker apps. As sharp as they may look on the surface, they’ll appear amateurish in comparison to what a professional can do and you don’t want to be judged by decision makers and gatekeepers on your path in a less-than-ideal light.

For example, some colors and visual patterns on your book cover may look great to you but won’t work in the market . The same goes for font styles, font sizes and font treatments. Leave this important work to the pros and you’ll never regret your decision.

Best of luck on the journey to your first biography!

If you enjoyed this article and are in the process of writing a nonfiction book, be sure to check out my free  nonfiction success guide , drawn from years of experience editing books for bestselling authors (including a New York Times bestseller) and ghostwriting for CEOs and politicians.  Simply click here to get instant access .

Leave me a comment below if you have any questions or a specific need that I can help you address – I operate an  author services firm  that specializes in helping entrepreneurs, professionals and business owners who want to publish books as a calling card for prospects, to establish their status as an expert or to just to generate additional leads for their businesses.

Here are some related posts I highly recommend:

How to write a compelling book in 12 steps: a must-read guide for nonfiction authors, what to look for in a top book self-publishing company, the 7 most effective book promotion ideas for nonfiction authors.

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How to Write a Biography (Examples & Templates)

A biography is a written account of a person’s life that details their life in chronological order. Another person usually writes this detailed account, and it contains reports of their childhood, career, major life events, relationships, and social impact. It also details their relationships with their family, children, and life accomplishments.

The best way to find out more about a popular figure is through reading their biographies, so you need to make sure you get the correct information. Before writing a biography, you need to do a lot of research and interviews to represent a person’s life accurately.

Types of Biography

A biography is the story of someone’s life as written by another writer. Most biographies of popular figures are written years, or even decades, after their deaths. Authors write biographies of popular figures due to either a lack of information on the subject or personal interest.

A biography aims to share a person’s story or highlight a part of their life.

There are different types of biographies, depending on the story. Some biographies are written true to the story, while some are written as fictional works. Biographies can give you true understanding of a person on an internal as well as external level along with a lot of life lessons.

Autobiography

An autobiography is different from a biography because it is written by the subject of the story, themselves. The author writes in the first-person narrative, and it flows step-by-step like a story of their life. Autobiographies contain personal accounts of the subject’s life, along with their perspectives and opinions on events in their life.

How To Write a Biography

Pick a subject.

Picking a subject is the first step in writing a biography. You can pick an already famous person or a relatively unknown person with a great life story. If you already have a few in mind, you can start by asking yourself some questions such as;

• What has the subject accomplished that makes them a good subject?
• Have they had an impact on society?
• Is the subject a celebrity or a well-known personality?
• Will the biography appeal to a wide audience?

Get Permission

When you pick a subject, the next thing to do is to get permission from them or their family or rights owners. Although, with some historical figures, there may not be any need for permission. Getting permission from your subject makes it easier for you to get stories to put into your book. You can get the chance to obtain additional personal stories and anecdotes that will make your book more interesting by doing so as well.

Do The Research

Research is the most important part of a biography’s process as the entire content of the book is dependent on it. Irrespective of what you know about the subject, you need to carry out as much research as possible to get the story’s facts precisely.

Biography research comes from various sources, depending on the book’s subject. Firsthand reports from family, friends, or personal accounts from the subjects are primary sources. They are usually the most accurate and reliable, and they are crucial for a biography. Secondary sources come from other sources like magazines or documentaries.

Pick a Format

Biographies come in various formats, with each of them having their pros and cons. A typical biography will start at the beginning, usually with the birth and childhood of the subject. Yet, if the biography’s theme involves a different event in their life, the author may want to explore the flashback option or one with concurrent events from different times.

Usually, biographies have a theme or a general life lesson at the center. The author’s role is to tell the subject’s story leading up to the major event.

Which-ever format you choose should place the theme at the center, with the other events detailing the journey.

Create a Timeline Of The Story

Since a biography takes place in chronological order, there needs to be a timeline of the events in the right order. The timeline should contain the key events in the subject’s life, in the order the author plans on revealing them. A great way to declutter the story and keep it interesting is to use flashbacks . This way, the author can introduce past events and explain later events excluding the element of monotony.

Add In Your Thoughts

The good thing about biographies is that you don’t have to stick to the hard facts only. As the author, you can share your opinions and emotions in writing. The author has the freedom to do this by commenting on a significant action by the subject in a manner that describes why they feel the subject may have done what they did.

The author can also include commentary on events depicted in the biography – how it was influenced society or its impact on the lives around them. Recounting these events through a different perspective can make the biography more relatable and interesting to read.

FAQ’s

Why is a biography template important.

A biography template has an outline that makes the writing easier for the author. Biography templates usually contain a sample timeline, format, and questions that provide more information about the subject. With a great biography template, you can cut your writing time in half and spend less time coming up with an outline.

How are biographies better in comparison to autobiographies

Since a different person writes biographies, they tend to be more objective and somewhat accurate than autobiographies. An autobiography tells things from the author’s perspective, so their views and perspective cloud it. Thus, a biography will likely tell a more factual story.

These are the important steps you need to take to help you write a great biography. Now, to make things easier for you, we have a free customizable autobiography and biography template that you can use to start your first book. Get the template and start writing today

What are some of the most important elements to keep in consideration while writing a biography?

Any author looking to write a biography must consider the factors below. They aren’t the only important factors, but a biography isn’t complete without them. • Date and place of their birth • Academic background • Professional expertise • Death, if deceased • Facts and anecdotes about the person • Main accomplishments • Detailed accounts of their child and adult life

Biographies tell the untold stories of some incredibly relevant people in the world. But biographies are not always strictly accurate. So, every biographer needs to follow the necessary steps to provide a biography with all the requirements.

Related Documents

7 Killer Tips for How to Write a Bio

by Pamela Hodges | 30 comments

Want to Become a Published Author? In 100 Day Book, you’ll finish your book guaranteed. Learn more and sign up here.

Whether you're starting your author website, setting up social media profiles, or submitting stories or articles to a publication, you're going to need an author bio. 

Writing your biography can seem almost as challenging as writing a book. But it is a necessary part of publishing your writing. Let's look at how to write a bio that delivers.

How to Write a Bio

• Write your name
• Share your accomplishments
• Use third person
• Say something personal
• Link to your writing
• Follow the rules

Where to Find Author Bio Examples

A good place to find examples of other writers' biographies is right here on The Write Practice. You can meet the Write Practice team on the About page . The Write Practice also includes bio examples with all guest posts (you can click on any post on this page to read the author's bio).

If you're writing a bio for your resume or a cover letter for a professional role, some of the tips here will work, but you'll want to make sure you look at examples in the field where you're applying. 

Let me share with you seven tips on how to write a bio and some personal bio examples to get you started. 

7 Killer Tips for How to Write a Bio (Including More Examples)

Let me share with you seven tips on how to write a bio and some bio templates to get you started.

1. Write your name

Start with your name. Might seem obvious, but you want to make sure readers know who you are.

2. Share your accomplishments

Don't be shy. Say what you have done.

A list of accomplishments might include things like where you went to school and where you have been published. If relevant, you can include your professional experience or current role. This is not a time to brag or list every award you won since grade two. Pick the major accomplishments that are relevant and recent.

For example:

Mary Jones, a graduate of ____________, has been published in____________ and ______________.

If this is your first publication, you can say:

Mary Jones writes about ________________ and ______________.

3. Use third person

For author bios, write in the third person, even if you are the one writing it. First-person bios are rare and not the industry standard. 

Instead of saying, “I have lived in Tokyo and have six cats,” say, “Pamela has lived in Tokyo and has six cats.”

4. Say something personal

Well-written bios end with a personal statement about you. There's not room to tell your life story or share too many personal details, but including a personal detail or two shows readers you are a real person beyond the written page. See the ending of the following examples.

Here is Stephen King's biography from the back of his book  On Writing . It has 65 words.

Stephen King is the author of more than fifty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. Among his most recent are 11/22/63 , Under the Dome , Lisey’s Story , Duma Key , Cell , Dreamcatcher , Hearts in Atlantis , and Bag of Bones . He was the recipient of the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Maine with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.

Stephen King’s biography begins with his name and then lists his professional life accomplishments. But it ends with a note about his personal life. Now you know that he lives in Maine and his wife is a novelist. This helps you to connect with him as a regular human being, not just a very accomplished celebrity.

(His biography is long, though. If you were Steven King, and they said, “Mr. King, you have only fifty words,” what would you take out?)

Or read this biography from the back of The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. This one is 42 words.

Steven Pressfield is the author of Gates of Fire, Tides of War, The Afghan Campaign, The Profession, The Warrior Ethos and Turning Pro, among others. He lives in Los Angeles. In 2003, he was made an honorary citizen of Sparta in Greece.

If I wanted to know what books Steven Pressfield wrote, I could look up his page on Amazon. But I would not know to look up whether he was made an honorary citizen of Sparta in Greece. That's an interesting relevant detail based on some of the writing he's done. 

Take a look at this one, from the back inside cover of Jon Acuff’s book Finish . This has 49 words.

Jon Acuff is the New York Times bestselling author of Start , Quitter , and Do Over , among other books. He is a popular public speaker, blogger, Tweeter, and the creator of the “30 Days of Hustle” online challenge. He lives in Nashville with his wife, Jenny, and their two daughters.

Jon Acuff's biography tells me about his accomplishments. Then it ends with a note about his family. It is a good idea to share a piece of personal information about yourself so readers can connect with you.

5. Be funny

Include humor if it fits your writing and the publication you are submitting to. Remember, you don’t want to make off-color jokes in your biography, so pretend your mother is reading it.

Unless, of course, it is for an adult magazine. Then you can write humor that fits that publication. Keep your target audience in mind, knowing that humor is highly contextual. 

6. Link to your writing

Use only one link. Decide what is the most important place you want your readers to find you. Twitter? Instagram? Your website signup list?

If you only have one link, have it go to your website signup page. An email list is the most important, as it gives you direct access to make friends with your readers. You own your website (we hope!); you don’t own Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. Social media platforms are great for connecting with readers, but it's good to keep in mind that they can change their rules any time and that can affect your access to your target audience. 

7. Follow the rules

Follow the rules. If the publication or bio instructions ask for a fifty-word biography, don’t give them 324 words. Stick to fifty. If there's a character limit, follow it. Don't jeopardize your chances of publication because you won't follow through on your author bio. 

Bonus Tip: Be Yourself

It can seem intimidating to write a killer bio. But you are a writer. You have already written an article or story so amazing that someone wants to publish it.

You can write a fantastic bio, too.

Now You Try

It's a good idea to try out a few different bios for different target audiences. Mix and match professional accomplishments and personal experiences until you have a blend that really captures you and your writing style. 

You can practice using a conversational tone and then a more formal tone. See which one fits the audience or market you have in mind. Share them with your writing friends or on your social media accounts to boost engagement and see which one your target audience likes most. 

Keep cutting extraneous details until you have a killer bio that represents you, and then polish and edit until it shines.

The handy template above and your own brilliant writing are all you need!

Do you have any tips for how to write a bio? Let us know in the comments .

Take fifteen minutes to write a fifty-word biography. This is the length of biographies Alice, my editor, asks for on The Write Practice.

What will you include in your biography? Share the bio you write in the Pro Practice Workshop. Tell us what you cut and why.

Please read other readers' biographies and help them write a clear biography.

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Enrollment closes May 14 at midnight!

Pamela Hodges

Pamela writes stories about art and creativity to help you become the artist you were meant to be. She would love to meet you at pamelahodges.com .

30 Comments

Dawn Van Beck, an advocate for vulnerable adults and a chocolate chip cookie connoisseur, writes inspirational stories and devotions, and has been published in Short Fiction Break. Currently working on her debut romance novel, she resides in Florida with her husband and feisty dachshund. You can find her at http://www.findingfaithinthefabric.com .

Great bio, Dawn. I love that it has a light-heartedness. Heading to your website now 🙂

I like your bio. You are really smart.

Hi Dawn, Love that you showed your fun personality as well as what you write, and where your heart is. xo Pamela

Hi Dawn, I agree with Pamela Hodges, job well crafted.

I have a question. I’ve wondered about it for awhile and I’m a bit hesitant in asking, but…

Is is possible to be anonymous? Like, if you published a novel, can you write under a fake name and not have too many people know exactly who you are?

Yes. I do, but I also have a biography for the pen name I use, which is admittedly way more than 50 words long

Hi EmFairley, What a great idea to have a biography with your pen name. xo Pamela And of course you are not going to share it, because it is anonymous. 🙂

A biography is best written by an outsider or at least to be read that way as in POV 3rd voice. It sounds cool to use a pen name.

Hi Pamela. Your 7-step formula is typical of bio after bio after bio. As writer’s we should let the reader know they’re in for a great read. Writing a mechanical bio doesn’t give them much to go on. Here’s some food-for-thought from my 1-day bio course…

1. Don’t put your name at the start for two reasons. Firstly, bio’s are likely to be set within the context of the author anyway, so no point wasting words repeating it. Secondly, if the name should be included – perhaps because it’s to be read in isolation – it has more impact at the end; this is because a) people will remember it more after reading something interesting, and b) a great bio should create tension so the reader WANTS to know who this is.

2. Don’t waste valuable words boring the reader LISTING your accomplishments. Most authors have them, so they won’t make you stand out. And few readers would know the difference between a credible one and a valueless one. And people with truly epic accomplishments, like Stephen King, don’t need to flourish being a 50-times best-seller. By all means, roll your best one into the conversation, just don’t be mechanical.

3. Third person is good for not sounding like it’s an ego trip, but a much better way IS to be in first person and use the bio to connect with the reader. Use humour (your point 5) and open up to them, making sure your comments are directed at THEM (i.e. use ‘you’) to show you care about THEM.

4. Be personal – right! But more than that, make sure you’re saying something relevant TO the reader. Make them feel your reaching out to THEM and not the masses.

5. Yes. I’ve covered that above.

6. Yes, although don’t waste the words if you’ve already put the links on the page in other fields, which is common.

7. Definitely.

8 (added) – Tailor it for the location. Note just word count, but voice. If it’s for a funky radio show for e.g., check out the lingo and match the style.

Hope that helps unlocks a whole new way of thinking about bios and standing out from the crowd. If you get it right, the results speak for themselves.

Here’s an example of one of mine used for my first series of fantasy books:

“My goal is a story that pulls you in. A story you want to keep reading, as powerful as I can make, with characters real and compelling. Some are heroes with flaws, others are weak with hidden strengths. They stand against a hidden enemy. Not all of them want to…”

Miles Allen

Here’s a link to my blog on writing business bios. It’s a different angle, but much of it will translate to creating a more penetrating author bio too.

http://www.milesallen.net/why-your-business-biography-is-killing-sales/

Prince Ydnar Velonza is a frustrated writer and blogger. He loves to eat chocolate whenever he’s alone. Prince Ydnar is editing a book that will be publish soon.

Hello Prince Ydnar Velonza, Right now you have 28 very well written words, I just switched a few words in the last sentence.

“Prince Ydnar Velonza is a frustrated writer and blogger. He loves to eat chocolate whenever he’s alone. Prince Ydnar is editing a book that he will publish soon.”

Can you think of anything else to include? You have the personal element down with the chocolate and frustrated writer and blogger part. How about where you live? Or where you go to school? Any awards?

Best to you, xo Pamela

Hello Pamela. Thanks so much for your article. I was looking for something just like this and the length of a bio. It’s great to learn from famous writer’s bio; now I have an example of how to start and what to include.

Lilian Gardner was born in India. After obtaining her school diploma, she qualified as a teacher at the Teacher’s Training College.

She has written and self-published two books and is busy editing her third novel.

Lilian lives in Italy with her husband, Giuliano, an engineer and pilot, and their cat, Minnie

Unfortunately, I am two words above the word count you gave us. I started wih 220 words, and cut, cut, cut it down to 52 words. It seems scant. Please give me feedback. Thanks.

Hi Lilian, I got it down to 48 words. “Lilian Gardner was born in India. After obtaining her school diploma, she graduated from the Teacher’s Training College. She has written and self-published two books and is currently editing her third novel. Lilian lives in Italy with her husband, Giuliano, an engineer and pilot, and their cat, Minnie”

This is the sentence I changed. Did you work as a teacher after you graduated? What is the most important point in this sentence? What about —After graduating from the Teacher’s Training College she worked with elementary school children in Florence, Italy. (or wherever you worked)

“After obtaining her school diploma, she graduated from the Teacher’s Training College” And I had no idea you lived in Italy. Your cat speak Italian!! xo Pamela

Thanks, Pamela. I like your super edit. I honestly needed to know how to write a bio. Minnie is multilingual. i speak to her in English, my husband speaks to her in Italian, and my son’s girlfriend speaks to her in Slovak. Her answer never changes. it’s always ‘meow’. How is Harper and the rest of the clan doing?

Wow! Great feedback here.

SM Sierra is the author of two self-published books, Molly Blue &The Quill of Two Lives, and Molly Blue & The Thirteen Wands, she is currently working on the third book in the series. She resides in California with her mechanic husband, Milo, and her adopted crooked-tail black kitty, Coulson.

I like your post which is Informative and interesting.

Thanks for the feedback Lilian!

Hello S.M. Sierra, So nice to read your biography. I don’t know if you have to say your books are self-published. What do you think S.M.? Do we have to say how they are published? Hello to Milo and Coulson. xo Pamela

Thanks Pam, It took me a lot of time and research to learn the best way to format to create a book…it is all mine, therefore in place of a degree or background in journalism, which I do not have, I consider the writing and self publishing my accomplishments.

Hi S.M. Thank you for your perspective on this. You are right, it is an accomplishment. And great job for learning how to make your own book. I self-published my book too, and spend a lot of time as well learning how to make it. You have opened my eyes to the value of what we have learned. xo Pamela

It took her; you said it took me. I believe the (bio) should be written in POV third voice. ie;. He/she and not I.

Love the croocked – tail black kitty. Lol. .

Hi all. I’ve been told, and read, by many editors that on ocassions, the bio can be the difference between them accepting your story or someone else’s. More important than people think. Here’s mine; Justin Boote is an Englishman living in Barcelona for twenty years working as a stressed waiter in a busy restaurant. He has been writing short horror/suspense stories for two years, in which time, he has published seventeen stories in a diversity of magazines. He can be found at Facebook.

About the Author Victor Paul Scerri first works as a writer and artist published by Recovering the Self: A Journal of Hope and Healing. In recognition of his art exhibits, a Zen painting is the cover image for the April 2011 issue of the journal. He continues to publish articles at EnzineArticles.com, and is an active team writer of short stories. He made cultural award winning entrepreneur in Norway and now lives in Thailand. You can find him at http://www.nicewriters.com / nicewriters on (FB).

Victor Scerri, born in London, living in Thailand, ventured to Norway – he made cultural award-winning entrepreneur. He was published by Recovering the Self: A Journal of Hope and Healing. His art is on the cover of the April 2011 issue. He still writes and publishes with EnzineArticles.com. See: http://www.nicewriters.com .

Thank you, Marsha, for taking the time to edit my bio

(This is an edited.) Prince Ydnar Velonza is a 15 year-old student. He is a starter writer and blogger. He lives from Philippines. Velonza was awarded as salutatorian since his elementary times. Now, he is studying 4th year high school (Grade 10). He loves to play a Philippine outdoor games like “tagu-taguan” (hide and seek) especially in night, “patintero”, and “tumbang-preso”. Playing “busy apple” is the bonding of his family.

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The Best Short Professional Bios (Examples + Templates)

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Summary. To write a short bio you should first make an initial introduction introducing yourself in the first or first person. Your short bio should include your brand, your accomplishments, and your values and goals. Your short bio should be one to three short paragraphs or four to eight sentences long.

Knowing how to write a concise, informative, and interesting biography about yourself can help throughout various parts of the professional process. You can use your bio to capture the attention of potential employers or clients and convince them to choose to employ or work with you.

In this article, you’ll learn more about what goes into a short bio and how to write one, and you’ll also get to see some short bio templates and examples to help you get an idea of what yours should look like.

Key Takeaways

A short bio serves to introduce you, your achievements, and what you offer professionally to potential employers or clients.

It’s important to keep your bio brief so that readers stay engaged and will remember your main points.

You may need to adjust your bio for different audiences, as your clients may want to know different information than a recruiter would.

Talk about your skills and accomplishments in your bio, but don’t exaggerate them.

What Is a Short Bio?

How to write a short bio, what to include in a short professional bio, short bio examples, short bio templates, tips for writing a short bio, writing a short bio faq.

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A short bio serves as your introduction to the professional world. In terms of finding or expanding on your job, a bio will cover your:

Work history

Achievements

Any other relevant professional information

Think of it as a professional memoir that a hiring manager or consumer can read and understand quickly. It’s usually about one to three paragraphs depending on experience.

There’s an emphasis on being succinct when it comes to writing a professional bio. This is because a bio is supposed to be a preface to attract recruiter attention and incline them to reach out for more information. Many readers will get lost or bored with a lengthy bio.

Using a short bio can be helpful across very different industries, from marketing to accounting, from psychiatry to sales.

You’re probably familiar with providing short bios on social media websites and applications. While the information and skills you include in a professional bio may differ, the general formatting is similar.

There’s a lot of considerations to take into account when writing a short bio, and it can quickly become intimidating. Deciding what information is relevant and how to keep it near 140 characters is no small task.

If you’re having difficulty writing a short bio, follow the outline below to craft an introduction that engages your reader.

Make an initial introduction. You can’t jump right into everything you’ve done and what you want to do in the future before introducing yourself.

Your bio’s first sentence should begin with your full name in the third person or introduce yourself in the first person and continue to briefly outline your most notable skills and accomplishments. It’s a good place to state your current job and employer.

Go deeper with what motivates you. Once you’ve catchily illustrated who you are in your short bio, you can use the second sentence to describe your motivations for your work.

Stating what drives you to do the work you do is essential to employers and customers alike. Whether you work as a physician or fitness consultant , there’s a reason why this is your profession, and you should explain that in your short professional bio.

Describe your accomplishments. Your short bio is for detailing why you’re the ideal candidate to be trusted with handling an employer or consumer’s business. By describing your prior accomplishments, you let them know what you could offer as an employee and how you’ve succeeded in the past.

While you should avoid sounding braggy, the reader is looking for information about what your qualifications are , and your accomplishments generally measure these qualities.

Even though you could probably go on for ages about the details of your accomplishments, save that for an interview . In a short bio, only include the most impressive of your achievements to outline.

Accomplishments relevant to a short bio could include:

Impressive results on a project

Former promotions

Awards received in your field

Certifications received

Include contact information. The purpose of a short bio as either a business or a job seeker is to inspire the reader to reach out. Without contact information, this pursuit becomes futile. Make sure your short bio has some way to contact you at the end.

Relevant contact information may include:

Phone number

Professional networking profile

A short professional bio includes:

Your full name. You can choose to write your bio in the first person (I, me, my) or third person (he, she, they), but either way, you need to include your full name at some point. Branding doesn’t work so well without a brand name (i.e., you!)

Your brand. Of course, if you have an actual brand that you’re trying to market, you should include the brand name as well.

What you do. Summarize what you want the reader to know about what you do in one sentence — tricky, we know.

Your accomplishments. For a short bio, you can stick with just one major accomplishment from your professional life. Or, if you have a string of impressive achievements, try condensing all of them down to one sentence.

Your goals and values. Let the reader know what makes you tick — why do you do what you do and what do you hope to achieve with your work? People are compelled by a story more than anything else, so it’s important to get this part right.

Something personal (optional). If you have a quirky tidbit about yourself you’d like to include, go for it. Just make sure it doesn’t throw off te the tone of the rest of your bio.

Contact info (optional). If your bio is serving as a call-to-action to drum up business or get leads on job opportunities, it makes sense to include your contact information at the end of your bio. It’s not necessary if that information is available elsewhere on the page , though.

Entry-Level Job-Seeker Bio Example

Mitchell Morrison is an upcoming video producer and editor who believes in the art of visual organization. He is a recent graduate from the University of Washington and focused on post-production during his time studying there. He was introduced to the magical world of visual art production by watching his father work on editing commercials growing up and has been working towards his dream of becoming a video editor ever since. During his last year of college, Mitchell participated in a competitive internship with Digital Space Films. He was chosen out of 2,000 applicants based on his academic portfolio and personal statement essay. This internship was an incredible learning experience and resulted in three professional accreditations for music video editing. Mitchell currently lives in Seattle, Washington pursuing freelance opportunities and spending time with his Dog, Pikachu. To get into contact with Mitchell: MitchellMorrisonVideo.com/contact

Working Professional Website Bio Example

Lisa Kennedy is an experienced real estate professional. She knows how important a home is for long-term happiness and has invested her career in putting people in the house they’ve always dreamed of. Lisa was driven to pursue real estate from her passion for helping people during life-altering times, and a keen interest in high-end, luxury homes. She’s been working in the real estate industry for ten years and in that time has assisted over 3,500 people in finding homes. She was educated at the University of Los Angeles with a bachelor’s in business management. She’s worked for some of the most respectable Real Estate companies in Los Angeles and individually under her agency “Kennedy Homes.” Lisa has also been published in Real Estate Quarterly Magazine as the 2017 winner of the “Top Luxury Home Seller” award. Lisa loves the culture of Los Angeles and has been living there with her family of five since she graduated from college. She enjoys spending her free time exploring towns along the West Coast and swimming. If you’d like to get in touch with Lisa: Email: [email protected]

Professional Networking Profile Bio Example

Bianca Jones Marketing Manager Miami, FL The first step towards customer satisfaction is being reached by stellar product marketing, and that’s what I aim to provide. My professional experience as a product marketing manager has allowed me to assist many organizations in improving their sales margins and audience response to emerging products. I’ve brought dedication and positive results to the companies I’ve worked for because I am passionate about product perception, marketing, and business statistics. What drives a product to success interests and inspires me. I specialize in long-term growth strategies and audience outreach. In addition to eight years of experience in professional product marketing, I have also published two books on creating a career as a marketer called “What to Do After Your Bachelor’s” and “A Marketer’s How-To.” If you’re interested in learning more about how to market your business better, or just discuss more, feel free to contact me by email at [email protected].

Your first choice is whether you want your bio to be written in the third person or first person. These short bio templates show both options, and also include different ideas for what to include, and how. Feel free to pick and choose your favorite parts of each of the two.

[Full Name] is a [job title] who [believes/knows] in the power of [what you do]. [He/She/They] began their journey in [field] by [how you got started in the field], and now dreams of [what you hope to accomplish]. [His/Her/Their] biggest accomplishment to date has been [your biggest accomplishment]. [Full Name] lives in [where you live] and participates in [a hobby/interest]. To get in touch with [Full Name], call/email/message me on [how you’d like to be contacted].

I am a [job title] who helps [who you help] [what you help them do]. It’s my belief that [your unique perspective on the field]. In the past [# of years] years, I’ve [major accomplishment #1] through [how you accomplished it]. I have a passion for [your professional passion], but on the side, I also enjoy [personal passion]. Get in touch with me today at [contact info] — I look forward to talking with you about [what you want to talk to your readers about].

You have a firm grasp of the structure of a short bio and what to include. Now, you may need some tips for how to polish your short professional bio and make it stand out from the competition.

Be mindful of length. While you’re probably getting sick of hearing that your bio should be short, it’s good to keep in mind throughout the writing process. It’s easy to go off on a tangent while trying to include everything relevant or rationalize, making your bio too long.

Avoid this impulse. The point of a bio is that it’s limited. You want to intrigue the reader enough to inspire them to seek more information about you or your services.

Tailor your bio to your intended audience. Whether you’re using a short bio to attract a particular customer base or potential employer, tailoring it to fit their wants and needs is crucial. Consider your intended audience base and what they’re looking for in a candidate or service.

Be genuine. Your short bio should be an authentic representation of your traits, experience, and personality. People are repelled by what they interpret as stretching the truth. If you’re being received as disingenuous by the reader, they’ll probably move on.

Proofread. The only way to steer clear of errors in your short bio is by proofreading it. Imagine a hiring manager being completely interested in your bio.

They love what you have to say about yourself and find your prior experience enticing. That is, until they come across a mistake that clearly shows you didn’t do proofread or edit.

Include links to your portfolio, website, or networking profile. One way to circumvent the confining factor of keeping your bio short is by including links to more detailed sources.

This can be in the form of linking your portfolio or website to allow the reader to go deeper into your discussed skills if they please, without taking up more space in your bio.

Implement these links seamlessly into your bio by attaching them to anchor words that describe what clicking will lead them to.

Add some personality. You aren’t the only person who has an impressive list of accomplishments to put on a bio, so you’re going to need to find some additional ways to make an impression.

What should a short bio include?

A short bio should include your name, what you do, and your achievements. You should also include your company or product’s brand, if you have one, and your goals and motivations for doing what you do. This humanizes you and helps you stand out from the rest of the pack.

How long is a short bio?

A short bio is typically one to three paragraphs long. These should be short paragraphs though, as other experts say that between four and eight sentences is the ideal length for a short bio.

What makes a good bio?

A good bio is succinct and memorable. Readers don’t want to spend long reading about your professional and personal life, so go back and cut it down to the important parts multiple times after you draft it. You might be surprised at how little you actually need to include.

What should you avoid putting in a short bio?

You should avoid including anything negative or arrogate. It’s never a good idea to write anything negative about previous jobs or employers. Only include positive things in your professional short bio.

It’s important to include your achievements in a short bio, but there is a fine line between mentioning your achievements and bragging about them. Stick to the facts when talking about your accomplishments.

Fremont University – Building Your Professional Bio

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Sky Ariella is a professional freelance writer, originally from New York. She has been featured on websites and online magazines covering topics in career, travel, and lifestyle. She received her BA in psychology from Hunter College.

Don Pippin is an executive and HR leader for Fortune 50 and 500 companies and startups. In 2008, Don launched area|Talent with a focus on helping clients identify their brand. As a Certified Professional Resume Writer, Certified Digital Career Strategist, and Certified Personal Branding Strategist, Don guides clients through career transitions.

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I'm not trying to start a debate; I'm just curious about the different opinions users may have about what Second Life is. How would you describe it?

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a social sandbox where people have tools to create some really outstanding art and (that includes wearable). 

Arielle Popstar

Well my mother says it looks like a game for children when she was handing me my pension cheque.

Sims online: Mental disability DLC 

gwynchisholm

3D chatrooms.

Persephone Emerald

I call it a virtual world in which 99% of the content is made by users,... " so there is Adult content too." 

A couple weeks ago I was in SL with my avatar, shopping for clothes. I was at a public library, and a little girl asked me if that was Roblox. I told her it was Second Life, which is kind of similar, but for adults.

A few days later, I was in SL shopping for fantasty skins while in a Starbucks in RL. An adult man asked me what game this was. I told him it's a virtual would called Second Life, in which 99 % of the content is made by other users. His next question was, "Can they be naked?" My answer was, "yes". Then he asked me again what the name of the game was so he could look it up. 😆  

8 minutes ago, Persephone Emerald said:   A few days later, I was in SL shopping for fantasty skins while in a Starbucks in RL. An adult man asked me what game this was. I told him it's a virtual would called Second Life, in which 99 % of the content is made by other users. His next question was, "Can they be naked?" My answer was, "yes". Then he asked me again what the name of the game was so he could look it up. 😆  

 Myes, i see  so they CAN be naked.  

* downloads for scientific purposes *

CaerolleClaudel

I recently went into a long explanation for someone I know, but I'll leave off all the detail and just say that it is like a big sandbox with portions 'owned' by specific people who can customize their area, and while people call it a game it is an online social environment. I also described how the interface screams 'early aughts' and how everything is clunky, arcane, and complicated, and that my understanding is that most new users just give up and quit.

Alwin Alcott

7 hours ago, Koko Carlucci said: I'm not trying to start a debate

archangel969

I always start by explaining the difference between a virtual world where people live a second life and playing virtual games. Because people who know little or nothing about SL quickly confuse the two. In games, there is one creator, or rather an organisation or group that has created the entire virtual world in which you can have adventures. In SL, YOU can be the creator. Everything you see here is - unlike in games - created by the participants, the residents themselves. Also, there are no or little fixed rules and you don't live here within the confines of, say, an adventure game. You not only create your own world here, you also create your own adventure.

"Think real life, but with terrible FPS and more disorders."

Zalificent Corvinus

It's like FirstLife, but there's a button you can click to make worthless, annoying a-holes demanding your time, vanish.

Hymn Celestia

Depends on the person.  I am eager to sell it well; so to some I would emphasize the lack of impediments and obstacles to walking or flying or driving or boating or feelings of freedom in the world; to others I would emphasize that quarantine is a cinch and a breeze with Second Life.  To still others I would emphasize all the great stuff that doesn't cost anything; and to still others I would emphasize all the cool stuff you can pay for to do and have.  But what FIRST captured my imagination many years ago was the immersion in specific fandoms:  and I would still emphasize this and say to the person that if you're currently passionate about a book or a movie franchise and want to spend your free time further immersed in it, this is the place to be.  Join or start a group and dive in.   What is Second Life but an immersive experience: Second Life is a place for your emotions.

JacksonBollock

An absolute Bag of Spanners .

Kathlen Onyx

On 5/7/2024 at 7:10 PM, Koko Carlucci said: I'm not trying to start a debate; I'm just curious about the different opinions users may have about what Second Life is. How would you describe it?

That's exactly what a debate is. But mostly its where a bunch of men and women come online and spend time doing things that they say they can't do in RL but they really can.  As far as I can tell, from my experience it's also where lonely men come and hit on women to find a RL partner.  YMMV.

25 minutes ago, Kathlen Onyx said: That's exactly what a debate is. But mostly its where a bunch of men and women come online and spend time doing things that they say they can't do in RL but they really can.  As far as I can tell, from my experience it's also where lonely men come and hit on women to find a RL partner.  YMMV.

This sort of place isn't where you come to find an RL partner, it's where you come to meet B*tSh*t crazy, with all the short term benefits such an interaction generally provides.

It's like a 3D chatroom, but all of our weiners are a foot long.

Edit: come to think of it, that's a regular chatroom too.

5 minutes ago, JacksonBollock said: This sort of place isn't where you come to find an RL partner, it's where you come to meet B*tSh*t crazy, with all the short term benefits such an interaction generally provides.

Tell that to the men I meet that seem to fall in love in 4 days and start talking about how they want to be with me in RL.  Even a disclaimer in my profile doesn't deter them!

Just now, Kathlen Onyx said: Tell that to the men I meet that seem to fall in love in 4 days and start talking about how they want to be with me in RL.  Even a disclaimer in my profile doesn't deter them!

I never talk with other people in RL about Second Life ever. I don't want them around in SL as well.

3 minutes ago, Sid Nagy said: I never talk with other people in RL about Second Life ever. I don't want them around in SL as well.

same. Last thing I want is to hanging out in a virtual world with people I already meet with in my RL

on the few times I do get into a convo about online games and SL comes up then I just say is pretty much about making stuff and lots of old people. After that is only old people creatives who want to talk more about it. And is no surprise when they say they already know about SL

33 minutes ago, Sid Nagy said: I never talk with other people in RL about Second Life ever. I don't want them around in SL as well.

I do talk about SL in RL, in fact I've shown a few people my interactions on these boards.

Truthfully though, there's no real worry about them also joining SL.

Not so much as a result of the Forums, just more it has a really big PR mountain still to climb.

Modesty layers  😂

- please take that with the humour that it's inteded with. 

I don't recruit friends and family to SL, and very few people know that I'm here. As Sid says, I'd rather not have them in SL, no matter how close I feel to them in RL.  SL is my world, and I come here to be me in a second life -- an alternative time track.  This is a world for creating things, being an entrepreneur in a limited way, exploring strange-looking places and admiring what other people have created. And it's a place to relax, chat, and dance with people who I will never meet in RL.  It really is like stepping into a quirky "What if" alternative existence with mostly familiar rules, different physics, and new people.

Codex Alpha

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How Mystik Dan won the 150th Kentucky Derby: The people and the moments that made a champion

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The thing about a life-changing event that takes two minutes to finish: every move, every decision, even every non-decision matters. Except it’s not just the moves, the decisions and the non-decisions made in those two minutes that matter; it’s a lifetime of split-decision choices that combine to create a life and, in one case on a muggy Saturday evening, make history.

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To unspool the story of Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan’s historic run along the rail and into the record books requires far more than a rewind around the Churchill Downs track. It includes a decision to not bail on a dinner date 30-plus years ago and a hunt for bloodstock information in the basement of a college library years before even that. It necessitates a commitment to a would-have-been retired mare and a father convincing his son to fall in love with horse racing. It requires one jockey to study another rail-riding rider, and a partnership between a collection of people who compete with the big names but intentionally never cared about being one of them.

On the historic 150th running of this race, Mystik Dan delivered a breath-holding finish, beating second-place Sierra Leone and third-place Forever Young in the first three-horse photo finish since 1947. So close was the finish, not even winning jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. was certain what happened, asking an outrider as he eased Mystik Dan if he’d won the Kentucky Derby.

It took an agonizing five minutes for the answer to arrive, the 156,710 spectators on hand going from euphoric as the three horses neared the wire to near-stunned silence as they, like the jockey, awaited the decision.

Finally, Mystik Dan’s name flashed on the big board, the crowd in the stands whooping in joy, the outrider sharing the news with Hernandez. “It took about two minutes, and then finally when they said, ‘Yeah, you’ve just won the Kentucky Derby, I was like, ‘Oh wow, that’s a long two minutes. That was the longest two minutes in sports — from the fastest two minutes to the longest by far.’’

Perhaps the only person not surprised was trainer Ken McPeek. The Kentucky-based trainer practically made like Babe Ruth and called his shot all week. On Friday, when he sat at a press conference to celebrate his Kentucky Oaks winner Thorpedo Anna, it was suggested that perhaps he’d return for another winning presser the next day. “Count on it,’’ he said. When the promise was delivered, McPeek celebrated on the track, holding his daughter Annie’s hand tight.

By combining the winning ride with that of Thorpedo Anna, McPeek became the first trainer since Ben Jones in 1952 to win the Kentucky Oaks-Kentucky Derby double, and Hernandez the first jockey to do so since Calvin Borel in 2009.

It is fitting that Hernandez matched Borel. In the longer view of this race, the one that makes more like “It’s A Wonderful Life” and considers how even the most inconsequential of decisions lead to an epic life, it was Borel that Hernandez cued up on the videos to study. Borel was known around the track as Calvin Bo-Rail for his love and comfort with riding along the rail, a spot plenty of jockeys would prefer to avoid. When Mystik Dan drew post position three, Hernandez and McPeek started talking about how they might be able to turn what plenty envisioned as a disadvantage into an advantage. Hernandez discovered the secret sauce in the recaps of Borel’s rides.

In the immediate here and now, in the 2:03.34 it took Mystik Dan to cover the 1 ¼ miles, the race was won because Hernanedez Jr. steered the horse on a brilliant ride. He followed Track Phantom along the rail, and when the lead horse gave him a half-step’s worth of room, he squeezed Mystik Dan through the narrow space that opened like the sliver of light beneath a doorframe, holding on to the finish line to win by a nose. Favorite Fierceness finished 15th.

But this race was won long before Hernandez cued up the video. It was won some 40 years ago when a young McPeek buried himself in the University of Kentucky agriculture library to educate himself on BloodHorse and thoroughbred records. Taken to Keeneland by his grandfather, McPeek never saw himself doing much else other than horse racing. He jokes that his ag library basement studies might have resulted in better grades than his normal coursework, but it’s only because it fed a passion.

All that studying and poking around, though, created a sort of horse-racing Everyman. He prefers to touch every bit of horse racing and is respected as much as a bloodstock agent as a trainer. He even created an app — Horses Now — for replays. He’s a big believer in the industry, well-liked and well-respected among his peers for his loyalty and decency and his willingness to keep things simple. Horse racing is a big business, and an expensive one, the animals often owned by conglomerates over individuals. McPeek has purposefully tried to eschew that approach. “I think what I’m most proud of is, we didn’t do with Calumet Farm horses,’’ he said, citing the big-breeding conglomerate in Lexington. “We did it with working-class horses.’’

McPeek trained Mystik Dan’s mare, Ma’am, and when she neared retirement, he convinced Lance, Brent and Sharilyn Gasaway not to retire her but to breed her with Goldencents, a 2013 Derby entrant. That they agreed goes to the trust the owners put in McPeek, but also back to their own horse-racing roots and their little moments that led them to a small-ish racehorse with the biggest of wins.

Lance Gasaway, you might argue, is the Mystik Dan of college football. That is to say, perhaps a tad overlooked. A record holder and Hall of Famer, he starred not at Arkansas but at Arkansas-Monticello, where he was an NAIA All-American for the Boll Weevils. He got into horse racing at the urging of his dad, Clint, the two partnering at Oaklawn, their home track. Their biggest and best shot at the limelight came with Wells Bayou, who won the Louisiana Derby and was targeted for the Kentucky Derby until COVID struck and moved the race to September.

Clint died about a year ago, and as Lance sat on the dais, he got more than a little choked up when he recalled his father’s influence. “To me, this is for him,’’ he said. “Dad would have loved it. He loved the game.’’ But a few years ago, back when Ma’am was about to be retired, Clint decided he was getting too old to get into breeding horses. Lance opted to bring in his first cousin, Brent.

Thirty-five years ago, Brent was meant to meet his now-wife Sharilyn for a date, but he was late. And then later. Turns out he was at the track, still at the races. Sharilyn was less than thrilled — at least until Brent that night popped the question. When Sharilyn quit her full-time job, the couple opted to get into horse racing full-time, about the same time that Clint and Lance got into the game. When Lance needed a new partner for breeding and, eventually, in the ownership of Mystik Dan, Sharilyn and Brent made perfect sense.

Sitting side-by-side, sandwiched between McPeek and Hernandez, Lance and Sharilyn both seemed a bit wide-eyed and happily dazed. Asked how they might celebrate, Lance deadpanned, “I don’t know. I never won the Derby before.’’

Neither had McPeek. But now, with his own Triple Crown — he won the Preakness in 2020 with Swiss Skydiver and the Belmont in 2002 with Sarqva — he at least had an inkling. “I’m going to go back to the barn and hug all the staff and all the family,’’ he said. “And then my house is wide open if anyone wants to come over.’’

Mystik Dan may have won the Derby in two minutes of maneuvering, but it took a million smaller moments to create the masterpiece.

(Photo of jockey Brian J. Hernandez Jr. on Mystik Dan: Rob Carr / Getty Images)

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Dana O’Neil, a senior writer for The Athletic, has worked for more than 25 years as a sports writer, covering the Final Four, the Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals and NHL playoffs. She has worked previously at ESPN and the Philadelphia Daily News. She is the author of three books, including "The Big East: Inside the Most Entertaining and Influential Conference in College Basketball History." Follow Dana on Twitter @ DanaONeilWriter

What one Utah student learned in Hope Squad helped her save a friend’s life

“we learn how to take care of ourselves while taking care of other people.”.

(Photo courtesy of Maddie) Maddie, a high school student who serves as the president of the Hope Squad at her school and a Utah representative on the Hope Squad National Council, says she and her peers are “the eyes and ears of the school.”

This is part of a series of interviews with young Utahns making a meaningful impact on their communities’ — and their own — mental health. Read more .

In Utah, suicide is the leading cause of death for those between 10 and 17 and those between 18 and 24.

The Hope Squad — started by a Utah principal more than 25 years ago — teaches students how to advocate for themselves and their peers. On the secondary level, QPR is taught to students, which stands for question, persuade and refer.

“Hope Squad is the eyes and ears of the school,” says Maddie, a high school student who serves as the president of the Hope Squad at her school and a Utah representative on the Hope Squad National Council. “They’re not therapists, but they help their peers get the mental health help they need.”

The experiment began in 1999 and eventually expanded to each school in the Provo City School District. Today, there’s a Hope Squad in thousands of schools across the United States and Canada. And, according to founder Greg Hudnall , the effort has led to thousands of students being referred for help and a dramatic decrease in suicide in the Provo City School District.

Volmar says her six years with Hope Squad has changed her approach to mental health — and helped her save a life. This Q&A with her has been edited for length and clarity.

Sara Weber: What made you want to get involved with Hope Squad? When did that start?

Maddie: I learned about it in sixth grade, when the SBOs [student body officers] and members from the junior high Hope Squad came to try and recruit us. Within a month or so, I started to see those warning signs I was learning about in a friend of mine. I followed the steps in my QPR training, and I was able to refer him to a counselor and it ended up saving his life.

@sltrib In Utah, suicide is the leading cause of death for those between 10 and 24. The Hope Squad — started by a Utah principal more than 25 years ago — teaches students how to advocate for themselves and their peers. On the secondary level, QPR is taught to students, which stands for question, persuade and refer. “Hope Squad is the eyes and ears of the school,” says Maddie, a high school student who serves as the president of the Hope Squad. “They’re not therapists, but they help their peers get the mental health help they need.” Visit sltrib.com to read about her efforts — and other young Utahns' work — to improve mental health around the state. #utah #mentalhealth #mentalhealthmatters #hopesquad #suicideprevention ♬ original sound - The Salt Lake Tribune

What challenges do you face in your work with the Hope Squad?

There is kind of a stigma around Hope Squad — people don’t quite understand what it is. It can kind of seem like Hope Squad makes people a project … they don’t see it as genuine. There’s also some misunderstanding about referring people to get the help that they need. So there’s that element of getting around the stigma, both around mental health and Hope Squad.

How do you get around those stigmas?

Whenever someone asks me about [Hope Squad], I just correct them. We work with our administration a lot. And they support us in our activities, too. Having their support can help us seem more legitimate to the school.

We’re also running activities for the school that are focused on destigmatizing mental health. We’ll run a Kahoot! [a game-based learning platform] that could do some myth busting for students, or we’ll pass out flyers or we’ll do activities that teach a lesson about it.

Can you tell me about the impacts you’ve seen of the work you do?

I have watched me and my friends grow a lot as people. I’ve also seen lives saved — which is really cool. It’s hard to have these conversations but, as we work together, we learn how to take care of ourselves while taking care of other people.

Is that something that you’ve noticed in yourself as well?

Definitely. Hope Squad has made me very aware. In school, I look around, I see people who are by themselves. And I don’t think I necessarily did that before I joined Hope Squad. Whatever situation I’m in, I find myself looking for people who might need a friend.

I’ve also been able to check my own mental health, which I really appreciate.

Do you think that mental health challenges are unique to Utah, unique to your age group or is it more pervasive?

I think that most everyone struggles with mental health to some degree. But also I feel like it’s a specific Utah problem, too. I’ve seen a lot of statistics about Utah — youth suicides being higher than the average across the nation — and I know that it is a very big problem in Utah. I’m very glad that we have Hope Squad and we have resources like SafeUT available here.

For other young people who are interested in mental health work like this, what advice do you have for them?

To get involved specifically with Hope Squad, it is a peer nomination process. If your school does not have a Hope Squad, reach out to your admin or reach out to a school counselor or teacher that you think would be a good advisor.

Is there anything else you’d like people to know?

Anyone can be a mental health advocate by just being a good friend, by being educated about mental health resources and being able to be aware of the people in your life and offer support to them when they need it.

Which resources do you recommend?

The Hope Squad website is awesome. Downloading the SafeUT app is good. There’s makeitok.org , which is also really awesome.

The Salt Lake Tribune is committed to creating a space where Utahns can share ideas, perspectives and solutions that move our state forward. We rely on your insight to do this. Find out how to share your opinion here , and email us at [email protected] .

Donate to the newsroom now. The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity and contributions are tax deductible

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Live from Paris: Taylor Swift adds 'Tortured Poets' songs to Eras Tour in France

PARIS, France — The Chairman jump-started her tour after a two-month hiatus, and anticipation was high over whether Taylor Swift would incorporate her 11th era album into the Eras Tour set at La Défense Arena on Thursday.

She did and then some.

Swift extended the set list by one track to land at 46 songs. But many changes were made along the way. She added a new era for "The Tortured Poets Department," cut a handful of songs and rearranged most of the eras including combining the sets for "Folklore" and "Evermore."

She also debuted a number of new outfits along the way.

Delivering all the updates were Bryan West, the USA TODAY Network's full-time Taylor Swift reporter, from inside La Défense Arena in Paris, with Swiftie and trending reporter Anthony Robledo assisting from his desk.

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

We hereby present the minutes from the first Eras Tour meeting in Paris, France.

More: Taylor Swift unveils new Eras Tour set list in Paris

'Midnights' set follows secret songs

Swift stuck to her original set list for the "Midnights" era by singing "Lavender Haze," "Anti-Hero" and "Midnight Rain." She ended the night with a triumphant rendition of "Karma" as usual.

'loml' is second secret song

Fans got one more taste of "The Tortured Poets Department" when Swift played the heartbreaking song "loml" on the piano during her secret set.

'Paris' is a secret song, of course

Swift started her secret set with "Paris," a bonus song from her "Midnights" album.

'Tortured Poets' set list

Swift played these songs from her newest album:

• "But Daddy I Love Him"
• "So High School"
• "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me"
• "Fortnight"
• "The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived"
• "I Can Do It with a Broken Heart"

New 'Tortured Poets' set is here

Toward the end of her show, Swift officially launched the long-awaited “The Tortured Poets Department” section of the tour after the 1989 era.

Swift performed the track “But Daddy I Love Him” off the April 19 album for her ecstatic fans while wearing a new beige dress with cursive letters.  

A road spiraled down the catwalk in an animation to initiate the era. The background animation showed a deserted road while large cages animated and fell on the road.

“Oh my god you should see your faces,” she sang.

She quickly segued into a brief moment of “So High School,” the beloved track speculated to be about her romance with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. She quickly performed the powerhouse anthem “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me.”

Swift switched to “Down Bad” before seamlessly transitioning into the lead single “Fortnight.” Stage production recreated an asylum that resembled the music video for the song with Post Malone, recorded harmony played concluding the song. 

Dancers entered the stage in a marching band style format playing drums as she performed the wrath-fueled song “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived.” Jan Ravnik and Kameron Saunders then revived Swift in a jazzy skit to set up “I Can Do With A Broken Heart,” where she debuted another new outfit. 

“The End” text displayed wrapping up the era that’s likely here to stay. Other beloved tracks like “Guilty As Sin” and “Florida!” did not make the cut.

New '1989' outfit

Swift never goes out of Style. During her “1989” set, she debuted a new, sequined outfit of blue and pink. Her sparkly shoes matched with a different colored heel on each. For the bridge of “Blank Space,” the crowd started chanting in Sydney, Australia, “Syd-ney” as a nod to the 1989 World Tour concert movie where Swift would chant the name of the city she was in after hitting a pole with a club two times. Singapore followed the chant and Taylor Nation tweeted they want every city to incorporate the fan-fueled chant.In Paris, thousands chanted “Par-ee,” the French way to say the capital city.

Swift made no cuts to the "1989" set.

Four songs cut from 'Folklore' and 'Evermore'

The new set list cut four tracks from the "Folklore" and "Evermore" eras:

• "'Tis the Damn Season"
• "Tolerate It"
• "The Last Great American Dynasty"

The combined set included eight songs altogether and wrapped up with "Willow."

'Folkmore' set debuts

Swift revealed she merged the 2020 pandemic albums “Folklore” and “Evermore” into one section. She told fans she wrote “Folklore” to represent spring and summer with “Evermore” representing fall and winter in what she always considered sister albums.

“On the Eras Tour we have now reunited the sisters, combined them into one chapter,” she said. “You can call it whatever you want as long as you promise to sing ‘Champagne Problems’ with me.”

'Folklore' set: 'Cardigan' makes the cut

Many fans had speculated "Cardigan" would be cut from the set list. But Swift actually moved it to the top of the "Folklore" set.

Up next: 'Reputation'

Swift kicked off her fifth set with "Ready for It?"

Another surprise: 'Speak Now' era comes fourth

Swift updated her "Speak Now" set with an intro dance featuring Raphael Thomas and eight other dancers wearing flowy purple dresses. She then sang "Enchanted."

Fan favorite track "Long Live" was cut from the set list.

Order of eras changed

After a fairly routine "Fearless" set, Swift altered her concert by including the “Red” era third instead of the expected “Evermore” set. Previously, "Red" came fifth.

With a new shirt that read “This Is Not Taylor’s Version,” the singer performed "22" and showed her audience that they needed to leave any expectations at home. 

The relocated "Red" set included the same four songs: "22," "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," "I Knew You Were Trouble" and "All Too Well (10-Minute Version)."

Beflore playing “All Too Well (10 Minute Version),” Swift talked about bringing all of her favorite memories to France.She did her 2019 “Lover” live show here but hadn’t brought a tour to the country since the Speak Now World Tour 13 years ago.“I cannot thank you enough. I’m so moved," she said.

Follow along with set list changes here .

First set list change

Swift cut "The Archer" from her "Lover" set before beginning her "Fearless" set in a silver and black minidress as opposed to her classic gold one. A graphic showed her "Lover" house with a new addition in the attic for "The Tortured Poets Department." Her "Fearless" set remained the same with "Fearless," "You Belong With Me" and "Love Story."

More: Taylor Swift's 'Love Story' castle will soon host weddings

'Je m'appelle Taylor'

In her monologue before playing the song "Lover," Swift said the night would span 18 years of music. Previously, the concert covered 16 years. Get ready for a "The Tortured Poets Department" addition some time tonight.

She confirmed the tour would still go era by era, and also spoke about how Paramore is a band she idolized since she was a teenager. She ended with some French: "Je m'appelle Taylor."

First new outfit

Swift debuted a new, orange bodysuit and jacket for the "Lover" set.

Snippet of 'Tortured Poets' in intro

A snippet of the song "The Tortured Poets Department" was included in the intro music Swift kicks the concert off with. Is she foreshadowing other changes ahead? It seems likely.

Taylor Swift takes the stage

Swift took the stage about 8 p.m. in Paris (2 p.m. ET) to relaunch her Eras Tour in Europe. She kicked it off with a countdown clock and the Lesley Gore song "You Don't Own Me" as usual. Then she began her "Lover" set with "Miss Americana."

Paramore covers Blondie, Talking Heads in Paris set list

At the Paris show Thursday, Paramore energized fans with eight tracks including their cover off the upcoming “Stop Making Sense” tribute album out May 17 featuring artists like Miley Cyrus and Lorde.

Debuting a blond mullet, lead singer Hayley Williams encouraged fans to dance without fear of judgment ahead of Swift’s performance.

“Enjoy your time with Miss Taylor, we will see you next time,” Williams said. 

Paramore's set list included:

• "Hard Times"
• "Burning Down the House" (Talking Heads cover) 
• "Caught in the Middle"
• “Brick by Boring Brick”
• “The Only Exception”
• “That’s What You Get”
• “Ain't It Fun”
• “This Is Why”

Paramore begins their set

At about 6:45 p.m. in Paris (12:45 p.m. ET), Paramore began their set, officially restarting the second year of the historic Eras Tour. Lead singer Hayley Williams sported a new, blond mullet hairdo.

Paramore opens European leg of Eras Tour

The American rock band is joining Swift on her European leg of 51 shows. Paramore also opened the show for two nights in Glendale, Arizona, in 2023. Their setlist then included nine songs:

• "This Is Why"
• "That’s What You Get"
• "The Only Exception"
• "Still Into You"
• "Rose-Colored Boy"
• "Misery Business"
• "Ain’t It Fun"

Where to watch the Eras Tour livestreams

The Eras Tour is one of the first tours that has been followed, globally, by thousands of fans on digital platforms. Fans dedicate part of their concert experience to livestreaming as Swift performs. Livestream Queen Tess Bohne has spearheaded the "Great War" to find fans going live on social media and broadcasting a custom show to tens of thousands of fans almost every night on her account @tessdear .

On YouTube, user @TaylorSwiftHockeyBro also livestreams the 3-hour show, and on Twitch, @folkleric is a host fans follow.

There is also an app, Swift Alert , that notifies fans who only want to watch certain eras like the acoustic, surprise set. The app also sends out push alerts if there are any major announcements.

What secret songs are left?

For the past 83 shows, Swift has had an acoustic set she customizes every stop with a guitar and piano performance. In 2024, the Eras Tour star added mash-ups of her songs for each stop. Here are the songs she has yet to perform:

• "Taylor Swift" (debut album): "Mary's Song" and "A Perfectly Good Heart"
• "Fearless": "The Way I Loved You," "Change," "Superstar," "We Were Happy," "That's When," "Don't You" and "Bye Bye Baby"
• "Red": "Girl At Home," "Ronan," "Forever Winter" and "Run"
• "1989": "Sweeter Than Fiction"
• "Reputation": "I Did Something Bad"
• "Lover": "London Boy," "Soon You'll Get Better" and "It's Nice to Have a Friend"
• "Folklore": "Hoax"
• "Evermore": "Happiness" and "Closure"
• "Midnights": "Paris" and "Glitch"
• "The Tortured Poets Department": all 31 tracks

Bienvenue dans le 'Eras Tour'

Welcome to the Eras Tour (France's Version). Swift is kicking off her 3-plus-hour concert from La Défense Arena in the Jardins de l’Arche district. The venue is Europe’s largest indoor arena and houses the Racing 92 rugby club. More than 40,000 fans will watch the concert, according to the stadium's website.

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Kendrick Lamar vs. Drake Beef Goes Nuclear: What to Know

The two rappers had circled one another for more than a decade, but their attacks turned relentless and very personal in a slew of tracks released over the weekend.

By Joe Coscarelli

The long-building and increasingly testy rap beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake exploded into full-bore acrimony and unverifiable accusations over the weekend. Both artists rapid-fire released multiple songs littered with attacks regarding race, appropriation, sexual and physical abuse, body image, misogyny, hypocrisy, generational trauma and more.

Most relentless was Lamar, a Pulitzer Prize winner from Compton, Calif., who tends toward the isolated and considered but has now released four verbose and conceptual diss tracks — totaling more than 20 minutes of new music — targeting Drake in the last week, including three since Friday.

Each racked up millions of streams and the three that were made available commercially — “Euphoria,” “Meet the Grahams” and “Not Like Us” — are expected to land near the top of next week’s Billboard singles chart, while seeming to, at least momentarily, shift the public perception of Drake, long a maestro of the online public arena and meme ecosystem .

In between, on Friday night, Drake released his own broadside against Lamar — plus a smattering of other recent challengers — in a teasing Instagram interlude plus a three-part track and elaborate music video titled “Family Matters,” in which he referred to his rival as a fake activist and attempted to expose friction and alleged abuse in Lamar’s romantic relationship.

But that song was followed within half an hour by Lamar’s “Meet the Grahams,” an ominous extended address to the parents and young son of Drake, born Aubrey Graham, in which Lamar refers to his rival rapper as a liar and “pervert” who “should die” in order to make the world safer for women.

Lamar also seemed to assert that Drake had more than a decade ago fathered a secret daughter — echoing the big reveal of his son from Drake’s last headline rap beef — a claim Drake quickly denied on Instagram before hitting back in another song on Sunday. (Neither man has addressed the full array of rapped allegations directly.)

On Tuesday, a security guard was shot and seriously injured outside of Drake’s Toronto home, which appeared on the cover art for Lamar’s “Not Like Us.” Authorities said they could not yet speak to a motive in the shooting, but the investigation was ongoing. Representatives for Drake and Lamar did not immediately comment.

How did two of the most famous artists in the world decide to take the gloves off and bring real-life venom into an extended sparring match for rap supremacy? It was weeks, months and years in the making, with a sudden, breakneck escalation into hip-hop infamy. Here’s a breakdown.

Since late March, the much-anticipated head-to-head seemed inevitable. Following years of “will they or won’t they?” lyrical feints, Lamar hit directly on record first this year during a surprise appearance on the song “Like That” by the Atlanta rapper Future and the producer Metro Boomin, both formerly frequent Drake collaborators.

With audible disgust, Lamar invoked the track “First Person Shooter” from last year’s Drake album, “For All the Dogs,” in which a guest verse from J. Cole referred to himself, Drake and Lamar as “the big three” of modern MCs.

Lamar took exception to the grouping, declaring that there was no big three, “just big me.” He also called himself the Prince to Drake’s Michael Jackson — a deeper, more complex artist versus a troubled, pop-oriented hitmaker.

“Like That” spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, as Future and Metro Boomin released two chart-topping albums — “We Don’t Trust You” and “We Still Don’t Trust You” — that were anchored by a parade of Drake’s past associates, each of whom seemed to share a simmering distaste toward the rapper, who later called the ambush a “20 v. 1” fight.

In early April, J. Cole fought back momentarily , releasing the song “7 Minute Drill,” in which he called Lamar overrated, before backtracking, apologizing and having the song removed from streaming services. But Drake soon picked up the baton, releasing a wide-ranging diss track called “Push Ups” less than a week later that addressed the field, with a special focus on Lamar’s height, shoe size and supposedly disadvantageous business dealings.

Less than a week later, Drake mocked Lamar’s lack of a response on “Taylor Made Freestyle,” a track released only on social media. It featured Drake taunting Lamar for being scared to release music at the same time as Taylor Swift and using A.I. voice filters to mimic Tupac and Snoop Dogg imploring Lamar to battle for the good of the West Coast.

“Since ‘Like That,’ your tone changed a little, you not as enthused,” Drake rapped in an abbreviated third verse, as himself. “How are you not in the booth? It feel like you kinda removed.” (“Taylor Made Freestyle” was later removed from the internet at the request of the Tupac Estate.)

But it was a seemingly tossed-off line from the earlier “Push Ups” that included the name of Lamar’s longtime romantic partner — “I be with some bodyguards like Whitney” — that Lamar would later allude to as a red line crossed, making all subject matter fair game in the songs to come. (It was this same alleged faux pas that may have triggered an intensification of Drake’s beef with Pusha T in 2018.)

How We Got Here

Even with Drake-dissing cameos from Future, Ye (formerly Kanye West), Rick Ross, the Weeknd and ASAP Rocky, the main event was always going to be between Drake, 37, and Lamar, 36, who have spent more than a decade subtly antagonizing one another in songs while maintaining an icy frenemy rapport in public.

In 2011, when Drake introduced Lamar to mainstream audiences with a dedicated showcase on his second album, “Take Care,” and an opening slot on the subsequent arena tour, the tone was one of side-eying competition. “He said that he was the same age as myself/and it didn’t help ’cause it made me even more rude and impatient,” Lamar rapped on “Buried Alive Interlude” of his earliest encounter with a more-famous Drake. (On his Instagram on Friday, Drake released a parody of the track, citing Lamar’s jealousy since then.)

The pair went on to appear together on “Poetic Justice,” a single from Lamar’s debut album, “Good Kid, M.A.A.D City,” in 2012, as well as “___ Problems” by ASAP Rocky the same year.

But their collaborations ceased as Drake became his generation’s premier hitmaker across styles in hip-hop and beyond, while Lamar burrowed deeper into his own psyche on knotty concept albums that brought wide critical acclaim alongside less constant commercial success.

When asked, the two rappers tended to profess admiration for one another’s skill, but seemed to trade subtle digs in verses over the years, always with plausible deniability and in the spirit of competition, leading to something of a hip-hop cold war.

The Week It Went Nuclear

Lamar’s first targeted response, “Euphoria,” was more than six minutes long and released last Tuesday morning. In three sections that raised the temperature as they built, he warned Drake about proceeding and insisted, somewhat facetiously, that things were still friendly. “Know you a master manipulator and habitual liar too,” Lamar rapped. “But don’t tell no lie about me and I won’t tell truths ’bout you.”

He accused the biracial Drake, who was born and raised in Toronto, of imitating Black American heritage and insulting him subliminally. “I hate the way that you walk, the way that you talk, I hate the way that you dress,” Lamar said. “I hate the way that you sneak diss, if I catch flight, it’s gon’ be direct.” And he called Drake’s standing as a father into question: “Teachin’ him morals, integrity, discipline/listen, man, you don’t know nothin’ ’bout that.”

Days later, Lamar doubled down with an Instagram-only track called “6:16 in LA,” borrowing both Drake’s “Back to Back” diss tactic from his 2015 beef with Meek Mill and a song title structure lifted from what is known as Drake’s time-stamp series of raps. Opting for psychological warfare on a beat produced in part by Jack Antonoff, Swift’s chief collaborator, Lamar hinted that he had a mole in Drake’s operation and was aware of his opponent’s opposition research.

“Fake bully, I hate bullies, you must be a terrible person,” he rapped. “Everyone inside your team is whispering that you deserve it.”

That night, Drake’s “Family Matters” started with its own justification for getting personal — “You mentioned my seed, now deal with his dad/I gotta go bad, I gotta go bad” — before taking on Lamar’s fatherhood and standing as a man in excruciating detail. “They hired a crisis management team to clean up the fact that you beat on your queen,” Drake rapped. “The picture you painted ain’t what it seem/you’re dead.”

Yet in a chess move that seemed to anticipate Drake’s familial line of attack, Lamar’s “Meet the Grahams” was released almost immediately. “This supposed to be a good exhibition within the game,” Lamar said, noting that Drake had erred “the moment you called out my family’s name.” Instead of a rap battle, Lamar concluded after another six minutes of psychological dissection, “this a long life battle with yourself.”

He wasn’t done yet. Dispensing with subtlety, Lamar followed up again less than 24 hours later with “Not Like Us,” a bouncy club record in a Los Angeles style that delighted in more traditional rap beef territory, like juvenile insults, proudly unsubstantiated claims of sexual preferences and threats of violence.

Lamar, however, didn’t leave it at that, throwing one more shot at Drake’s authenticity as a rapper, calling him a greedy and artificial user as a collaborator — “not a colleague,” but a “colonizer.”

On Sunday evening, Drake responded yet again. On “The Heart Part 6,” a title taken from Lamar’s career-spanning series, Drake denied the accusation that he preyed on young women, indicated that he had planted the bad information about his fake daughter and seemed to sigh away the fight as “some good exercise.”

“It’s good to get out, get the pen working,” Drake said in an exhausted outro. “You would be a worthy competitor if I was really a predator.” He added, “You know, at least your fans are getting some raps out of you. I’m happy I could motivate you.”

Joe Coscarelli is a culture reporter with a focus on popular music, and the author of “Rap Capital: An Atlanta Story.” More about Joe Coscarelli

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