How to Write a Memoir With Your Voice Using Letterly

If you think only professional writers can write a memoir, that’s a myth. A memoir isn’t a perfect book, it’s your story, captured while it’s still vivid. If you’ve ever felt the urge to tell your story, that’s reason enough to start. In this guide, I’ll show you a simple way to make it easy.

Why writing a memoir feels hard

Staring at a blank page is where most memoirs die. You sit down with good intentions, and suddenly your life feels too big to fit into one paragraph. Where do you even start? What matters? What if it sounds wrong?

That stuck feeling is incredibly common, and it’s completely normal. It doesn’t mean you can’t write a memoir. It just means you need an easier way to begin.

Now imagine you’re telling a great story to a friend over dinner. You don’t stop to polish every sentence. You just talk. And somehow it works: the details show up, the timing is natural, and your voice sounds like you. The goal isn’t to write perfect pages from day one. The goal is to capture real memories fast, while they’re still vivid, and then shape them into a draft you can actually build on. Record first. Clean it up later. That’s the easiest way to get a memoir started, and to keep going.

How to start writing a memoir: step-by-step (with Letterly)

Writing a memoir doesn’t have to start with a big plan or perfect chapters. Start small: pick one clear direction, capture a few real moments, then shape them into something you can build on.

So, how do you start a memoir if you don’t know where to begin? Here’s a simple step-by-step way to begin. 👇

1. Define your focus

A memoir isn’t your entire life story. That’s an autobiography. A memoir is a focused slice of life with a point, where you show what it meant.

Think of it like a lens: pick one theme, one thread, and collect memories that fit it. That’s what makes a memoir readable and easier to write.

Pick a theme (your lens):

• Moving countries
• New parenthood
• Building a business
• A year that changed me

Quick ways to choose the right one:

• Which period of your life do you keep talking about without trying?
• What memory still feels emotionally “alive” when you revisit it?
• What lesson do you wish you could tell your younger self?

Once you have the theme, everything gets simpler: you record stories that match it, skip the rest for now, and your memoir starts forming naturally.

2. Create a simple memoir writing outline

You don’t need a perfect outline. You just need a simple “spine” for your memoir, so every story you record has a place to go.

A helpful way to think about it is a basic story arc: setup → something changes → things build → a peak moment → what happens after. You’re not writing a novel. You’re just giving your memories a clear shape.

This is one classic example of a storytelling structure. You can use it as-is, tweak it, or create your own:

• Exposition: set the scene (who you are, where you are, what “normal life” looks like)
• Initial Incident: the moment something changes and the story really starts
• Rising Action: a few key events that build pressure or momentum
• Climax: the peak moment, the turning point
• Falling Action: what happens right after, when things start settling
• Resolution: what changed, what you decided, where you landed
• Denouement: the quiet wrap-up (the “aftertaste” and loose ends)

Once you pick a structure, don’t overthink it. Just keep it in the back of your mind and tell your stories into that shape.

3. Dictate a memoir in Letterly (5–10 minutes)

This is the step that gets you past the blank page.

Open Letterly, start a new note, and record one memory. Don’t try to write well. Just tell the story the way you’d tell it to a friend.

If you need a quick flow, use this:

1. Where and when is it?
2. Who’s there?
3. What happened (in order)?
4. What were you thinking or feeling?
5. Why does it matter now?

Short is fine. Ten minutes is enough. If you feel inspired, you can record longer, up to 90 minutes.

4. Collect your “raw material”

Most people get stuck because they try to write polished pages from day one. It starts to feel heavy, and the memoir turns into “a project.”

Do the opposite: collect first.

Keep adding stories as voice notes. Don’t worry about perfect wording, structure, or “good writing.” Just capture the moments while they’re fresh.

To keep things simple:

• Let Letterly generate the title for each recording (you can rename later).
• Add a tag like Memoir or Private so everything stays together.
• Keep recording into the same memoir note when you want everything in one place. Your memoir stays stored in Letterly and is available across your devices.

That’s it. A few simple actions, and you’ve already started your memoir. 🥳

5. Keep your reader in mind

A memoir isn’t a diary. You’re not just storing facts, you’re guiding someone through a story.

Ask yourself:

• What would a reader need to understand this moment?
• What’s the emotional point of the scene?
• What changed because of it?

Here’s the good news: the hardest part is not “being creative.” The hard part is the unglamorous work later: cleaning, tightening, structuring, and making it readable.

So don’t waste your best energy on formatting from the start.

6. Let Letterly help with editing and structure

This is where a voice-first workflow really shines.

Once you’ve recorded a few notes in Letterly, the fun part starts: turning raw memories into something that reads like a memoir. Open the Rewrite gallery and treat it like your built-in editor. It helps you shape your story without losing your voice.

A simple approach that works well:

• While you’re still drafting, use Outline or Structured rewrites. They give your notes a clear shape and make it easy to see what you already have and what’s missing.
• When you’re closer to the final version, you can go further with a custom rewrite. That’s useful for things like standardizing style, adjusting tone, and handling privacy details, for example changing names or removing sensitive parts.

The result: you write faster, stay consistent, and actually finish a draft.

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With the right tools and a few simple memoir writing tips, you can start capturing your memories today and turn them into a real memoir draft without spending your evenings rewriting the same paragraph. 😊

Got questions? Email us at hi@letterly.app – we’re happy to help.