Why write a biography?

[Zombie Kat]

Hello Bio, Autobio and Memoir writers (although this is aimed at mainly bio folk). I hope you don't mind me straying on to your board to ask this question. Sorry if you don't like being used as a source of research for my own book (Sci-fi with one character who's become obsessed with trying to find out about a long-dead person).

My questions for anyone who fancies enlightening me about their writing are: Why do you write biographies? What is it about researching someone you didn't know that appeals to you? Telling forgotten stories is awesome, but is that everything or is it more personal? Why does it matter to you?

Any thoughts or opinions on this would be great and hugely appreciated. I'm trying to make my character more believable and the little, real-person details will really help. And it's always inspiring to hear about the motivations of other writers.

[chasbaz]

In my case it was an ancestor, but I think that whoever it is, once you get fixed on them the motivation to research and follow up every detail that you can is the same.

[Empress_Isis]

Mine is about an artist who I admired but found frustratingly little info about, anywhere. So I figured the best way to find it all out would be to write the book myself! I am the sort of person who wants to know every little detail about everything - I often have to pause movies halfway through to IMDB an actor or Wiki the story behind the movie - so biography is a genre that naturally fits my personality.

I'm also obsessed with mazes and puzzles, and biography (especially of someone who isn't too well-known) is like one massive puzzle to solve. Every new bit of information is a new piece of the puzzle and putting it all together is like a drug! I guess it's just one of those things either you get or you don't.

[chasbaz]

Absolutely, Jenna. In a nutshell!

[chasbaz]

Hi Zombie Kat,
Maybe I should point out that there is only a handful of us on this board who are actually writing the sort of biography you are talking about. The vast majority is doing autobiographies or memoirs.
You might get more feedback from a group like the Biographers International Organization (BIO). They have a BIO Facebook group.
HTH

[Sunnyside]

I often joke that I write biographies because I can't plot, but the truth is, biographers are probably wired a bit differently than novelists or even memoirists. Novelists feel compelled to write novels. Biographers feel compelled to write biographies.

Part of it, as Jenna said, is we're research junkies. Biographers LOVE to read and research and do the detective work needed to track down random newspaper articles or diaries or television appearances or whatever it might be that features our subject. We enjoy researching so much, in fact, that (as David McCullough once said) the toughest part is actually stopping the research long enough to write the book. I always say that *I* don't want to tell my subject's story; I want *him* (or her) to tell it. For that reason, I feel I've got to find out everything I can about that person---otherwise they can't tell their whole story.

Biographers love the little details. We're the kind that watch the "behind the scenes" features on DVDs, watch the "deleted scenes" and then watch the entire movie again with commentary. We do that to learn what people were thinking during a scene, or even who ate what or who drove who to the set. Those are the kinds of details we live for.

We like knowing how people lived and worked, and what they wrote in the margins where they thought no one would ever be looking. We want to know how their life influenced their work and how their work influenced their life.

When you ask a novelist why they write their stories, they'll usually tell you something like, "I just HAVE to put down the stories in my head.' Ask a biographer why they write biography, and we'll say "I just HAVE to put down the stories." A novelist can't tell you why they HAVE put them down, and neither can we.

We're just wired that way.

[Zombie Kat]

Cool answers, thanks guys! I get the whole having to tell the story thing, and that makes complete sense to me. But my character’s obsession with researching a dead stranger has proved a difficult motivation to explain to readers, who keep commenting about whether it is enough to explain his increasingly desperate actions (I think I just need to get his obsession across in a more believable way). I love the description of it being like a puzzle, that’s a great way to put it. Thanks so much.

[Empress_Isis]

Biographers love the little details. We're the kind that watch the "behind the scenes" features on DVDs, watch the "deleted scenes" and then watch the entire movie again with commentary. We do that to learn what people were thinking during a scene, or even who ate what or who drove who to the set. Those are the kinds of details we live for.


I do this with every movie! And I was shocked to find out that most people don't. You miss all the good stuff if you never listen to the commentary!