How to write a memoir without typing

You don't have to type to write a memoir. Your phone or computer can turn your speech into text as you talk, and a relative or an interviewer can do the typing for you.

Talking instead of typing suits people with arthritis in their hands, people who find small keys hard to see, slow typists and anyone who thinks better out loud. Below are six ways to do it, with steps for each, and how to turn a rough transcript into pages people will read.

Use the microphone on your phone's keyboard

The quickest way is already on your phone. Almost anywhere you can type, you can tap the microphone on the keyboard and talk, and your words appear as text. Open the Notes app or start an email to yourself, and speak.

On an iPhone or iPad

1. Open the Settings app, tap General, then Keyboard, and turn on Enable Dictation.
2. Open Notes and start a new note.
3. Tap the microphone button. On an iPhone it sits at the bottom right, below the keyboard.
4. When a small microphone appears where the text will go, start talking.
5. To stop, tap the microphone button again or say "Stop dictation."

Your iPhone or iPad adds commas, periods and question marks as you talk in supported languages, and you can say "new paragraph" to start a new one. If you go quiet for 30 seconds, dictation turns itself off, so tap the microphone again when you're ready. Apple says dictation is processed on the device in many languages, with no internet connection needed (Apple's dictation help).

On an Android phone or tablet

1. Open an app you can type in, such as Gmail or Google Keep.
2. Tap where you want the text to go.
3. Tap the microphone at the top of the keyboard.
4. When you see "Speak now," start talking.

Say "comma," "period," "question mark" or "new paragraph" to add punctuation. These steps are for Gboard, Google's keyboard. If your phone uses a different keyboard, you can install Gboard from the Play Store (Gboard voice typing help).

Dictate into Google Docs or Word on a computer

If you have a computer with a microphone, you can talk straight into a document and see the words on a full-size screen. Google Docs and Microsoft Word both have dictation built in.

Google Docs works for anyone with a Google account, in an up-to-date Chrome, Edge or Safari browser:

1. Open a document in Google Docs.
2. Click Tools, then Voice typing. A microphone box appears.
3. Click the microphone and start talking.
4. Click it again when you're done, or say "Stop listening."

Say "comma," "period" or "new paragraph" for punctuation (Google Docs voice typing help).

Microsoft Word has a Dictate button on the Home tab. Open a document, click Home, then Dictate, wait for it to start listening, and talk. Click Dictate again, or say "stop dictation," when you're done. It needs a Microsoft 365 subscription, a microphone and a reliable internet connection (Microsoft's dictation help).

Record yourself, then copy the transcript

If you'd rather talk without watching words appear, record yourself and let the phone write out a transcript. You also end up with a recording of your voice.

• iPhone 12 or later: Open Voice Memos, which is in the Utilities folder. Tap the Record button, talk, then tap Stop. To get the text, tap the recording, tap the More button (three dots), then Copy Transcript, and paste it into a note or an email (Apple's Voice Memos help). The Notes app can also record and transcribe: in a note, tap the paper clip, then Record Audio (Apple's Notes help).
• Google Pixel 3 or later: Open the Recorder app, tap Record, and tap Pause when you finish. Tap the recording, then Transcript, to read the text. To send it to Google Docs, tap More and choose Share, then Share transcript to Google Docs (Pixel Recorder help).

On other Android phones, recorder apps differ, so look for a transcript option in yours or use the keyboard microphone instead.

Record one story at a time and rename each recording, such as "Moving to Detroit, 1958," so you can find it later.

Ask a family member to interview you and type

A son, daughter or grandchild can do the typing. You talk, they ask questions and write down what you say, either straight onto a laptop or from a recording afterward.

A few things make it go well:

• Pick one topic per visit, such as your first job or the house you grew up in. These questions to ask parents and grandparents give them somewhere to start.
• Let them record on their phone as well, so they can type at their own pace and check names later.
• Ask them to keep your words rather than polish them into theirs.
• Have them read the last session back to you at the start of the next one. You'll catch mistakes, and you may remember more.

This depends on their time, and a whole book takes many sessions.

Hire a personal historian or ghostwriter

A personal historian or ghostwriter interviews you over several sessions, then writes the book for you. It's the most hands-off option and the most expensive, because you're paying for many hours of interviewing, writing and editing. A full book often costs thousands of dollars.

Before you hire anyone, read a book they've already written. Get a written quote that says how many interviews, pages and rounds of changes are included, whether printing is part of the price, and who keeps the recordings.

Let Biographer interview you and write the stories

Biographer is an AI interviewer and writer. It works in the web browser on a phone, tablet or computer, with nothing to download, and you can speak or type. It starts with a short interview to get to know you, then goes deeper into topics such as your parents, the house you grew up in or how you met, or you can tell whatever story is on your mind.

It asks follow-up questions based on what you just said and remembers what you told it in earlier conversations. It can also read its questions out loud, so you can listen instead of reading the screen.

When you're ready, press Write Story and it writes the story from your conversation, in first person ("I") or third person ("he" or "she"). You get an email when the story is ready. It can get a date or a name wrong, so read each story before you share it, and tell Biographer what to fix or edit the text yourself.

Talking with Biographer and getting your stories written is free, with no card needed. See how it works.

Tips for talking so the words come out right

Speech-to-text needs to hear you clearly. These habits help, whichever method you use.

• Use a quiet room. Turn off the TV and radio. When Google Docs has trouble hearing you, Google's first suggestion is to move to a quiet room.
• Keep the phone close. Set it on the table in front of you rather than across the room.
• Talk at your normal pace and volume. Google's help advises speaking clearly at a normal volume and pace.
• Keep sessions short. Tell one story, then stop. Pick up the next one another day.
• Spell out names. On an iPhone you can say a name and then spell it, letter by letter. Keep a list of family names, towns and employers beside you.
• Don't worry about "um" or starting over. Pauses and false starts are easy to delete later.
• Say "new paragraph" when the story moves to a new time or place.

If you run out of things to say, these ideas for remembering more of your life can help.

Why a raw transcript reads badly, and how to fix it

People don't talk the way they write. A transcript keeps every repeat, false start and side trip, so it reads choppy even when the story is good. A few editing passes fix most of it.

A typical stretch of transcript:

So my dad, he, well, he worked at the, it was the paper mill, the one out in Riverton. Thirty years? Thirty-one. And every night he'd come home and, you know, he smelled like, it was this sulfur smell, and Mom made him take his boots off on the porch. Every night. Anyway, the mill, that's where he worked.

The same story after editing:

My father worked at the paper mill in Riverton for thirty-one years. He came home every night smelling of sulfur, and my mother made him take his boots off on the porch before he could come inside.

Work through each story in this order:

1. Cut repeats and filler. Delete the "you know"s, false starts and anything said twice. Keep the phrases that sound like you.
2. Put events in order. Move sentences so the story runs from beginning to end.
3. Add the scene. Say where you were, what you could see and hear, and who said what. Instead of "Dad worked hard," describe him falling asleep at the supper table in his work clothes.
4. Check the facts. Compare names, dates and places with letters, photos or a relative's memory.
5. Read it aloud. Where you stumble, rewrite the sentence the way you'd say it.

For help turning single stories into chapters, see how to write your life story.