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How to Write a Two-Page Biography

Can you fit an entire life on two pages? Writing a two-page biography is an excellent exercise for a writer. It teaches you to trim the "fat" and communicate your message in as few words as possible.

Instructions

    • 1

      After interviewing your subject and learning about her life, create a word cluster. Write down all the words you can think of in two minutes that relate to the person you are writing about. This gives you a selection of topics to write about in your biography.

    • 2

      Organize your thoughts into an outline. The outline should cover the subject's life from birth, and needs to include all of the major events in his life, including marriages and children. The details that don't need to be included are childhood friends, little league sports or high school girlfriend, unless these items had a major impact on your subject's life. For example, if he married his high school sweetheart, that should definitely be included.

    • 3

      Write a rough draft of the biography, with all of the highlights of your subject's life. Then, check to see how much space you have left to fill to complete two pages. Go back to add some of the smaller details that affected the person's life.

    • 4

      Proofread and edit your two-page biography. You will probably remove or add certain elements because you have so many details and so little space. When you are satisfied with how your biography looks on paper, read it aloud so that you can hear how it flows. Tweak and edit anything that sounds stilted or unnatural. A two-page biography should be factual without being a list of facts, and informative without wasting words.

    • 5

      Rewrite the draft in a final format. Learning to get the details across without wasting words is an important skill for any writer, which makes a two-page biography a wonderful practice tool.

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