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Biography outline template

A biography outline follows another person's life in order, but opens on a scene that shows who they were rather than on their birth. It moves through origins, the breakthrough, the height of their influence, the conflicts, and the end, and closes with sources.

A bridge engineer stands on steel girders above a river with a folded engineering drawing.

When to use it

  • You are writing a full life, of a historical figure or a family member.
  • Your research is deep and you need somewhere to hang it.
  • Your draft starts at birth and loses the reader by chapter two.

The 10 chapters at 100,000 words

The marks assume 100,000 words, because trade biographies usually run 80,000 to 120,000 words. Each chapter starts at an even share of the whole; yours will run longer or shorter. The story structure calculator works them out for any length.

  1. Opening Scene 0% · word 0 The moment that shows who they were. Not the birth.
  2. Origins and Family 10% · word 10,000 Where they came from and what it gave them.
  3. Formative Years 20% · word 20,000 What shaped the person before the work did.
  4. First Work 30% · word 30,000 The beginning of what they are known for.
  5. The Breakthrough 40% · word 40,000 The turn that made the rest possible.
  6. Height of Influence 50% · word 50,000 The work at full strength, and its reach.
  7. Conflicts and Setbacks 60% · word 60,000 The opposition, the failures, the harm.
  8. Later Years 70% · word 70,000 What came after the height, and how they met it.
  9. Death and Legacy 80% · word 80,000 The end, and what outlasted it.
  10. Sources and Notes 90% · word 90,000 Where each claim came from.

A worked example

A life of Hester Vane, an invented bridge engineer, 1870 to 1941.

  1. Opening Scene. Hester, at sixty, walking the girders of her last bridge in a skirt.
  2. Origins and Family. A ferryman's daughter on a river nobody could bridge.
  3. Formative Years. Teaching herself mathematics from her brother's schoolbooks.
  4. First Work. A footbridge for a mill town, signed with her brother's name.
  5. The Breakthrough. Her cantilever design wins a competition entered under initials.
  6. Height of Influence. Eleven bridges in twenty years, and a professorship she was not allowed to hold.
  7. Conflicts and Setbacks. A collapse, an inquiry, and the partner who blamed her.
  8. Later Years. Cleared, and building smaller bridges for poorer towns.
  9. Death and Legacy. Buried within sight of the river she crossed, and four bridges still standing.
  10. Sources and Notes. Her letters, the inquiry transcripts, and the drawings in the county archive.

Open this template in Tabularia

Tabularia opens a new Book on the Biography shape: its acts and a chapter for each section, named for it, with each note pinned beside the chapter it belongs to. The book's word goal is set to 100,000 words. You name the Book before anything is created.

Open in Tabularia

Or take it away

The Word file has every chapter with its note and mark, a line under each for your own plan, and the example above. It opens in Word, Google Docs, Pages, and LibreOffice.

Download for Word