Guides to telling a life story

Plain-spoken guides on getting a life story told — yours, or your parents' — while the stories are still there to ask about.

Questions to Ask Your Parents Before It's Too Late — and What to Ask Next

A smaller set of questions chosen because nobody but your parent can answer them — and the follow-up that turns an answer into a story.

An autobiography is your whole life, in order. A memoir is the part that mattered most, told as a story. Which one is yours — and where to start.

With Storyworth, your parent writes the book. With Elias, your parent talks — and the book gets written for them. An honest side-by-side.

What a ghostwriter really costs, what the middle routes charge, and the interview-based route at $299 — where the money goes at each level.

Interviewing a parent well is a craft: start with objects and places, follow the story instead of the list, and keep the sessions short.

The world he grew up in, his own father, the work his hands did — and the follow-up that turns a short answer into a story.

Her mother's kitchen, the work inside and outside the home, the friend she lost touch with — questions only she can answer.

Where a veteran's stories actually live, how the hard parts stay theirs to choose, and how to get it recorded while it can be.

Not the will that divides the house — the letter that passes down what mattered. What goes in one, and how to write it.

If writing feels like homework, there is another way: talk, and let the book get written from what you say.