• 60 prompts
  • Checked October 2026

Biography Writing Prompts

Questions to put to a person, chapters to build from the answers, and a group for your own life.

Biography Writing Prompts

Show all 60
  1. Write about a place your subject was not allowed to go as a child, and what they imagined was there.First line: Nobody under twelve went past the pump house, and she was nine.
  2. Ask the person whose biography you are writing which question nobody has ever asked them, then ask it and write the answer.Follow up: why do they think nobody asked?
  3. Write your subject's first day of school as a biographer would: what they wore, who took them, what they said that night.First line: She went in holding her brother's sleeve and came out holding a drawing.

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All 60 prompts

Questions to ask 15

  • Ask the person whose biography you are writing what the bravest thing they ever did was, and write it without the word brave. Follow up: did it feel brave at the time, or only later?
  • Ask the person whose biography you are writing which question nobody has ever asked them, then ask it and write the answer. Follow up: why do they think nobody asked?
  • Ask the person whose life you are writing for a rule of the home they grew up in, and write who made it and who broke it. Follow up: is it a rule in their home now?
  • Ask the person whose life you are writing who their best friend was at ten, and write how the two of them met. Follow up: what game did they play that nobody else knew the rules of?
  • Ask the person you are writing about to describe a meal from their childhood, and write it so a reader could set the table. Follow up: who cooked it, and where did everyone sit?
  • Ask the person you are writing about what scared them as a child that makes them laugh now, and write both ages. Follow up: when did the fear stop?
  • Ask the person you are writing about what their street sounded like when they were your age, and write the answer as a paragraph. Follow up: which of those sounds can still be heard there?
  • Ask the person you are writing about which thing they made with their own hands they are proudest of, and describe it. Follow up: how long did it take, and what went wrong on the way?
  • Ask your subject about the farthest they have ever been from home, and write how they got there. Follow up: what did they bring back, and where is it now?
  • Ask your subject for a story their own parents or grandparents told about them, and write it as the family tells it. Follow up: which part do they say is not true?
  • Ask your subject what has changed most in their lifetime, and write the before and the after as they saw them. Follow up: what do they miss, and what are they glad to see the back of?
  • Ask your subject what they did on a Saturday when they were a child, from waking up to going to bed, and write that day. Follow up: who was with them for most of it?
  • Ask your subject what they were good at as a child that nobody gave a prize for, and write the story that proves it. Follow up: who noticed?
  • Ask your subject which day of their life they would gladly have twice, and write that day hour by hour. Follow up: what is the first thing they remember about that morning?
  • Ask your subject who taught them something they still do every day, and write the lesson as one scene of the biography. Follow up: what did the teacher say the first time it went wrong?

The early years 15

  • Describe a holiday or a family day that your subject's household kept every year when they were small. Angle: the food, the job each person had, the part a child liked best.
  • Describe a photograph of your subject as a child for a reader of the biography who cannot see it. Angle: what they are holding, who is cut off at the edge, what happened just after.
  • Describe the first home your subject remembers, room by room, for the early chapter of their biography. Angle: the door they came in by, the room they slept in, the place they hid.
  • End the early-years chapter of a biography with the day your subject felt, for the first time, no longer little. Angle: a key handed over, a trip alone, a job trusted to them.
  • Find out one thing that was new in the world the year your subject was born, and write how it reached their home. Angle: ask your subject or someone older, and say in the chapter who told you.
  • Follow your subject to school as a child, on foot or by bus, for one page of their biography. Angle: what they passed, who they met, where they slowed down.
  • For the early-years chapter, tell a time your subject got into trouble, fairly to everyone in it. Angle: what they did, who found out, and what they still say in their own defense.
  • Introduce your subject's family in one page of the biography: who was at the table when they were small. Angle: one sentence for each person, with the thing each was always doing.
  • Write a paragraph of a biography on the games your subject played as a child, and where each one was played. Angle: the yard, the street, the stairs. Name each game the way they named it.
  • Write about a chore your subject had as a child, and how well they did it. First line: Feeding the hens was his job, and the hens knew he was afraid of them.
  • Write about a place your subject was not allowed to go as a child, and what they imagined was there. First line: Nobody under twelve went past the pump house, and she was nine.
  • Write about something your subject wanted badly at the age of eight, and whether they got it. Angle: who they asked, how many times, and what the answer was.
  • Write about the person your subject looked up to most as a child, as your subject describes them. Angle: what that person could do, and one thing they said that stuck.
  • Write the opening chapter of a biography: the day your subject was born, as the people who were there have told it. Angle: who was in the room, what time of day it was, what the family did next.
  • Write your subject's first day of school as a biographer would: what they wore, who took them, what they said that night. First line: She went in holding her brother's sleeve and came out holding a drawing.

A turning point 15

  • Ask your subject when their life turned a corner, then write the corner in a single paragraph that starts with a date. Angle: a season or a year will do. Put the change in the last sentence.
  • Choose the last day of something in your subject's life, a school, a team, a house or a job, and write it. Angle: what they took with them and what they left on purpose.
  • Find the smallest object in a big moment of your subject's life, and begin the chapter with it. Angle: a ticket, a key, a pair of borrowed shoes.
  • Give the turning point in your subject's biography a chapter title, then write its first three sentences. Angle: a title of four words or fewer that does not give the ending away.
  • Go back to the day before a turning point in your subject's life, when nothing had changed yet, and write it. Angle: supper, the weather, the plans for tomorrow that never happened.
  • Set down the meeting that changed your subject's life: the first time they met someone who mattered later. Angle: neither of them knows it yet. Keep the scene as ordinary as it was.
  • Tell a turning point in your subject's life from the side of someone who was standing next to them. Angle: a sister, a coach, a stranger on the bus. What did that person notice?
  • Write a turning point of a biography as a fork in the road, and follow the road your subject did not take for one paragraph. First line: Had she stayed, the shop would have been hers by thirty.
  • Write about a sentence someone said to your subject that they never forgot. Angle: who said it, where the two were standing, and what your subject did the next day.
  • Write about something your subject gave up, and what took its place in their life. Angle: a sport, an instrument, a town, a plan. Say what came in after it.
  • Write about the first time your subject was trusted with something important. Angle: who trusted them, what could have gone wrong, and what they did with their hands.
  • Write the first time your subject did the thing they are now known for. Angle: they were not good at it yet. Show what they did well anyway.
  • Your subject failed at something, and the failure sent them another way. Write both the failure and the turn. Angle: be kind and be exact. What did they try next, and how soon?
  • Your subject moved to a new place. Write that day as a turning point in their biography. Angle: the last thing packed, the first thing unpacked, the first person who spoke to them.
  • Your subject once said yes to something they nearly refused. Write the minute before the yes. First line: He had the word no ready, and then she asked a second time.

My own life so far 15

  • Begin your autobiography with the day you were born, as the story has been told to you. Angle: say who tells it, and which detail changes every time.
  • Choose the photograph for the cover of your autobiography and describe it, with the reason you chose it. Angle: one that shows what you were doing, not only what you looked like.
  • Compose the dedication page of your autobiography, and then the reason for it. Angle: one line for the page, one paragraph for why that person.
  • Draw a timeline of your life with five dates on it, then write a paragraph about the gap between two of them. Angle: the dates are the easy part. What went on in between?
  • Draw up the table of contents for your autobiography, one chapter title for every year or two of your life. Angle: name each chapter for a thing that happened, never for an age.
  • Find the last line of this year's chapter of your autobiography, and write it. Angle: something finished, something started, and the word still in it somewhere.
  • Give your autobiography a title and write the paragraph for its back cover. Angle: a title that fits the life so far, and three things the reader will find inside.
  • List the cast of your life story so far, with one line for each person, the way a play does. Angle: give each a part, like the one who drives or the one who knows the songs.
  • One chapter of your autobiography has not happened yet. Write it, set one year from now. First line: By the next summer I could swim the whole length without stopping.
  • Which year of your life would get the longest chapter of your autobiography? Write its first page. Angle: begin on an ordinary day of that year, before the big thing.
  • Write a chapter of your autobiography from a story your family tells about you that you are too young to remember. Angle: tell it their way, then say what you would like to ask the small you.
  • Write one page of your autobiography about a spot where much of your life so far has been spent: a room, a yard, a bus seat. Angle: what you have done there a hundred times, and what you did there once only.
  • Write the About the Author paragraph for your own autobiography, in the third person. First line: The author lives with two brothers, one cat and a great many library books.
  • Write the chapter of your autobiography about learning to do something that was hard for you. Angle: who showed you, how long it took, and what you can do with it now.
  • Write the first sentence of your autobiography five different ways, then choose one and keep going. Angle: start with a place, a sound, a person, a date and a question.

How it works

Each biography writing prompt here is one question to ask or one page to write about a real person of the writer's choosing. No one is named: the subject is whoever you pick.

Read the full guide

Biography or autobiography

A biography is an account of a person's life written by someone else. In an autobiography the writer and the subject are one person. Three groups here are for a biography: fifteen questions to ask, then pages on the early years and on a turning point. The fourth is for the writer's own life.

Autobiography story ideas, starting with the book

These writing prompts for autobiography begin with the book itself: a title, a table of contents, the dedication page. Then come the chapters: the day you were born as the story has been told to you, the year that deserves the longest chapter, one that has not happened yet.

  • Ask for a story, not a date. What did your street sound like gets more than when were you born.
  • Write the answer down in the person's own words first. Tidy it later.

Questions and answers

What is a good biography writing prompt?

One small enough to answer with a story. Ask your subject who taught them something they still do every day, and write the lesson as one scene of the biography.

Are these biography writing prompts for kids?

Yes. The subject is someone a child can talk to, such as a grandparent, a neighbor or a coach, and the questions are about streets, games, meals and school. Nothing asks for an address.

What is a good autobiography writing prompt?

Write the About the Author paragraph for your own autobiography, in the third person. It is short, it has a set shape, and it makes a writer choose what goes in.

Who should I write a biography about?

Someone who will answer questions is easiest. For a person you can only read about, leave the questions and use the chapter prompts with what your sources say.

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