Questions to Ask for a Biography
For anyone interviewing a living person in order to write about them: a student with a biography assignment, a relative recording a family member's story, or a writer preparing a profile, a staff bio or a tribute. The questions run in the order an interview usually goes, from the facts for the record through early life, work and turning points to beliefs and legacy, and finish with a group to put to the people who know the subject. Each has a note on what a useful answer sounds like and what to do with it on the page.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
The basics
What is your full name, and is there a story behind it?
Why ask it
Have the subject spell every part of it, including a middle name and any name they went by earlier in life, because a misspelled name is the mistake a subject is least likely to forgive. A name passed down from a great-aunt or picked from a song gives you an opening line. When the parents simply liked the sound of it, write the name down and move on.
When and where were you born?
Why ask it
Ask for the town as well as the hospital or the house, and the full date. If the subject hesitates over the year, or gives a different one later in the interview, do not correct them on the spot. Mark it and settle it afterward against a document or an older relative.
Where do you live now, and who lives there with you?
Why ask it
A staff bio or short profile often ends on this line, so ask how they want it to read in print: a town or region and not a street, and a partner or children by name only when those people are happy to be named. Ask how long they have been there as well. A subject on their eleventh address needs a different middle section from one who never left the county.
How would you introduce yourself to someone who has never heard of you?
Why ask it
Notice what comes first: a job, a family role, a hometown, a cause. That order is the subject's own idea of what their life is about, and it may not match what the assignment assumed. If you get a list of job titles, ask how their oldest friend would introduce them.
What does an ordinary day look like for you right now?
Why ask it
Present-day detail, such as when they get up, who they talk to first and what is on the kitchen table, lets a reader meet a living person before the history starts. A vague answer like 'the usual' improves if you ask to be walked through yesterday hour by hour. Many profiles open on exactly this material.
What do you do with a free afternoon?
Why ask it
Short bios often close on a line about this, and 'spending time with family' is what most people say first. Push for something you could photograph: the vegetable garden, the choir, the motorcycle that has been in pieces since spring. One specific pastime is enough.
Which facts about you do people most often get wrong?
Why ask it
Plenty of subjects have been correcting the same two or three things for years: a surname spelled the common way, a birthplace confused with where they grew up, a job title that was never quite theirs. Put each one on a list to check in the final draft. The correction itself is sometimes a good line.
What photographs, letters, certificates or clippings could you show me?
Why ask it
Papers fix what memory blurs. A certificate carries the exact name of an award, a letter has a date at the top, and a photograph will prompt a story no question would. Ask before you photograph or borrow anything, and note who owns each item so you can credit it.
Early life
Who were your parents, and what did each of them do?
Why ask it
Collect both full names, including a name before marriage where there was one, and the work each did, and put the same question about anyone else who did the raising. Then ask for one thing each was known for, since 'she could silence a room by putting down her fork' tells a reader more than an occupation. A short, flat answer about one parent is usually a boundary, so leave it for a later sitting.
Where does your family come from, as far back as you know?
Why ask it
Family accounts of origins get rounded off with each retelling, so write them as what the family says until a record backs them up. 'The story they were told was' is an honest phrase and reads well. For a school biography, one sentence of this is plenty.
Who are your brothers and sisters, and which of them should I talk to?
Why ask it
Names and order of birth go in the record. The reason to ask for an introduction is that a sibling sat at the same table and saw it from a different chair. When the subject steers you away from one of them, note it and do not make contact behind their back.
What is the earliest memory you are sure is your own?
Why ask it
The qualifier matters, because a first memory is often a photograph or a story told so many times that it feels remembered. Either kind is usable as long as you say which it is. A memory with a smell or a sound in it is the one to open a childhood section with.
What was the place you grew up in like, and what would I find if I went there today?
Why ask it
You are after the setting, and also a sense of whether a visit, an old map or a local history page is worth your time. A closed mill or a field that is now a parking lot gives you a sentence about how much time has passed. Get the spelling of streets and districts while you are at it.
What kind of child were you, and who would describe you differently?
Why ask it
People describe their own childhood kindly or harshly, and seldom the way others saw it. When the subject says 'quiet' and a cousin later says 'never stopped talking', print both and let the reader enjoy the gap. A subject who cannot think of anyone who would disagree has given you the official version.
Which schools did you attend, and what were you like in a classroom?
Why ask it
School names and years are the first fixed points on your timeline, and schools merge and get renamed, so confirm what each was called at the time and add any college, apprenticeship or training that came after. A good answer to the classroom part has a favorite subject or a seat by the window in it. When grades are all you hear, the question that works is what they got into trouble for.
Who was the first person outside your family to see what you might become?
Why ask it
Get the full name and what the person actually said or did, word for word if the subject can recall it. A teacher, coach or neighbor who is still alive is a second interview and often a generous one. No name at all is worth writing down too: some life stories begin with nobody noticing.
At sixteen, what did you think your life was going to be?
Why ask it
The distance between that plan and what happened is the arc of the biography in one answer. A plan that came true exactly is rarer, and the follow-up there is what it cost. For a student writing about an older subject, this is also the answer nearest the writer's own age, and it makes a natural quotation.
What was happening in the wider world while you were growing up, and how much of it reached your house?
Why ask it
Public events come with dates you can look up, so they pin down private ones the subject is unsure of, such as 'the summer after the flood'. Keep the history itself to a sentence of context. Hearing that none of it reached them is useful as well, because it tells you how sheltered or how busy that household was.
Work
What was your first paid job, and what did it teach you that school had not?
Why ask it
Early jobs produce good scenes: a boss, a uniform, a mistake on the first day. Ask what the place was called and roughly which year, then see whether it fits the school dates you already have. A clash means one of the two dates is off, and the easiest time to sort that out is while the subject is sitting in front of you.
How did you come to do the work you are known for?
Why ask it
The first answer is usually the tidy one, the version given at retirement parties, so keep asking 'and before that?' until you reach the accident: a friend's tip, a failed exam, a job taken to cover the rent. Collect employers and years in order as you go, since they become the spine of the timeline. For a subject whose life's work was unpaid, such as raising a family or keeping a food pantry going, ask it in exactly the same way.
What do you spend a working day doing that an outsider would not guess?
Why ask it
Job titles tell a reader almost nothing. You are after a verb and an object, as in 'I spend most mornings on the phone talking growers out of panicking'. Trade jargon is the usual obstacle, and the cure is to have them explain it again as they would to a twelve-year-old.
Which achievement are you proudest of, at work or away from it, and what did it take?
Why ask it
Modest subjects undersell, so also ask what a colleague or a relative would name. Pin down the year, who else was involved and any figure the subject quotes, and confirm numbers and official names against a record before they go into print. What it took is the story, and the achievement alone is a line on a resume.
What went wrong in your working life that you learned the most from?
Why ask it
A biography with nothing but wins reads like a press release. A strong answer names the event and what the subject did differently afterward. A weak one blames somebody else throughout, and that version goes in as the subject's account until a second person who was there has had a say.
Who taught you the most, and who have you taught?
Why ask it
You come away with names to interview on both sides. The people a subject trained can describe them as a boss or a teacher, which is a view the subject cannot give you. Someone who says they never taught anyone can still tell you who took over their work when they moved on.
Which degrees, titles and awards should be listed, and what is the exact name of each?
Why ask it
For a staff bio or a tribute this is the unglamorous core. Ask for a resume or a written list, because official names are long and easy to mangle from a recording. Then ask which of them the subject actually cares about, which is often not the grandest.
What did the work cost you, or the people close to you?
Why ask it
Missed dinners, a move nobody else wanted, years of night shifts. Some subjects will say 'nothing', and in a short cheerful bio you can skip the question altogether. In a longer biography, put the same question to the family and compare.
Turning points
If your life were divided into chapters, where would the breaks fall?
Why ask it
Here the subject does your outlining for you. People tend to name a handful of breaks, such as a move, a death, a job or a marriage, and those can stand as your working structure. Look at any run of years that gets no chapter, because that gap is either dull or guarded and you need to know which.
Which decision are you most glad you made, and how close did you come to choosing otherwise?
Why ask it
The near miss is what makes it a scene. Ask who argued for the other choice and what the subject said back. An answer with no hesitation in it, such as 'I always knew', is usually hindsight, so ask what they would have told you the week before.
When did you take a risk that the people around you advised against?
Why ask it
This one arrives with its own cast: the subject, the people who said no and whoever turned out to be right. Find out how it ended before you decide where it goes, since a risk that failed can say more about a person than one that paid off. The adviser, if you can reach them, may recall a far more reasonable warning than the one you were told about.
Who or what changed your mind about something important?
Why ask it
A life with a change of mind in it has a before and an after, which is what a narrative needs. Ask what they believed before, in the words they would have used then. 'Nothing, I have always thought the same' is worth quoting exactly as said.
What is the hardest thing you have been through that you are willing to have written down?
Why ask it
The last clause hands the subject control, and you learn both the event and where the limit is. Do not fill the silence that follows. If they tell you and then ask you not to print it, agree on a form of words there and then, even if it is only 'a difficult few years followed'.
Who are the most important people in your life, and how did each one come into it?
Why ask it
Take down names, spellings and the years of marriages and births for the record, then let the meeting stories run. Before you finish, ask how each person should be named in print, or whether they should appear at all. A partner, a child or a former spouse did not sign up to be in someone else's biography.
Is there someone you have lost who belongs in this story?
Why ask it
Ask it late, and let the subject choose the person. Take down the name and the year, then ask for one thing that person used to say or do. How the death happened is theirs to offer, and you can write the chapter without it.
What story about you gets told at family gatherings, and is it accurate?
Why ask it
Anecdotes are what readers remember, and the subject's correction is often better than the legend. Have them tell it in full while the recorder runs and transcribe their wording, since the rhythm of a well-worn story is hard to rebuild from notes. Then ask who usually tells it and get that version as well.
Legacy
What do you believe that guides how you live, and where did you get it?
Why ask it
It might be a faith, a principle or something a parent said at the sink. Ask for an occasion when it was tested, because a belief with no example reads as a slogan. Where religion comes into it, use the subject's own words for their tradition and do not paraphrase.
What do you know now that you wish you had known at twenty?
Why ask it
School assignments often ask for a lesson or a piece of advice, and this fills that paragraph. The danger is a greeting-card line. Follow with 'when did you find that out?' and you get the story that earned it, which is the part to print.
What is your reputation, as far as you can tell, and is it fair?
Why ask it
A fair biography lets the subject answer what is said about them, and this is where they get to. Later, ask someone who knows them well what the reputation really is. Two descriptions with nothing in common show you what the subject worries people think, and that worry can be worth a line of its own.
What matters more to you than it used to, and what matters less?
Why ask it
The answer shows movement over time without your having to ask for a philosophy. Good answers are concrete, such as 'being on time matters less and my sister matters more'. Set it beside what they said about their plans at sixteen and you may have your closing section.
What would you do differently, and what would you leave exactly as it was?
Why ask it
Regret is the subject's to name, so take what is offered and do not dig for more. Write it in their words, as in 'she says she would have left sooner', and keep your own verdict out of it. Asking what they would keep stops the answer from turning into a list of complaints, and it tends to bring out what they are quietly proudest of.
What would you still like to do, make or see?
Why ask it
The biography of a living person has no ending, and this supplies one that faces forward. Write plans as hopes, in the subject's words, and never as things that will happen. A subject who says 'nothing, I am content' has given you a different ending and a good one.
What would you like to be remembered for, and by whom?
Why ask it
Some people find this morbid while they are very much alive, so ask it lightly, near the end, and drop it if the subject winces. 'By whom' turns a grand answer into a particular one: grandchildren, former students, the street. Hold it against what those people said when you interviewed them, and where the two match you have a last paragraph for a tribute.
What do you most want this biography to get right about you?
Why ask it
You hear what the subject fears a stranger would miss, and it is often a small thing: that the shop was a partnership, that the move was their own choice. You are not bound to make it your theme, but you should be able to point to the place where the finished piece deals with it. Asked at the first sitting instead, it shows what the subject thinks the project is for.
What have I not asked that I should have?
Why ask it
Make it the last real question of every sitting, and then wait. Subjects often hold back the thing they most expected to be asked, and it comes out here. Before you pack up, also ask who else you should speak to and whether you may come back with follow-up questions.
Is there anything you told me today that you would not want printed?
Why ask it
Raise it before you leave, not after the draft is written. For a family record or a school assignment, the subject's answer settles it. For anything published, how much say a subject has over the text depends on the publication, so ask your editor or teacher how it works there before you promise a read-through.
Other voices
How do you know [name], and what do you remember about the first time you met?
Why ask it
Start every secondary interview here, with the subject's name in place of the brackets, since it tells you which years this person can vouch for and which they only heard about. A classmate is a source on school and hearsay on the marriage. First meetings also tend to come with a physical description, which the subject can never give you.
What is one occasion that shows what [name] is really like?
Why ask it
Adjectives are no use to you. 'Generous' fills no space, while 'drove four hours with a spare tire and would not take gas money' is a paragraph. When you get adjectives anyway, ask 'when did you see that?' until an occasion turns up.
What does [name] say or do that anyone who knows them would recognize?
Why ask it
A catchphrase, a way of answering the phone, a habit with their glasses: these make a subject visible on the page. Use one or two and no more. In a tribute or a staff bio, check that the detail is affectionate and that the subject would laugh at it too.
What is [name] like at their best, and what are they like on a bad day?
Why ask it
A tribute may use only the first half, but hearing the second keeps the portrait from turning into a saint's life. Be careful with a source who has a grudge. A harsh claim from one person, backed by nobody else, stays out.
What did [name] do for you that they may not know about?
Why ask it
Here is where the line comes from that gets quoted at a retirement or a milestone birthday. Take it down word for word and read it back to the speaker before you use it with their name attached. Leave it out of a neutral profile unless you have something to balance it.
What should I ask [name] about that they would never bring up themselves?
Why ask it
Friends and relatives know which chapters the subject skips out of modesty or habit: the scholarship, the year abroad, the business that failed before the one that worked. Take the topic back to the subject as a question, and do not say who sent you unless that person agreed to it. Where it turns out to be a sore spot and not modesty, the subject's 'no' settles it.
What do you remember differently from the way [name] tells it?
Why ask it
Expect a laugh and then something useful. Where two accounts differ on a date or a place, look for a document to settle it. Where they differ on how it felt or who was to blame, both stand, and you write 'she remembers' and 'her brother recalls' without ruling between them.
From interview to finished biography
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the interview
Decide the length first
A staff bio of a paragraph needs the basics and two or three of the work questions. A school biography needs something from every group. A family record or a long profile needs several sittings, with the people who know the subject seen in between. Choose your questions to fit, and do not put all of them to anyone in one go.
Read what already exists
A resume, a company page, an old newspaper piece or a family tree answers the dry questions for you. Arrive knowing those answers and use the interview to confirm them and to get what no document holds: why, who else was there and what it was like.
Ask before you record
A recording frees you to listen and gives you exact quotations. Say what it is for and who will hear it, and get a clear yes before you start. Rules about recording a conversation differ from place to place, and schools and employers have their own, so find out what applies where you are. Take written notes as well, in case the recording fails.
Plan the order
Open with questions the subject can answer without thinking, such as names, dates and places. Put the hard ones in the second half, once they have heard you listen. Finish on something that looks forward, so nobody goes home from the session having just talked about the worst year of their life.
Line up the other voices
Ask the subject who else you should talk to, and say whom you plan to see, so that nobody hears about the project secondhand. Two or three people from different parts of the life, such as a sibling, a colleague and an old friend, will do more for the piece than six from one. Put the Other voices questions to them with the subject's name where the brackets are, and keep each of those conversations short.
During the conversation
Ask for the day, not the summary
'It was a hard time' is a summary. 'What happened the morning you found out?' gets a scene with a room, a time of day and something said aloud. Whenever an answer stays general, ask for one particular day.
Spell it while you are there
Stop and ask for the spelling of every person, place, school and employer as it comes up, and say dates back to the subject. It feels fussy for a few seconds and saves an evening of guessing at what the recording says.
Let a silence sit
People often fill a pause with the thing they were deciding whether to tell you. Wait a few seconds longer than is comfortable before your next question, most of all after a short answer to a large one.
Stop while they still have energy
Long sittings give thinner answers toward the end. Ask at the start how long suits the subject, watch for flagging, and book a second visit sooner than push on. A second visit is also when the subject mentions what they remembered after you left.
Checking names and dates
Build a timeline before you write
List every dated event in order with the source beside it: the subject, a sister, a certificate. Gaps and collisions show up at once, such as a job that starts before the school years end or two children born five months apart. Take those back to the subject as questions, not as corrections.
Trust the scene, check the year
A subject can be exact about how a day felt and several years out on when it was. Anchor shaky dates to something you can look up, such as a public event, a school year or the age of a child at the time. If a date cannot be settled, say 'around' or 'in the early part of that decade' and leave it there.
When two people disagree
On a fact, look for a document before you side with whoever is older or more certain, and remember that records carry mistakes too, so note where each date came from. On an interpretation, such as who was the favorite or whose idea it was, there is nothing to win. Give both accounts and say whose each one is.
Read the names and quotations back
Before you finish, go through every name, title and direct quotation with the person who gave it. This is checking for accuracy, and it is a separate matter from letting the subject approve the whole text. If the piece is for a class or a publication, ask your teacher or editor what the practice is there before offering more.
Shaping the answers into a narrative
Find the thread
Read your notes through and write one sentence that says what this life has been about, such as 'she kept leaving safe jobs for uncertain ones'. Everything that supports or complicates that sentence goes in. Much of what is left over, however true, stays in the notebook.
Open on a moment
'She was born in' is where the reader expects you to begin, and that is the reason to begin elsewhere. Open with the ordinary day, the family legend or the risk everyone advised against, and bring in the birth and the parents in the second paragraph.
Use the subject's own chapters
The breaks the subject named when asked to divide their life are a ready outline. Give each chapter one scene and one quotation, and link them with the plain facts from your timeline.
Fit the form you were asked for
A staff bio is short, starts with the current role and ends with a human detail. A tribute runs on stories other people told and goes light on the list of posts held. A school biography follows the assignment sheet, so look at what it asks for (early life, achievements, why this person matters) and see that each part has an answer under it.
Quote where the voice is
Put a sentence in quotation marks when the wording is the point: the family saying, the reply to the boss, the correction to the legend. Report the rest in your own words. A biography made of nothing but quotations reads like a transcript, and one with none loses the person.