Head your autobiography with a shocking event. Do not bore your readers with obvious details of the kind "I was born in New York in 1953..." Give your audience a hook straight from the start and get your readers interested in your life. Give them a reason to keep reading and make them turn the pages wanting to find out what happened next. After you have captured their attention, you can go back in time and give the usual details of where and when you were born, what school you attended and everything else an autobiography should include.
Move between fiction and reality. An autobiography is non fiction, but at the same time, it is literature. You need a strong story, conflict, obstacles, a hook, some interesting characters and a resolution in the end. Give your autobiography a novel's tone that will make it easier to read, surprise your readers and offer them a good story, even if you are not always totally sincere. Make yourself and your life appealing to them, and make them want to spend some time reading your book. The beginning of your autobiography needs to be surprising, intriguing, but not necessarily completely honest, so do not be afraid to exaggerate a bit.
Write with a focus. Every person has a life and a story to tell; however, something makes yours worth writing about. If you are starting an autobiography, then you have achieved or experienced something that you consider important. State it right from the beginning and then go back to explain how you got there or the series of events that led you there. Stay focused throughout the process of narrating your life, and refrain from touching on other subjects that are irrelevant to what you are trying to say. Make a certain event your main story and make everything else revolve around it.