Autobiography - Processing the fact and the fiction

 

Autobiography -  Processing the fact and the fiction

When embarking on writing your own autobiography, no doubt one of the most important questions you will ask yourself is "What shall I call it ?"

There are a multitude of ways of deciding on a title, for an autobiography, from picking a catchphrase from your working life to a phrase relating to a particular talent - or lack of it - which relates to you. It was suggested to me by tutors while at University that the title should be left till last, but I have found that in practice, having something in mind keeps you focused and gives the reader an idea of whether they want to read the writing or not. 

The list of 'famous' authors of biographies is endless.

 A quick 'Google' gives us Prime Ministers (current and past) Ghandi, Mandela, most politicians present and past as well as writers as diverse as Agatha Christie, Anne Frank and Alan Bennett and so called 'celebrities' of the day,  some of whom I have heard of and many more that I haven't.

The first line of the biography or novel is important too, as with any writing.  Again many famous ones stick in the mind easily -

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief ... ". Charles Dickens 

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen". George Orwell

"I set fire to my Bible on the playing fields of my Cambridge boarding school, one bright, windy, Spring afternoon in 1967". Peter Hitchens 

"May in Ayamenem is a hot brooding month". Arundhati Roy

"This is a story about a man named Eddie and it begins at the end, with Eddie dying in the sun". Mitch Albom

(You may test yourself by naming the books or Googling them as you wish.)

After reading J D Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, as an angst ridden teenager, I fancied that my autobiography would have an opening sentence something on the lines of this ;

"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going  into it, if you want to know the truth".

I didn't have a lousy childhood however, and short of writing a novel about an imagined one or plagiarising the actual text in some other format, this first line of mine has not yet been written.

After many years of writing, on and off, sections of what was intended to eventually become 'A Novel', this is still incomplete. It may get finished before I die, but I'm not promising anything.  Writing about myself and my experiences - even if I say so 'myself' - is "easier" for me and as I have noted in this blog and elsewhere, has often been a cathartic process more than a few times. I have writing in a variety of styles for a range of audiences where I have found that relating the topic or situation to myself comes naturally which is not, obvious exclusive to me. Perhaps this revelation stemmed from a comment, again from a tutor, who was an established author, who said "Write about what you know", which was contradicted by yet another tutor who stated that writing about what you haven't experienced but can imagine, describe and have an empathy with, is equally valid and necessary. 

And so, (I am allowed to use 'and'  at the start of a sentence here as I am writing conversationally with you the reader - another tip picked up on the writing journey. My incomplete novel is  "Never On Sunday". My biography is untitled as yet.

I have a while back reached the age of thinking 'If I don't do this now I never will' and leaving an unfinished writing legacy would prevent me from resting in peace.

So, watch out for them both, very soon.