Your Life Story, Part 1 — remembering.
Everyone says "you should write this down" — and the blank page says no. Here is the secret: you do not write. You answer questions, and AI asks very good ones. This four-part series ends with a real book.
The ideaYou talk, it asks
A life story does not start with writing — it starts with remembering out loud. Tell AI to be your interviewer. It asks one question at a time; you answer in as few or many words as you like. Typos, fragments, half-memories — all fine. This is raw material, not prose.
UnlockingThe questions that open doors
Some questions unlock more than others. Ask it to use sensory ones: What did your grandmother’s kitchen smell like? What sound do you associate with summer? Who had the best laugh? You will be surprised what comes back after fifty years.
At the end of each session, type "summarize everything I told you today" and save that text in a document or email it to yourself. These summaries become your chapters in Part 3.
A rhythmLittle and often beats marathon
Fifteen minutes with coffee beats a three-hour slog. One era per session works well: childhood, school years, first job, meeting your spouse, raising kids, the places you lived. Six to ten sessions gives you a remarkable pile of material.
Your first session
Today, just fifteen minutes:
- Start the interviewer with the prompt above.
- Answer five questions about your childhood.
- Ask for the summary and save it somewhere safe.
What you can do now
- Run an AI interview session about your life
- Use sensory questions to unlock old memories
- Save session summaries as chapter material
- Build a sustainable little-and-often rhythm