What Makes a good autobiography


“It was as I was stumbling home at 5am, alone, tired and very, very drunk that it dawned on just how funny licking the dirt off the floor in the bar, actually was. “

Was that any good? I doubt it. What was wrong with it? It offers nothing out of the ordinary, nothing that differs from most young people in the UK. There is nothing says to the reader, I, Richard Jacobs, have lived a different and varied life such that others really want to invest a month of the spare time reading about it. But what if that was written by a premiership footballer reminiscing about a team Christmas party? I bet that quote would be all over sky sports news like an alcoholic at a free bar.

So what does make a good autobiography? What makes a page turning, can’t put down, can’t go to sleep yet, introspective tale of person’s life.

For me, what makes people first pick up an autobiography, read it cover to cover and then retell the stories and insights they have learnt to their friends is that the person is not only famous, but someone they are in a lot of ways, envious of. Whether the author is a sport star, musician, actor, politician, they have led a different life to the norm. They have done something different to the semi-detached house with 2.4 kids and 2 cars in the driveway. And it is that journey, that different childhood or life defining memories that people want to know and are fascinated about. It doesn’t matter if some of their drunken stories or escapades are similar to some of the rest of us. People want feel like they know some they admire (and perhaps wish they were).

While some of us have the ability to make us fall off our chairs with their story regaling….unless you’re someone famous, no one else other than people who know you will care enough to read it.

So, I’m afraid, the story of me licking the floor in a bar (once I might add) will not gain me notoriety and therefore, remain a story to be retold in pub amongst friends.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Let's have a meeting

I am zapped. I am drained both emotionally and physically. I love a good meeting like the next person but spending half my working day in them has killed me. I've been having a good 4 -5 hours a day of meetings recently. I wish I could say they were all useful and worthwhile, but when we had the meeting to discuss the next series of 6 meetings come up, I nearly lost the will to live. But, I pushed on through. I kept reminding myself about the silver lining and that there IS a light. However, today I wanted to take a pair of very blunt scissors and hurt someone, badly, repeatedly, drawing a lot of blood and making them drink it and then stabbing them again. After completing the series of six 2-hour long meetings, I got invite to a "group discussion" so that we can understand what came out of the meetings. Seriously, wtf?! I thought it was only the public sector that wanted a meeting to discuss the meetings that was arranged in another meeting???
Read more

Charity

In a little under one week, I, along with around 35,000 others, will be competing in the London Marathon. Since the first London Marathon in 1981, half a billion pounds has been raised for charity. This is a phenomenal amount, and proof, that when it comes down it, people can display extraordinary acts of kindness and generosity. Yet for a time I couldn't  help but wonder why it takes such a grueling and painful effort from the tens of thousands of people each year to generate such revenues for charity. I’d like to note at this point, that I have been blown away by the support of friends, colleagues & family when trying to raise the sponsorship needed for the marathon. You would always like to believe that the people around would give while you put yourself through the painful months of training but I have truly been in awe of the level of generosity that people have shown and how far they have dug into their pockets. The point, I was getting at though, was that it has taken so...
Read more