It’s a natural enough thing to want to tell your story. We humans are certainly storytelling creatures. When life has taught you remarkable things, you’ve had an incredible journey and you’re excited about your discoveries, it’s very natural to want to tell it just as it happened. Many authors go back to their first inklings, and chart the journey, with reference to everything else that was going on in their lives. The result is an autobiography.

The trouble with an autobiography is that it can do more to obscure the message than convey it. The author’s life experiences may be key to the points said author wishes to make, but the more bogged down we get in the personal details, the harder it is for a reader to get the message.

As a writer of non-fiction you are not obliged to begin at the beginning and lay it all out just as it happened. Think about how you could structure your story to give it immediacy and make it accessible. Focus on making your points, and getting your story to serve those points. Readers don’t really need the ins and outs of your life, so focus on what they do need – the core of unique experience that you wanted to share.

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