Biography and Memoirs - Depiction of the Personal and the Professional Sides

Biography and autobiography are probably the best literary forms that attract amateurs into the literary field. The best part is that biography writing does not require prior experience unlike arts and crafts as it involves personal experiences that the writer think are worth sharing with the readers.

Biographies are of different types including memoirs and journals. Biography is a description of someone's life and experiences. It can be published in the form of a book, a film or in some cases a collection of books. A biography would sketch out the personal details and experiences in an elaborate manner and might also include the analysis of the personality of the author. Though biographies are non fictional woks that are based on truthful facts, fiction also can be used to portray the life and experiences of the subject.

In the early middle ages, there was a sharp decline in the awareness of the classic European culture. During this period the only sources of information were the biographies written by monks and hermits, though the subjects were largely confined to the church fathers and popes. These were basically intended to enhance the interest in Christianity among the general public and were used as tool for conversion into Christianity.

Memoirs though form a division of autobiography differ in their style and structure. It is more focused that an autobiography and the chronological freedom gives its more flexibility. Memoirs are written by politicians, film stars, military leaders and businessmen and these typically focus on the career and professional lives of the subjects rather than their personal lives unlike an autobiography. Like most autobiographies, memoirs are also written from a first person's perspective.

Memoirs can be written for legacy or recreational purposes and are often assisted by genealogists, or even by ghostwriters. Historically, memoirs have focused on public matters, rather than personal, and in many cases; the readers might not even get any information even about the writer as the memoir would be dealing with other people and incidents that happened in their lives. However in many cases, the content of the memoirs might not be 100% true. While writing memoirs, many writers opt to leave out the bad experiences totally and focus only on the good, which makes it less credible.