I have decided that while I've kept a journal for four years, I want to start an autobiography. My Grandfather, who was born in 1905, never thought he had done one memorable thing in his life, but now that he's gone, my father and I both commented on, not only the loss of the first hand accounts of a part of our family history, but first hand accounts of world history from a common man's perspective.

So...how do I decide if certain events in my life should be omitted? I'm in my fifties, now, but in my early twenties, my life was fairly colorful. Colorful enough that I haven't allowed my twenty-one year old son access to my photographs of that period, yet. Motorcycles, bars, brawls, impromptu trips, other early seventies stuff. I feel it might provide an insight to who I really was and what life like was at the time, but at the same time, I wouldn't want it to come off as some kind of boasting or used as a defense for anyone to act likewise.

Opinions? I'm starting at the beginning, so I guess have a little time to mull it over. My gut instinct is to include it all, and let anyone who eventually reads it to draw their own conclusions.

I'd include it all...the truth (in general, and in one's life) isn't always pretty, but it's real.

~Jasper

How do you want to be remembered? What is the point that you are trying to make? These are things that only you can answer. I also have an autobiography started culled from 18 years of keeping a journal. It contains things that I think my sons would like to pass on to the grandchildren about me. It also contains a lot of my views as a common person on world events and on my work in Nuclear Power. I have not included any "juicy details" because I am not bragging and I think a lot of my private life is nobody's business. But then again, like I said, I am not writing a "kiss and tell" but somewhat of a family history. There are some things that are part of that history that may be controversial, but those are part of the story. Some things are not. A good example of a well written autobiography is "A Year with Swollen Appendices" by Brian Eno. He tells what he scrubbed from his journal (intimate moments with his wife that are nobody's business, things that might be hurtfull to someone). I use Eno's book as a model for mine. If only I had the accomplishments!

Makes me wish I had started journaling long back!

Go ahead and put in everything...........that will give it a unique flavor.

I agree with punch... what's your goal with the tome? Who is expected to read it? What legacy do you wish to leave? Are the "colorful" details of the past relevant or is there some internal issue that would provoke you to hand them over to future generations? How will the reader benefit from what you have written? If there is to be no benefit, why write it? Who could be unfairly hurt, embarrassed or broken in some way by what you might write?

Truth is wonderful and I highly recommend it in matters of the written word (non-fiction) and of life in general. Truth - at its best - has boundaries set by the good judgement and mature heart of love.

John

I would omit any unrevealed infidelity

This is much like the "what do you write in your journal" question in that it partly is tied to your world view and how much you feel you are responsible for the feelings of others.

Leave out the things you specifically don't want others to know, put in everything else.

Tell the truth and state your view of the incidents then and now. Do you regret something you did, has your reasoning changes, did you learn anything. Here is an example from my own life:

During the late sixties, I thought drug use acceptable, harmless and experimental. My brother at 14 began recreational drug use and I just looked away, "this too shall pass" type of attitude. He had a weakness, it became heavier, my best friend in High School hooked him on opiates, he became a serious addict to their interveinous mode of delivery. He became a victim of procurers, became HIV positive and contracted AIDS, spent eighteen months of a three year sentence in a correctional facility. I reached out and into the prison, working with some frightening people but kept him safe enough to survive. He paid his debt and I paid mine. He broke his addiction but suffered his whole life with the effects. At 52 I attended his funeral, he died of pneumonia when he was no longer strong enough to fight it off. I can still remember the day my parents brought him home as a newborn, the day I took him to school for the first time, he was brillant, talented, musical, artistic and flawed. None of the people who hurt or harmed him lived longer then he did. What I learned was, you have to take a stand for what you love, it will not be popular, cool or easy but no matter how much pain and embarassment you suffer then, it will not be as bad as what comes from a failure to do so.

Depends who's gonna read it and for what purpose. Leave out the parts they aren't going to want to read.

Punch's comments are right on.

Anything that isn't outside the Statute of Limitations.

In seriousness, I agree: Punch said it excellently well.