The primary formats used to tell a life story are a biography and an autobiography. Distinguishing between the two can feel a bit confusing since they all share several similarities. But there are some distinct differences.

A biography is a written account of a person's life by someone other than the author, whereas an autobiography is a self-authored account of a person's life. Both of these works give the author's perspective on events that occurred in the past while he was alive. These are nonfiction books that describe the tale of a person who made a significant contribution in a given field and are written in chronological sequence. Many people believe that the two writing styles are interchangeable, however there are significant differences between them that are discussed below.

What is a Biography?

A biography, commonly known as a 'bio,' is a detailed account of someone's life written or produced by someone else. It contains detailed information about the person's birthplace, educational history, work, relationships, and death. It examines the subject's entire personality and offers intimate facts about their life. It focuses on the highs and lows of the subject's life.

A biography is normally written, but it can also take the shape of a musical work or a film adaptation of literature.

What is an Autobiography?

An autobiography is a personal account of a person's life written by that person. The term auto refers to one's own self. As a result, an autobiography comprises all of the features of a biography, but it is written or narrated by the author. He or she can write on their own or pay ghostwriters to do so.

The narrator's persona is sketched out in an autobiography, together with his birth and upbringing, education, job, life events, obstacles, and accomplishments. This could include incidents from his childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.

A biography presents information collected from the subject, their acquaintances, or from other sources. An autobiography presents facts as they were experienced by the person. A biography is usually written after someone experiences something in life so it can be written anytime. Whereas an autobiography is usually written by the subject later in life. In a biography since the writer is depicting someone else’s feeling so he/she has restricted access to the subject’s thoughts and feelings. On the other hand in an autobiography the writer has personally experienced so he has room for expressing personal thoughts and feelings.

Biography can be written with (authorized) or without permission (unauthorized) from the person/heir’s concerned. Therefore, there are chances of factual mistakes in the information. On the other hand, autobiographies are self-written and therefore doesn’t require any authorization.

n an Autobiography, the author uses the first narrative like I, me, we, he, she, etc. This, in turn, makes an intimate connection between the author and the reader since the reader experience various aspects as if he/she is in that time period. As opposed a biography is from a third person’s view and is much less intimate.

The purpose of writing a biography is to introduce and inform the readers about the person and his life whereas an autobiography is written in order to express, the life experiences and achievements of the narrator.

We hope we have made the concept clear