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This article will be of interest to writers (including members of Life Stories Australia) who specialise in writing life stories.

What genre to use when writing someone else’s life story –  memoir, autobiography or biography?

The best genre to use when writing a life story for someone (e.g. a client, who may be the subject of the story)  depends on the type of story that needs to be told, whether the client wants the book to be about their whole life story or only certain aspects of their life, whether the subject is a natural storyteller or wants you to do the research and tell their story for them, and other issues.

Below are some ways to present a life story that is to be based on oral histories (as told by the subject, and possibly family members or friends) and researched information.

• Compile an autobiography or memoir (first person). If the subject has told or written a lot of stories and want their stories turned into a life story, you will need to edit their stories, cross-check the information as required (via research), and compile their stories into an autobiography, or memoir, that has been mainly either spoken or written by the subject. (When I use this model, they are the “author”; I am the compiler and/or editor.)
• Ghost-write an autobiography or memoir (first person). If the subject has not told or cannot tell many stories but the life story needs to be presented in the first person, you need to conduct research to obtain the information needed to write their life story, including interviewing other people about the subject and researching to find articles and other information. You need to write most of the narrative yourself. If the life story is to be presented as an autobiography or memoir, you need to write or edit the whole story into a first person account, in the person’s own “voice”.  This can be difficult to pull off but certain writers have the skill required to do this.
• Write the story as a biography (third person). A biography is a third-person narrative about the subject’s life. It can include anecdotes that have been told or written by the subject and/or others and (with permission) excerpts from researched material such as letters, articles or reports. Like an autobiography, a biography needs to cover the subject’s whole life. Unlike an autobiography or memoir, a biography needs to be objective, so it is important to research and cross-check every oral or personal story for accuracy, and make sure the biography is an unbiased account.
• Write the story as a combination of memoir (first person) and biography (third person). Sometimes the life story you need to write needs to be based mainly on other people’s oral stories about the subject and researched information, with only a small amount of oral stories by the subject, but the client does not want the book to be a biography, which is (by definition)  objective and unbiased. Rather, they may want a subjective autobiography or memoir about the subject’s life, dreams, ideas and principles, that incorporates family members and friends’ stories as well as the subject’s. Writing a life story in this combination of styles can be a challenge. See below.

Writing a life story in a combination of styles

Writing a life story that is a combination of content written or spoken by the subject and other people, as well as the life story writer’s narrative voice that pulls the story together, can be an effective method of presenting a life story.

It may include a) autobiographical stories in first-person voice –  either told or written by the person or written by the life stories writer, b) biographical stories in third-person narrative, as told by family members or friends during interviews the life stories writer has conducted, c) information the life stories writer has found through research, and d) narrative content written by the life stories writer, that does some of the storytelling (much like a biography), and pulls all the stories that have been told by everyone together.

Like any published story, the life story as a whole needs to be engaging and clear. So when writing and compiling this type of life story, the life stories writer needs to strike a good balance between the subject’s autobiographical voice (whether written/told by the subject or written by the writer), other people’s biographical voices (telling stories about the subject), and the life stories writer’s narrative voice. 

When a life story is a combination of different styles or points of view, the life stories writer needs to collaborate with an editor (e.g. request a manuscript assessment or review) to ensure the way the have structured the life story “works”.

Definitions of different types of life stories

Autobiography

• a story about the subject’s whole life, written in the first person; or,
• can be a combination of voices (including the subject’s written or told stories) about the subject’s experiences throughout their whole life, with most stories written in first person athough some content may be written in third person.

Memoir

• a story about a certain theme in the subject’s life or a specific episode/s or  period/s in their life, written in the first person; or,
• can be a combination of voices (including the subject’s written or told stories) that emphasises the subject’s views, feelings, experiences and memories of certain themes or periods of their life.

Biography

• an objective, unbiased account of the subject’s whole life, written by one narrator (the biographer) in third person; or,
• an objective, unbiased account of the subject’s whole life that is a combination of voices (including the subject’s written or told stories) that forms an account of the subject’s whole life. Although it may contain a number of quotes by the subject and others, it is mainly written in third person.

“Combination” life story

If the life story you are writing or compiling is a combination of some or all of the above, you need to work out which genre label it fits best.

For example, if the life story contains a lot of content that has been spoken or written by the subject, or by the subject’s family members (who are unlikely to be unbiased), and only a small amount of objective content written about the subject, the life story is a memoir or autobiography, not a biography. Further, if the life story is about events throughout the subject’s life, with no gaps, it is an autobiography; whereas if it is mainly about certain events or periods or themes in their life, it is more likely to be a memoir.

If the story is about the subject’s whole life, and is mainly comprised of third-person narrative about the subject, with quotes by people who may be less biased in favour of the subject, as well as quotes by the subject and their family members – that is, if the story appears to be objective – it is a biography.

fyi: genre classification for ISBN purposes

When applying for an ISBN for your life story you will need to state whether the genre is “biography” or “autobiography or memoir”. With most life stories, the distinction between these two categories is quite clear.

However, the distinction between autobiography and memoir isn’t quite so  clear cut. While you don’t need to record in your ISBN data whether your book is autobiography or memoir, you’ll need to name its genre for marketing purposes; for example, when organising a book launch.

For more information, go to:

• The differences between autobiography and biography
• The differences between autobiography and memoir

Image: (C) WOCintechchat.