How to Write a Book About Your Life (Free, Even If You Hate Writing)
You don’t have to be a writer to write a book about your life. Most life-story books are spoken first and written after. Here are the three ways to do it, what each one costs, how to shape the chapters, and how to get a printed copy you can hold.
The quick answer
To write a book about your life: decide what kind of book it is (your whole life, one part of it, or a collection of stories), pick how you’ll get the words down (write them, talk them, or be interviewed), shape the stories into 8 to 12 chapters, edit lightly so it sounds like you, then print it. If writing is what has stopped you, talk it: answer one question a day out loud, or let a free tool like Memoirji interview you and write it up.
Prefer to watch? Here is the 5-minute video version, with the three routes, the costs, and the one question that starts almost every chapter.
About this guide
I’m Arthur Cho, founder of Memoirji, a free tool that interviews people about their lives and turns their spoken answers into a written story. More than 250 people have finished a memoir with it. So I’m biased toward talking over typing, and I’ll say where the other routes are better.
Step 1: Decide what kind of book it is
Three shapes cover almost every life-story book:
- Your whole life, in order. That’s an autobiography, and our step-by-step autobiography guide has a chapter template for it.
- One part of your life, in depth. A career, an illness, a war, the place you grew up. That’s a memoir; see what a memoir is.
- A collection of stories. Twenty or thirty stand-alone stories, each one a few pages. This is the easiest to finish, because every story is complete on its own and you can stop whenever you like.
If you can’t decide, start with the collection. You can always arrange it into a whole life later.
Step 2: Choose how you’ll get the words down
This is the decision that decides whether the book gets finished. There are three routes:
| Route | How it works | Cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Write it yourself | A chapter at a time in a notebook or Google Docs | Free | People who enjoy writing |
| Talk it | Answer one question a day out loud, record it, work from the transcript | Free | People who tell stories better than they write them |
| Be interviewed | An AI or a person asks the questions and writes up your answers | Free to $100,000+ | Anyone who wants the writing done for them |
Write it yourself
Set a small, fixed goal (one story a week is plenty) and keep it. Write the way you’d tell it to a friend, not the way you think a book should sound. If you get stuck on how to begin a chapter, start in a moment: “The night the river came up to our porch…” and explain the background later.
Talk it
This is the route most people should try first. Pick one question from the list below each day, tell the answer out loud for five or ten minutes, and record it on your phone. Transcribe it (your phone or a free transcription app can do this), then tidy the transcript into a story. Spoken stories usually come out warmer and more specific than typed ones, because there’s no blank page staring back.
Be interviewed
Someone, or something, asks the questions and does the writing:
- An AI interviewer. Memoirji asks you about your life one question at a time, in your browser, on WhatsApp, or on LINE, and writes your answers up as chapters. It’s free, there’s nothing to install, and you can answer by voice in 10 languages.
- A yearly interview service with a printed book, such as Remember by Memoirji ($79 a year) or Remento ($99 a year). Compare them in our AI memoir tools guide.
- A human writer. Services like StoryTerrace start around $1,500, and a private memoir ghostwriter typically costs $10,000 to $100,000 or more. Our ghostwriter cost breakdown explains what each price gets you.
Step 3: Gather the stories (questions that work)
Whatever route you pick, the stories come from good questions. Answer these one at a time:
- What’s the earliest thing you remember?
- What did the house you grew up in smell like?
- Who was the first person who believed in you?
- What was your first job, and what did it teach you?
- How did you meet the person who mattered most?
- What decision changed the direction of your life?
- What was the hardest year, and how did you get through it?
- What do you know now that you wish you’d known at twenty?
- What do you want on the record about your life?
For dozens more, organized by stage of life, see our 52 life-story questions.
Step 4: Shape it into chapters
Once you have fifteen or twenty stories, lay them out and group them. Eight to twelve chapters is a comfortable size for a life-story book. Two ways to order them:
- By time: childhood, school, leaving home, work, love, the turning point, the hard years, now.
- By theme: home, work, faith, family, the places you’ve lived, what you’ve learned.
Give each chapter a plain title from its best story (“The House on Kessler Street” beats “Chapter 2”). The book’s title can come last; often it’s a line from one of your stories.
Step 5: Edit lightly, so it still sounds like you
Read each chapter out loud. Fix names and dates, cut repetition, and keep the small specific details: what someone actually said, the smell of the kitchen, the price of a loaf of bread that year. Don’t polish it into textbook prose. The value of a life-story book is that it sounds like the person who lived it.
Step 6: Turn it into a printed book
You have three options:
- Print it yourself. A local print shop can bind a few copies, or use a print-on-demand service such as Lulu or Amazon KDP, which print one copy at a time and ship it to you.
- Use a service that prints it for you. Remember by Memoirji ($79 a year) and Remento ($99 a year) include a printed hardcover with QR codes that play the original voice recordings.
- Keep it digital. A PDF you can print anytime is still a finished book.
Can I write my life story online for free?
Yes, but read the limits. Some apps that say “free” give you ten minutes, or charge you to download what you made. Truly free options:
- Memoirji: free to the finished written story; runs in your browser, on WhatsApp, or on LINE; nothing to install.
- Google Docs: free if you want to type it yourself, with built-in voice typing in the Chrome browser.
- StoryCorps: a free app that records a conversation as audio, with no written book.
Our free autobiography apps guide lists the exact free limits of each app.
Frequently asked questions
How do I write a book about my life if I’m not a writer?
Talk it instead. Answer one question about your life out loud each day, record it, and turn the transcripts into chapters. Or let a tool interview you: Memoirji asks the questions in your browser, on WhatsApp, or on LINE and writes up your answers for free. Most life-story books are spoken first and edited after.
Can I write my life story online for free?
Yes. Memoirji is free to the finished written story and needs nothing installed: it runs in your browser, on WhatsApp, or on LINE. Google Docs is free if you’d rather type it yourself. Some apps advertise “free” but cap you at a few minutes or charge to download your book, so check the limits first.
How long should a book about my life be?
There’s no rule. A personal life-story book is often 20,000 to 40,000 words, about 80 to 160 printed pages. A short collection of your best stories can be 10,000 words and still be a real book. Finished matters more than long.
Should I write my life story in order?
Not necessarily. A full autobiography usually goes in order. Many good life-story books are organized by theme instead (work, love, home, the hard years) or are simply a collection of stand-alone stories. Pick the shape that fits the stories you most want to tell.
How much does it cost to turn my life story into a book?
From free to six figures. Doing it yourself or with a free tool costs nothing. Interview services with a printed book cost about $79 to $199 a year. Human-written services like StoryTerrace start around $1,500, and a professional memoir ghostwriter typically charges $10,000 to $100,000 or more.
Can AI write a book about my life?
It can help, but the stories have to come from you. The useful kind of AI interviews you, transcribes what you say, and organizes it into chapters, so the words stay yours. AI that invents prose from a one-line prompt produces generic text that doesn’t sound like you.
How do I get my life story printed as a book?
Print it yourself through a local print shop or a print-on-demand service such as Lulu or Amazon KDP, or use a service that includes a printed hardcover, such as Remember by Memoirji ($79 a year) or Remento ($99 a year). For a handful of copies, print-on-demand is usually the simplest route.
What should I include in a book about my life?
The moments that still carry feeling: where you come from, the house you grew up in, the people who shaped you, your work, love, the turning points, the hard years, and what you know now. Leave out invented events, score-settling, and long lists of dates.
How long does it take to write a book about your life?
It depends on the method. Typing it yourself, a chapter a week, takes months. Talking it, one question a day, gives you a first draft in a few weeks. An AI interview can produce a first written draft from a single conversation, which you can then add to.
Start your book today
Pick one question from the list above and answer it out loud. Or go to memoirji.com, press Start, and let Memoirji ask the questions: in your browser, on WhatsApp, or on LINE.
Nothing to download. No password. No credit card.
