Learn to Write Biographies
A biography is the story of someone’s life and can either extend for their whole life or just a specific period. This course will give you the skills you need to write biographies and will answer your questions such as how to research for writing a biography, how to plan a biography, how to set the context and much more.
- 100 hours
- Self paced flexibly study
- 1-on-1 tutor support
Course Aims
- Determine when, why, where and how biographies are written.
- Determine sources of information and then acquire appropriate information for a biography.
- To decide on the type of biography and context in which it should be developed, based upon researched information.
- Write different types of short biographies to meet different purposes.
- Analyse a life to determine the structure, style and content of a comprehensive biography that could become a small book, large book, or screenplay.
- Plan a type of biography.
- Determine how a biographical manuscript may be dealt with after writing is completed by the author; to produce and market a finished product.
- Apply knowledge and skills developed throughout this course, to research and produce a biographical short story.
There are 8 lessons in this course:
1. Scope and Nature of Biographical Writing
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- The difference between a biography and autobiography
- Unauthorised biographies
- Using ghost writers in biographies
- Choosing your subject
- Biography vs. Memoir
2. Researching a Biography
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- Types of Evidence
- Using Evidence
- Fair Use
- Where to find evidence
- Conducting an Interview
- How to deal with conflicting sources and information
- Citations and Referencing
3. Developing Context
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- Determining Your Theme
- Developing the theme
- Themes and Structure
- Using Context
4. Short Biographies
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- Principles of the Short Biography
- Distilling Information
- Preparing to write from life experience
5. Comprehensive Biographies
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- What makes a comprehensive biography comprehensive?
- Writing a Great Biography
- Voice in Writing
6. Planning a Biography
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- The Short Outline
- The Detail-Heavy Outline
- Outlining the biography
- Defining a theme, writing to a central theme
- Word Budget
- Organising Chapter Content
7. Editing and Marketing a Biography
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- Editing
- Writing a Sales Package
- The Publishing Process
- Publishing Processes for Ebooks
- Self-Publishing Your Work
- Distributing and Selling your Work
- Grants for Writing
8. Project – Writing a Biographical Story
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- In this final lesson, you will bring together everything that you have been learning to undertake research and construct a first draft of a biographical piece of between 2,000 and 4,000 words.