What biography readers expect
Readers expect accuracy, context and an argument: why this person matters and what their life shows. A good biography uses primary sources (letters, records, interviews), places its subject in their time and is honest about gaps in the record.
AI is a real risk here. Language models can produce confident, specific and false details about real people, including quotes they never said. Treat every fact, date and quotation in an AI draft as unverified unless it came from your brief, and check it against your sources before publishing.
Length and structure
Biographies range widely, from short lives of local figures at around 30,000 words to major biographies far longer. Family histories and biographies of a grandparent or local figure often suit the Standard preset; a full life suits Full-length or Epic.
Most biographies are broadly chronological but organised around turning points rather than years: origins, formation, the work or crisis that defined them, later life, and legacy. Opening with a defining moment before going back to childhood is a common way to hook the reader.
How Inkora writes a biography
Put your research in the brief: dates, places, names, key events and quotations you have verified, with sources noted. Planning produces a synopsis of the life, key people with their roles and a chapter outline of headed sections you can correct before writing.
The fact ledger records every date, name and relationship a chapter establishes, and later chapters are written not to contradict them. Ask in the brief for the draft to mark any detail not drawn from your research, so you know what to check.
What to put in your brief
The brief is the “Your book idea & instructions” box in the new-book wizard. The more specific it is, the less generic the book. Here is an example, with the settings that go with it:
Biography of my great-grandmother, Hilda Marsh (1901–1987), a Sheffield cutlery buffer (a “buffer girl”) who became a union organiser. My research: born 1901 in Heeley; started work at 14 in 1915; married Albert Marsh 1923; Albert died 1940 in the Sheffield Blitz; she led a pay dispute at her works in 1947 (I have newspaper clippings); retired 1961. Use only these facts and mark anything else as [UNVERIFIED]. Include context on women's work in the Sheffield cutlery trade, flagged for checking. Audience: family and local history readers. Warm but factual; no invented quotes.
Other wizard settings
- Genre
- Biography
- Audience
- Family and local history readers
- Tone
- Warm & conversational
- Length
- Standard (30,000 words)
Example outline: Hilda Marsh: A Buffer Girl's Life
A brief like the one above gives a plan along these lines. You can rename, reorder, add or delete chapters before any writing starts.
- 1
1947
The pay dispute that made Hilda's name, before going back to the beginning.
- 2
Heeley
Birth, family and the streets she grew up in.
- 3
Fourteen
Starting work in 1915 and what buffing involved.
- 4
The Buffer Girls
Context on women's work in the cutlery trade [to verify].
- 5
Albert
Courtship and marriage in 1923.
- 6
Between the Wars
Work, family and the years of the Depression.
- 7
December 1940
The Blitz and Albert's death.
- 8
Carrying On
Widowhood, war work and the women who kept the works running.
- 9
The Dispute
The 1947 pay dispute, told from the newspaper record.
- 10
Later Years
Retirement in 1961 and the family she raised.
- 11
What Hilda Left
Her legacy for the family and the city.
Common mistakes
- Publishing AI-supplied facts or quotations about a real person without checking them.
- A list of dates with no argument about why the life matters.
- Inventing dialogue and presenting it as fact.
- Ignoring privacy and defamation risks when writing about living people.
- No sources or notes, so readers can't trust the book.