Autobiography - 1st or 3rd?

[Gary Compton]

I have been asked to write someones autobiography ad as I have never read one I wondered are they generally written in 1st person or 3rd?

It would be an authorised story so my immediate thought is 1st.

Any advice

 

[Ursa major]

A quick look at my father's old copy of Spy Catcher (printed in the US, bought in Singapore and not confiscated on his arrival back in Blighty) shows it's written in first person. But as with the new thread on avoiding overuse of he his and him, you want to avoid using the pronoun, I, too much.


(I'm assuming you're going to ghost write this (auto)biography, otherwise you shouldn't use 'I' at all. )

 

[Mouse]

Unless you're writing about yourself, then it's a biography, surely?

Anyway, autobiography in 1st, biography in 3rd. I've read a few of each.

 

[Abernovo]

What Mouse said. An autobiography is a biography of yourself, a biography is of someone else.

There are ghostwriters, as Ursa points out, and some autobiographies are written by the subject, 'with help from X', because the subject has a story to tell in their own words, but isn't well versed in writing technique.

 

[Mouse]

Yep - if someone else is writing too, it's 'with' so and so. I've just gone out and looked at my bookcase and Sean Astin's autobiography 'An Actor's Tale' is written by him and some other bloke - presumably the guy who could write. It's first person.

 

[Gary Compton]

it would be ghost written and the client would tell me the story and he would have fial say so I would say auto but am not sure.

 

[Gary Compton]

A quick look at my father's old copy of Spy Catcher (printed in the US, bought in Singapore and not confiscated on his arrival back in Blighty) shows it's written in first person. But as with the new thread on avoiding overuse of he his and him, you want to avoid using the pronoun, I, too much.


(I'm assuming you're going to ghost write this (auto)biography, otherwise you shouldn't use 'I' at all. )

I've just written 400 words and have 37 instances of "I," is that good or bad?

 

[Ursa major]

Most celebrity autobiographies seem to be written the way you plan to write this one, so 'I' it is.

 

[Ursa major]

I've just written 400 words and have 37 instances of "I," is that good or bad?

It depends. If a passage of text is all about the person, it's difficult to avoid using 'I'. When you get to passages where the subject is mostly describing other people or places, there should be much less need to use 'I'.

Personally, I think 9.25% of the words being 'I' is too high. And it would be far too high for the whole book. You should be able to replace some of those 'I's, and if you put other things in - like locations and other people - into that passage, the percentage should drop with no trouble at all.

 

[Abernovo]

it would be ghost written and the client would tell me the story and he would have fial say so I would say auto but am not sure.

Autobiography, then.

I've just written 400 words and have 37 instances of "I," is that good or bad?

Ouch!
Can you take some of them out, to describe the facts, without direct reference to him? As in, some of what happened would have happened to a group of people, so what he, or the group, saw is what the reader 'sees' through your/his words.

There's also 'me'. It's still an I, but in disguise.
Not so much biography, but a recounting of military events from a personal standpoint, you might try and look at something like Apache or Hellfire, by Ed Macy. They're up close and detailed, but easily read. Also well-written and interesting. Even if yours is not a military man, the style might be helpful as a guide.

Good luck, Gary.

 

[Gary Compton]

I'm not sure I can do this so I've put 500 words up on my blog but its password protected so Google doesnt find it. Password is ursa.

Any comments would be appreciated. I'll delete the post tomorrow. The link is:

Test | Gary Compton

 

[Jonathan C]

"I" is usually invisible. Unless you really overdo it, you don't have to worry. An autobiography is going to contain a lot of "I's".

 

[Ursa major]

I've put my attempt to reduce the number of Is here.

There are 11 Is out of 496 words, rather than the original 36 Is out of 547 words.

 

[Boneman]

No problem with the use of 'I' - it's him telling his story and it fits just right.

Just out of interest, is this biography intended for publication? Self-publication? Or just copies for family and friends for posterity? Putting my editors hat on, I'd open with a line that was a little more interesting, than 'sitting at my computer, bored' type of thing. Like: "I've always been competitive. I guess the first race I took part in was to beat million other sperm to the egg that was waiting." (You do need to revise the numbers - wiki says 50-500 million)

Is this guy famous? Infamous? Interesting? Dastardly? Like all good books, a good hook will drag readers in much more effectively than a joke that doesn't quite work, (at the moment, IMHO)

 

[Gary Compton]

Cheers Ursa will have a look at that.

Boneman, this will be published by my publishing company and the person concerned is well know locally but the full story will have appeal to most who want to read it.

Glad you got your editors head on as you will be required once written. The piece is just a 1st draft so point taken

 

[Ursa major]

Bear in mind that I've probably veered well away fom capturing Barry's way of communicating. The example text is more to demonstrate how you can rewrite something to avoid overuse of a particular word. (Until recently - and noticed by few, including me - my WiP1 was a sea of he and she.)

 

[Gary Compton]

I know. I now highlight there, were, would, he, was, she, just and try to reduce them

 

[RoninJedi84]

Regarding the sample text, the use of "I" really didn't strike me as being too heavy. There were only two instances where I thought using "I" was a little too much, and even those were negligible (IMO).

To agree with what has already been said, using "I" pretty often in an autobiography is to be expected. I don't think a reader would have a problem with it. Besides, if Barry is telling his story through you, it should still be his story - utilizing his way of communicating as Ursa mentioned. People will buy the book because they want to hear his voice (so to speak), not someone else's.