These exercises will familiarize you with the process of writing a biography more than honing a particular writing style. By this time you should be adept at writing in a personal tone with a voice of authority and employing the techniques for any specific category of biography. Which of the three styles is most applicable to your exercise depends on your subject matter.

EXERCISE 1

Select a subject either living or dead but who was alive during your lifetime and ot whom you have some memory. It is not necessary the person knows or knew you but only that you know of the person. Try to conduct one or two interviews with people who know or knew your subject either directly or from afar and if you can. secure an interview with your subject. Rely on your own knowledge of the person and employ only a minimum of research other than interviews.

Write several pages about your subject keeping in mind you are not a journalist but a biographer and you need to make the person three-dimensional. Do not try to squeeze an entire lifetime into the piece but keep the time frame short, concerning yourself more with what the reader can learn about your subject and at the same time providing a good read.

EXERCISE 2

Repeat Exercise 1, but this time your subject must have died before you were born. You'll need to rely on more research, although depending on the circumstances, interviews might still be an option. Although you have no living recollection of your subject, you must get to know her and bring her to life for the reader.