Patricia Harrelson

Penelope Niven

Earlier this year, just about the time I realized my biography project was stalled (see From Stalled to Inspired), I read an interview with Penelope Niven in the March/April issue of The Writer’s Chronicle. Talk about timely!

Niven is the author of four biographies. Interviewer, Sheryl Monks, engaged Niven in a discussion of the exact issues that were paralyzing me.

• How am I going to manage the girth of material I’m uncovering in my research?
• How can I make the process of research and writing work?
• How can I shape this story?

Most importantly, Niven gave voice to my major concern. She says that writing a biography is “an act of audacity.” That’s exactly what I was feeling: Audacious. Who was I to try to tell this man’s story?

And I didn’t really like Niven’s conclusion either when she went on to say: “You cannot compromise even for an instant the veracity of your work.” Oh dear! I was going to have to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  I was getting more worried by the moment.

But I was also oddly challenged and motivated by the article. There were biographers talking about their work, discussing the ins and outs, the challenges, and the rewards. After reading the interview with Niven, I began to look for material that discussed biography and the work of writing biography.

I found 3 resources:

• Four or five terrific books about biography.
• A fabulous organization with a newsletter and website: Biographers International Organization
• Some stellar magazine articles about the craft and genre.

In my next few posts, I’m going to review the books I’ve read and then move on to highlighting some of information I’ve gleaned from the other two resources.

I’d love to hear about resources you’ve found related to big writing projects or biography in particular.