autobiographical
About one's life
Autobiographical describes something drawn from the creator's own life.
An autobiographical novel incorporates events the author actually experienced.
The film is loosely autobiographical.
The term applies to any work—memoir, song, painting—that reflects its maker's personal history rather than pure invention.
Written personal recollection
- diaryPersonal daily record
- journalRecord of daily events
- chronicleOrdered historical record
- recollectionRecalled mental image
reminiscence · testimony · account · narrative · coming-of-age · bildungsroman · confession · portrait
New and unusual
- novellaShort fictional book
- autofictionFiction drawn from life
- sagaExtended heroic narrative
- fictionalizedAltered for narrative purposes
storytelling · protagonist · alter-ego · narrative · first-person · voice · perspective · dramatization
Examining one's own mind
- introspectionObserving one's own mind
- self-examinationScrutiny of one's thoughts
- self-discoveryLearning one's true character
- self-awarenessInsight into one's psyche
soul-searching · contemplation · self-scrutiny · self-questioning · self-perception · reflection · rumination · self-knowledge
Admission of wrongdoing
- disclosureAct of revealing information
- revelationSurprising disclosed truth
- vulnerabilityOpenness to harm
- candorUnguarded truthfulness
honesty · sincerity · catharsis · unburdening · exposure · secrets · truth-telling · intimate
memoir
Written personal recollection
recollection · reminiscence · testimony · account · narrative · coming-of-age · bildungsroman · confession · portrait · self-portrait
novel
New and unusual
- novellaShort fictional book
- autofictionFiction drawn from life
- sagaExtended heroic narrative
fictionalized · storytelling · protagonist · alter-ego · narrative · first-person · voice · perspective · dramatization
self-reflection
Examining one's own mind
- introspectionObserving one's own mind
- self-examinationScrutiny of one's thoughts
- self-discoveryLearning one's true character
self-awareness · soul-searching · contemplation · self-scrutiny · self-questioning · self-perception · reflection · rumination · self-knowledge · self-inquiry
confession
Admission of wrongdoing
- disclosureAct of revealing information
- revelationSurprising disclosed truth
- vulnerabilityOpenness to harm
candor · honesty · sincerity · catharsis · unburdening · exposure · secrets · truth-telling · intimate · raw
documentary
Factual film about reality
voiceover · archival · photographs · letters · scrapbook · evidence · artifacts · records · factual · oral-history
- long wordssupercalifragilisticexpialidocious, antidisestablishmentarianism, incomprehensibilities, counterrevolutionary, electroencephalograph
- literary adjectivespoetic, lyrical, prosaic, narrative, elegiac
- memoryremember, forget, recall, memorize, recollect
- life stagesbaby, teenager, adult, childhood, adolescence
- visual story genresaction, adventure, crime, fantasy, horror
- writing stylesformal, informal, minimalism, maximalism, concise
autobiographicalfictional
Not real, invented
fictitious · invented · imaginary · made-up · fabricated
autobiographicalimpersonal
Lacking warmth or individuality
objective · detached · third-person · journalistic · documentary
- autobiographical novelsFiction based on writer's life
- autobiographical fictionImagined tales from life
- autobiographical writingSelf-narrative prose
- autobiographical essaySelf-written personal account