Class 10 Creative Writing | Autobiography Sample

A biography is the account of the life of a person written by someone else. For instance, Boswell’s ‘Life of Johnson’ is a biography. An autobiography is the story of a person’s life written by himself. Examples are Benjamin Franklin’s ‘Autobiography’ and Mahatma Gandhi’s ‘My experiments with Truth’.

Autobiography Writing Tips

When you write the autobiography of an animal or an inanimate object, you must try to put yourself in the position of the object or animal you are writing about and imagine the things it would feel, see, hear or say if it were alive.

• Write in the first person.
• Try to make the story as interesting as possible. Use simple language.

What to Avoid?

Don’t commit the mistake of making animals say things that are impossible or illogical. For instance, you must end the autobiography before the animal dies. How can an animal write after its death? A sample autobiography is given below.

The Autobiography Of A Rupee

I was born in a building called the Mint. My parent was a metal strip from which we were made round. There after we were embossed with two ears of corn and the figure 1 with the words ‘Rupee’ and ‘1981’ to indicate the year of birth on one side. On the other side, the Lion Capital and the words ‘Bharat’ in Hindi and ‘India’ in English were embossed. Each disc was given milled edge too. After finishing they called us, ‘rupee coins’. In shining metal and with the figure and letters very beautiful and distinct, I was very proud of my smart appearance.

My active life began when I was removed from the mint and paid over the counter of a bank to a gentleman who cashed a cheque. He put me into a leather bag; but I was not there for a long time as he gave me to a shopper. The shopper must have been very pleased with me, for he shut me up in a greasy drawer. I remained there a close prisoner for many months, till at last I was exchanged for two 50 paise coins. My new master was a miserable old fellow. He threw me into an iron chest where I found five hundred more of my own species lying in the same confinement. I remained a prisoner for several years. And then one day I was taken out by a young man. He gave me to a young lady who put me in her purse. She soon gave me to her servant to pay the grocer’s bill. I thus rambled merrily from pocket to pocket till I was worn out. The corn plant became invisible and the lettering on my back became almost rubbed out. I was deemed useless for the world and everyone I was offered to refused to accept me. Eventually I was given away in charity to a blind beggar. The beggar bought a tea in exchange for me. The tea dealer put me in his box from where I was extracted by his son who took me to a toy shop. The shopper banged me on to the ground to see if I was genuine. He looked at me closely, made a few insulting remarks about my battered condition but in the end accepted me with great reluctance. At last I was sent back to the Mint. I found many more of my species there all time honored old fellows, but in bad shape now. It was being whispered that we were to be cast into a furnace and turned again into the base material of our bodies only to be recast again. (Adapted)