Has anyone written their autobiography?

[Pointby2]

What are your thoughts on writing one?

Personally, I wrote mine through about the year 2000 and enjoyed the process of researching and reliving my past. However, since it looks like we won't have grand-kids I kinda lost the desire to finish it.

 

[Car-Guy]

Not really sure why I would. My DW and DD are the only ones that "might" care and they already know everything that I've done. Even if I did it would be a pretty short story unless I got long winded and just stretched it out like they do in so many autobiographies.

 

[travelover]

I've just finished my autobiography. I hope lots of people buy it.

Then my life might actually be worth writing about.

 

[braumeister]

Not me, but I have a couple of friends who have led lives that were so extremely interesting I think their stories would make great books. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to convince them to do any writing. Sad, really, and I think a loss to the world.

 

[Marita40]

As a very private person who doesn't consider my life very interesting (to others at least) I wouldn't do this.

 

[Jerry1]

I’ve never thought about writing a autobiography but I have thought about writing a “when I’m gone” letter. Then I realize that I should live my life in a way that anyone who would care about what’s in my “when I’m gone” letter already knows what I think because I’ve spent quality time with them while I’m alive. I’m working on that. Not easy for an introvert/homebody.

 

[jollystomper]

Now that we have grandchildren that we may not live to see reach adulthood, we have thought about video recording and writing ours for them. With today's technology the visual aspect (e.g. images/videos of where we grew up, the schools we attended, the neighborhoods we lived in) would make it more vivid. Many of these we have already captured, it would be just organizing a biography around them in our own words.

Back in the early 1990s DW recorded our parents when they were alive, them describing their early years through their 30s. I created a transcript of my parents recording and shared in with my siblings, sons, nieces, and nephews, and they enjoy having the words and hearing their voices. It has also helped provide answers when questions about the past come up, and me and my siblings provide conflicting information.

 

[6miths]

I have been meaning to do this to leave to my children for their children. DW has been wanting to get all of the family pictures organized as well. I have been looking at one of the 'fill in the questions' type books but obviously they have limitations. I don't know if anyone has found any that are particularly good. I was recently looking at the 'Tell Me Your Life Story' series. I think that the plan would be to use it as a template and do the actual writing using Word so it would be more flexible.

 

[6miths]

Back in the early 1990s DW recorded our parents when they were alive, them describing their early years through their 30s. I created a transcript of my parents recording and shared in with my siblings, sons, nieces, and nephews, and they enjoy having the words and hearing their voices. It has also helped provide answers when questions about the past come up, and me and my siblings provide conflicting information.

Such a great idea. Kudos to your DW for having the foresight and being so thoughtful and to your parents for going along with the idea.

 

[Bryan Barnfellow]

I think it's a great idea to write your story--mainly because it provides a vehicle for reflection on your life. Whether interesting or not to others is immaterial; it's about you and you would find the process itself and the final product interesting and valuable. Just my .02.

-BB

 

[kumquat]

I did at lot of things in my youth that I wouldn't want the world to know of. Without them, my story would be beyond boring.

 

[aja8888]

Some parts of my life I want to forget, let alone write about them.

I have no grandchildren and only one daughter and she grew up with me around. She knows everything!

 

[GalaxyBoy]

I’ve developed quite an interest in genealogy since retirement and I inherited a bunch of stuff from Dad. Included in that was a notebook where my great grandfather had written a sketch of his life, with an update written several years later. It’s a treasure.

 

[JRon]

I wrote mine last year for a small audience of 3, my wife, daughter, and son. They enjoyed reading it and maybe someday my grandkids will too.

 

[MC Rider]

I write the outline years ago when I was under 20 yo I guess.


Born, lived, died.


Have not felt a need to flesh that out so far. Some chapters would be better left unwritten anyway.

 

[street]

No, I haven't and never thought about it. I'm not sure I would but I do think it is a very good idea. Also, with some facts and history of your parents also would be of some valuable history for your future family.

I do keep a diary of sort when I go to the ranch only takes a minute to do. One paragraph or so of the happens, events of my life at the time. Not always what I'm going with me but people in my life are included in the writings.

 

[rk911]

i'm not that interesting.

 

[DuluthGA]

My kids gave me a subscription to Storyworth for Christmas. Each week I get an email I reply to that asks a question for me to answer in the reply. If I don’t like the question I can choose another or make my own. At the end of the year they publish in a hardback book. So far it’s been fun. Today was “tell us about how you proposed to your spouse”. Be interesting to get spouse to write her side

 

[Luvtoride]

My kids gave me a subscription to Storyworth for Christmas. Each week I get an email I reply to that asks a question for me to answer in the reply. If I don’t like the question I can choose another or make my own. At the end of the year they publish in a hardback book. So far it’s been fun. Today was “tell us about how you proposed to your spouse”. Be interesting to get spouse to write her side

Duluth, you beat me to it mentioning Storyworth. My younger daughter and her husband gave me a Storyworth subscription for Fathers Day in 2020. I too answered questions which were sent to me each week for a year, adding pictures with my story answers.
I just last week finally finished editing my story, adding more photos and re reading every story I wrote. This process does take awhile but there is no time limit on completing this.
I just ordered 3 copies of my book, one for me and one for each of my daughters and their family.
Who knows if they will ever read it, but I hope that one day my grandkids will be interested enough to want to read "Pop Pop's" story to help understand my life growing up and how that impacted our family.

This is a really neat gift and an "easy" way to write a short autobiography.

 

[Pointby2]

My father, who served in the Italian campaign in WW2, like most vets of that era, never wrote any kind of autobiography, nor did he tell us kids much about his life. I would love to have an autobiography to read now that I'm older and he's passed.

My mother in law wrote a detailed autobiography, which I enjoyed reading very much. She worked in the Reno and Las Vegas casinos and had numerous run ins with the mob. She sued here employer for equal rights and equal pay, and won. She also worked on an air base and was friends with Chuck Yeager. She passed last November.

I'd like to think everyone has a story to tell.

 

[ls99]

No. And never read anyone else's.

Somwhere, in my late teens, of my army years, in an office saw a sign;

Don't talk about yourself, it will be taken care of after you leave.
I decided it was good hint and also to never write a diary.

 

[Scuba]

My MIL used Life Bio to write hers. She really enjoyed the process and I appreciate having her life story/history.

 

[tmm99]

If it's not for yourself, maybe you'd want to do it for your children or your grandchildren? I asked my mom in her 90s to do this for me. My thinking was that I would forget some of her detailed stories from her childhood, etc. She agreed to do this and it's now finished. It took her a few months to get it done.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I did something similar to this with my Mom and Dad. Basically, had several sessions where I recorded (audio) Q&A sessions about their life. Of course, the Q&A would go off the rails a bit, but that made it fun. I have many hours of these "interviews" and I have enjoyed going back and listening to them.

DW and I don't have any kids, so odds are when we are gone...we will most certainly be nothing but dust in the wind.

 

[Luvtoride]

Duluth, you beat me to it mentioning Storyworth. My younger daughter and her husband gave me a Storyworth subscription for Fathers Day in 2020. I too answered questions which were sent to me each week for a year, adding pictures with my story answers.
I just last week finally finished editing my story, adding more photos and re reading every story I wrote. This process does take awhile but there is no time limit on completing this.
I just ordered 3 copies of my book, one for me and one for each of my daughters and their family.
Who knows if they will ever read it, but I hope that one day my grandkids will be interested enough to want to read "Pop Pop's" story to help understand my life growing up and how that impacted our family.

This is a really neat gift and an "easy" way to write a short autobiography.

My Storyworth books arrived. They came out very nice and it’s actually a bigger book than i expected. I will write a personal note in each one I give my daughters and wrap it and present it to them at an appropriate time.
I hope they view it as a fun family legacy that they will enjoy with my grandkids as they get older.