Whilst reading this month's copy of Writers' Forum, I came across an article about biographies. These are often requested by magazines or publishers to accompany work that you submit. Apparently it allows either the editor, or your reader to establish a bond with you, the writer. So, using the examples of biographies quoted in the piece, I decided to write my own. What to put in? What to leave out? How to make it humorous? So far, I've come up with:
Danielle first realised writing was what she wanted to do aged 13, when she reduced her English class to tears with a story written for homework. Having buried her ambition with a succession of ‘proper jobs’ while bringing up her twin daughters, she is now practising her celebratory salsa which will be unleashed on her local shopping centre the first time her name appears in print. Danielle lives in Hemel Hempstead with her three cats, her daughters (when they are home from University) and an unreasonably large collection of books.
With a word count of 90, it is a good starting off point. It did, however, get me thinking about how to distil a life in so few words. Some of these word counts are as low as 30. A funny, informative hook in 30 words. Its a task that requires almost as much skill as the short story itself.
And there you were thinking that trying to write stories for a living was all handsome vampires, conspiracy theories or girl-finds-soulmate-and-perfect-life-in-new-handbag.
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