creative process Archives - Forever Young Autobiographies

How to start a book: 4 simple ways to start a book today

What a writing coach wants you to know about how to start a memoir or life story

Kids where I grew up would often visit an old water-filled quarry to swim.

Here we would scale the rock walls and jump, flip and dive for hours.

Certainly the first jump was scary but sooner or later we all faced our fears and took the plunge.

Indeed writing can also feel scary in the beginning but keep reading for my top four ways on how to start a book.

So let’s dive in!

First draft: Don’t start writing a first draft before reading this!

What a life-story coach knows about how to start writing (while beating overwhelm and procrastination)

First published February 22, 2018: This article has been updated and improved.

One question I hear time and again from new writers working on a first draft is: “I can’t seem to get anything done! I am constantly agonising over each sentence and self-editing as I write.”

Indeed sitting down to write an autobiography, memoir, biography or other life-story project can be a painful thing for a lot of people.

They are so self-critical that they are paralysed to jot more than a few sentences during the writing phase.

Certainly, I know I was like this when I first started my cadetship at a daily newspaper.

But over time I developed a system to get my first draft out of my head quickly and in a way that’s actually fun!

So keep reading for ideas to write that first draft without torturing yourself.

How to write an autobiography in four simple steps

How to write an autobiography in four steps. Green hedge with a heart-shape hole with blue sky in background. Photo by Pixabay

What a writing coach knows about how to write a memoir and how to write a book about someone’s life

I once went into a maze in England.

It was one of those high-hedge varieties that you see in Alice in Wonderland movies.

Although I didn’t encounter The Queen of Hearts or a Mad Hatter, I definitely felt like I was going a little bit crazy looking for an exit.

The fact that I was laughing at myself the whole time didn’t help!

It wasn’t until I remembered the ‘maze secret’ – always turn left – that I had a path to freedom.

What a difference a good tip makes!

The same can be said about how to write an autobiography.

There are so many tasks to think about and do to complete your life story that it can be overwhelming without a ‘roadmap’.

Don’t waste your time jumping down rabbit holes, follow these key steps to create an extraordinary family record.

How to beat memoir writer’s block in 8 simple steps

House tour tips for writing an autobiography

First published July 2017: This article has been updated and improved.

Ever since I was in primary school, my grandmother, ‘nanny’, taught me to bake.

She liked to cook ‘quickly’ and get it out of the way early, first thing in the morning.

Even though we worked swiftly, she would tell me stories about her family and life growing up on a dairy farm.

Looking back now, I realise that many of these anecdotes were inspired by the food we were cooking, the way we were preparing it and even the utensils we were using.