Decide on a length for your autobiography essay. If you do not choose a length, you may never get to the end, a common problem for a writer who sits down to compose her life story. For college applications, the required length is generally provided in the application instructions. Because you are writing an essay and not a long story or novel, you can break your life into parts. For example, you may organize the essay by events in your life and devote only three paragraphs to each: childhood, moving to a new place, adolescence, and getting married. However, you do not have to lead readers through these life stages in a bland way. You can, for instance, create a non-chronological approach, where you start in the middle and remember the past or shoot toward the future.
Some memoirists omit dialogue from an autobiographical essay or novel, choosing descriptive language instead. While it is impossible to remember exactly what everyone has said to you, verbatim, throughout your life, do not be afraid to paraphrase or guess at what a friend, parent or partner said to you in your life that made an impact on you. You can also include short, everyday bits of basic dialogue you had with your family, your grandmother or a school teacher. Remember to limit the dialogue, though, and not to get carried away and tell too many tangential stories. If you start telling small stories, consider turning the project from an essay into a novella, collection of short stories or a full novel.
When you find a few minutes or longer at work to work on your essay, start with an outline. Start with a Roman numeral I to discuss your childhood. Begin with themes like siblings, mom and dad and home under the Roman numeral. Before elaborating on each of those themes, skip to the next section so you know what you will discuss there. Because your time is limited, or monitored, keep your notes on the subject swift and simple. You can get into your memories later.
For writers working on an autobiographical essay for a college or university application, completing it on the job is not ideal, but it may keep you on track. According to writing center experts at the University of California Northridge, writing about what is important to you and how your goals, past achievements and failures have taught you about yourself and life is an ideal approach to the application essay. While at work, think of main points to discuss. Jot down the names of a few people who have influenced you and helped you in your development. Talk about what is important to you and why; your goals, past achievements, past failures and what you learned from them; activities that you are or were deeply involved in and committed to; and relationships that guided you in your development.