One natural extension of an interest in genealogy could be an interest in writing biographies. Lately, I have become rather interested in learning about how to become a biographer because I think that that is something that I would really like to do. People are fascinating, and biographers are skilled at preserving people’s life stories so that others can learn about them in the present as well as in the future.
What skills does a person need to become a biographer? Since biographies are books, biographers must be skilled at writing. Since biographies are works of non – fiction, biographers also need strong research skills. Genealogy research skills are very helpful to biographers because family connections often form a large part of an individual’s life story, as do dates and locations where that individual spent portions of his or her life.
Of course, part of writing books is publishing those books. Some biographies sell better than others, and it is much easier to get a book published about someone whose name was or is in the public awareness rather than a relative unknown. That said, many “regular people” have done amazing things during their lifetimes and certainly deserve to have their stories preserved for posterity. A well written biography can illustrate the extraordinariness that is present in even the most seemingly ordinary life. Also, getting a book published by a publisher is not a biographer’s only option. Electronic publishing and self publishing can serve as cost effective alternatives for those biographies that you really want to write but are unsure whether there is much of a market for them.
It is interesting how once I got the idea into my head that I would like biographies, I immediately came up with a list of at least ten people that I would like to write about. That is a lot of writing, and it will be interesting to see whom I decide to write about first and whether that work ever comes to completion, let alone whether I go on to write more than one biography.
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