ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses various popular forms of life writing narrative. Choosing to write a scene from a memoir or biography is the first step towards organising the raw material of a life, and focusing in on what seems important or dramatic. Initially, the idea of travel writing might seem like a method of moving away from the self, a way of writing outwardly. Written communication between two people tends to take place via email, or mobile messaging. For biographers, looking for something becomes looking for someone. Biographers often dramatise the search for information. There are moments, or periods of time, which might suggest themselves to us as turning points in a life. In life writing, there is often a gap between the time when the described events happened, and the time when they are written about.
