Most people who say “I should write this down” never do. Not because the story is thin, but because remembering, ordering and drafting a life takes months of quiet that nobody has. We do the interviews, the ordering and the writing, and hand back a book your family will argue over who gets to keep.
What a memoir project involves
- Four recorded interviews of 60–90 minutes, in person or by video, with a question plan built around your timeline.
- Archive work: photographs, letters, diaries, old emails and family documents turned into scenes rather than lists.
- A full manuscript: 15 chapters and 18,000+ words, arranged chronologically, thematically, or in the braided form that suits the story.
- Sensitive material handled carefully: living relatives, estrangements, illness and grief are written with consent and without gratuitous detail.
- Two revision rounds plus a proofread, and a private print-ready PDF on request.
The process, step by step
- Listening session. A ninety-minute conversation with no structure at all, purely to find the spine of the story.
- Timeline and outline. A dated skeleton of your life and the six moments the book will be built around, approved by you and, where relevant, by the family.
- Interview block. The remaining sessions fill the outline with dialogue, places, weather, food, and the details that make a memory feel true.
- Drafting and revision. Chapters in blocks of three; you correct facts, we protect the voice.
Memoir, biography or family history?
A memoir is your memory of your life, in first person, with the emphasis on what it meant. A biography is a life told from the outside, in third person, with research and distance. A family history is a documented record — dates, branches, migrations — that can sit alongside either. Tell us which one you want; if you want a memoir that reads like a novel, that is a deliberate craft choice and we will make it deliberately.
Who this is for
People who have lived something worth keeping. Founders writing the company story for a succession handover. Adult children recording a parent’s war, migration or career before the details go. Survivors who want the record to exist on their own terms. You do not need to be famous; you need to be willing to talk.
What makes a memoir readable
A life is not a plot. The events that matter to you are rarely the ones that carry a stranger from chapter one to chapter fifteen. So we look for the through-line — the question you were answering across those years, whether you knew it at the time or not — and we arrange the material around it. Some chapters get merged, some decades become a paragraph, and one afternoon you had almost forgotten may end up as the hinge of the whole book.
We also protect the people in the story. Living relatives are written with consent, names can be changed, and the difficult passages are handled with restraint: the reader should understand what happened without being asked to witness more than the story needs.
Pricing
| Tier | Scope | Price | Was | You save |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | 1 memoir — 15 chapters / 18k words | $370 | $380 | |
| Professional | 2 books (e.g. two family members) | $670 | $680 | |
| Bulk / Authority | 4 books | $1,200 | $1,200 |
Frequent questions
What if my memory is unreliable?
All memory is unreliable. We write the version you can stand behind, flag the gaps honestly, and use documents to anchor dates and names.
Can you interview a parent who is unwell?
Yes, in short sessions, with a family member present, and at whatever pace the conversation allows. Several of our projects are completed this way.
Will it be published?
Only if you want it to. Most memoirs we write are printed privately for family and a small circle; some go on to be published with an ISBN and a cover and formatting package.
Start a memoir — tell us whose story it is and roughly when it begins, and we will send a question plan and a fixed quote.