Memoir · Life Design · HourLife Premium
Write a life, yours or someone else’s, one moment at a time.
Write a life story, your own or someone else’s, one moment at a time, with a question for every empty chapter and a reader that turns it into a book.
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A question for every empty chapterThe Prompt Deck holds 81 questions in nine eras. Each empty chapter shows one you have not answered, so a blank page always has a way in.
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Moments, not a manuscriptA moment is a title, a page and a line on how it felt, dated to a year, a month, a day, or “Sometime”. A paragraph is plenty.
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It reads as a book“Read it as a book” pages through a cover, chapter openings and photographs, and shows how far through you are. Export it as a PDF, an EPUB or Markdown.
Your first moment
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Start a book
Tap “Start a book”, give it a title, and choose “My own” or “Someone else's” under “WHOSE STORY”.
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Answer a question
Each empty chapter shows a question. Tap it, write the first line as the title and the rest as the page, and tap “Add”.
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Read it back
Once a chapter has moments, tap “Read it as a book” to page through it as a reader would.
Every step, in detail
- 1 Tap “Start a book”. Give it a title, and under “WHOSE STORY” choose “My own” or “Someone else's”.
- 2 Open the book and tap the question under an empty chapter, or “Add moment” beside any chapter.
- 3 Write the first line as the title and the rest as the page. Set “WHEN” to a year, a month or a day, or leave it “Sometime”.
- 4 When a few chapters have moments, tap “Read it as a book”.
Every moment lands where its date puts it
A book opens on its chapters, each a list of its moments: the title, then the date and the first line of the page. A new moment goes just before the first one in its chapter that happened later, and one dated “Sometime” goes last. From then on, the order is yours to drag. A chapter with nothing in it shows a question from the Prompt Deck instead.
Sample · “The Long Way Home”, the app’s own sample book · pick a chapter’s + or its question, and write a moment
My own story
The Long Way Home
For everyone who asked how it all began.
Childhood
Alder Street, and the creek behind it
The kitchen on Alder Street
1982 · Bread on Saturdays. The radio was always on, too quiet to hear the words, and my mother sang along anyway — the tune right, the words her own.
The summer of the creek
July 1988 · We dammed it with stones every morning and it broke through every night. It took me thirty years to see that was the point.
The creek, summer 1988. The stones are still there.
Picture
The blue bicycle
A blue bicycle with a bell that only rang when it wanted to.
School Years
First day of school
September 2, 1986 · New shoes, too big. I was told I would grow into them, and by Christmas I had.
Mrs. Okafor’s red pen
1991 · She wrote “more of this” in the margin of a story about my grandfather. Nobody had asked for more of anything I had written before.
Early Adulthood
The bus north
August 1997 · Two bags and a shoebox of letters. I watched the town get small in the back window until it was only the water tower, and then not even that.
The Middle Years
Recently
Writing this down
I started this book on a Sunday because my daughter asked what I was like at her age. This is the long answer.
Adding to School Years
When
The first line is its title; the rest is the page.
“The school play” is dated 1986, a year alone. Add it, and see where it goes.
A first line longer than 72 characters is prose that lacks a line break, so the title is cut at its first full stop, question mark or exclamation mark, and the rest moves to the page. Cancel a page with writing on it and the app asks whether to discard it or save it for later; a saved page waits, on that device, for the next moment you start in that chapter.
A question for every empty chapter
The Prompt Deck holds 81 questions, nine for each of nine eras, from Beginnings to Turning Points, then Anytime. Every empty chapter shows one, never the same one twice and never one already answered. A chapter named for an era asks from that era. The rest share the eras out in order, so the first empty chapter asks about the beginning and the last about anytime at all.
Sample · a new book, with the five chapters every book starts with · rename a chapter, or write one of the cards
Prompt Deck
Pick a question you can answer tonight. The answer is the start of a moment.
Where were you born, and what have you been told about that day?
Who chose your name, and why that one?
What was happening in the world the year you were born — and did your family feel it?
What were your parents like when you were small?
What do you remember about your grandparents?
Besides your parents, who was always around when you were small?
What story about the family was told so often you can tell it yourself?
What language, accent, or way of speaking did you grow up hearing at home?
What is the oldest memory you are sure is really yours?
The book’s chapters, and what each one shows
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No moments
From Childhood
Where did you live when you were ten? Walk through the front door and describe it.
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No moments
From School Years
Which teacher do you still think about, and what did they see in you?
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No moments
From Work
How did you end up doing the work you did — plan, accident, or rescue?
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No moments
From Places
Of all the places you have lived, which one was home?
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No moments
From Anytime
What is the hardest you have ever laughed?
Where the 81 cards are
- Beginnings
- None showing
- Childhood
- 1 showing
- School Years
- 1 showing
- Coming of Age
- None showing
- Work
- 1 showing
- Love & Family
- None showing
- Places
- 1 showing
- Turning Points
- None showing
- Anytime
- 1 showing
Showing in a chapter, by its number Answered In the deck
Childhood and School Years are eras, so they ask from their own. The other three share out the rest: Early Adulthood takes the fifth era of nine, Work, and Recently the last, Anytime.
An answered card keeps its place in the deck, dimmed with a tick. The chapter for an era is the one with its name, and Anytime’s is called “Moments”. With no chapter by that name, an answer goes to the first chapter, which is why a Beginnings answer in a new book lands in Childhood. A book of someone else’s story asks the same questions, for you to ask them out loud.
Read it as a book
The reader turns a book into pages: the cover, then for each chapter with something in it an opening page and one long page of its moments and pictures. The foot of every page but the cover names the chapter and how far through the book you are. That figure weighs the words, so a chapter of long moments counts for more of the book than one of a few short ones.
Sample · “The Long Way Home” at 44%, most of the way down Childhood · turn the pages, scroll one, or change how it looks
Each bar is one page, as wide as it counts. A cover or opening page is worth 0.4; a moment 0.15, plus 0.1 for every 90 characters of its title and page; a picture 0.35.
The Long Way Home
For everyone who asked how it all began.
Childhood
Alder Street, and the creek behind it
1982
The kitchen on Alder Street
Warm, and a little sleepy
Bread on Saturdays. The radio was always on, too quiet to hear the words, and my mother sang along anyway — the tune right, the words her own. The table had a burn mark shaped like Ohio. Nobody would admit to it.
JULY 1988
The summer of the creek
Free
We dammed it with stones every morning and it broke through every night. It took me thirty years to see that was the point.
The blue bicycle
A blue bicycle with a bell that only rang when it wanted to.
School Years
SEPTEMBER 2, 1986
First day of school
Nervous
New shoes, too big. I was told I would grow into them, and by Christmas I had.
1991
Mrs. Okafor’s red pen
She wrote “more of this” in the margin of a story about my grandfather. Nobody had asked for more of anything I had written before.
Early Adulthood
AUGUST 1997
The bus north
Brave, mostly pretending
Two bags and a shoebox of letters. I watched the town get small in the back window until it was only the water tower, and then not even that.
Recently
Writing this down
I started this book on a Sunday because my daughter asked what I was like at her age. This is the long answer.
How far through
44%
The pages behind you count 0.80, and this one 1.31, of which you have scrolled 90%. That is 1.98 of the book’s 4.50.
Contents
Reader Settings
Typeface
Reading
Page colour
A cover or opening page counts for nothing until you are past it: only a page of moments counts the part of it you have scrolled. A page short enough to fit counts whole as soon as it opens. The page colour, typeface and sizes are kept on each device, not with the book.
A PDF to print, an EPUB to read, Markdown to keep
The book’s menu exports it three ways, and each goes to the share sheet, to save, print or send. The Markdown export is the one to keep for good: plain text that any editor opens, with every photo beside it. This is the sample’s, file by file.
- Export PDFA4 pages, the cover first, ready to print.
the-long-way-home.pdf - Export EPUBAn ebook for Books or any reader, its pictures inside.
the-long-way-home-3f9c2a1e.epub - Export MarkdownA ZIP of plain text and the original photos.
the-long-way-home-3f9c2a1e-markdown.zip
- Memoir/
- books/
- images/3f9c2a1e-7b4d-4c1a-9e52-0d8f6b2c4a17/
Memoir/README.md
# Memoir
A plain-text export of your books. Markdown files live in `books/`; photos live in `images/`.
- [The Long Way Home](books/the-long-way-home-3f9c2a1e.md)
Memoir/books/the-long-way-home-3f9c2a1e.md
# The Long Way Home **Author:** Sample Author *For everyone who asked how it all began.* ## Childhood *Alder Street, and the creek behind it* ### The kitchen on Alder Street **When:** 1982 **Feeling:** Warm, and a little sleepy Bread on Saturdays. The radio was always on, too quiet to hear the words, and my mother sang along anyway — the tune right, the words her own. The table had a burn mark shaped like Ohio. Nobody would admit to it. ### The summer of the creek **When:** July 1988 **Feeling:** Free We dammed it with stones every morning and it broke through every night. It took me thirty years to see that was the point.  ### The blue bicycle A blue bicycle with a bell that only rang when it wanted to. ## School Years ### First day of school **When:** September 2, 1986 **Feeling:** Nervous New shoes, too big. I was told I would grow into them, and by Christmas I had. ### Mrs. Okafor’s red pen **When:** 1991 She wrote “more of this” in the margin of a story about my grandfather. Nobody had asked for more of anything I had written before. ## Early Adulthood ### The bus north **When:** August 1997 **Feeling:** Brave, mostly pretending Two bags and a shoebox of letters. I watched the town get small in the back window until it was only the water tower, and then not even that. ## The Middle Years ## Recently ### Writing this down I started this book on a Sunday because my daughter asked what I was like at her age. This is the long answer.
Memoir/images/3f9c2a1e-7b4d-4c1a-9e52-0d8f6b2c4a17/8a1d5c0f-2e6b-4f93-a7c4-51b0e9d3f286.jpg
The picture itself, linked from the book’s Markdown as ../images/3f9c2a1e-7b4d-4c1a-9e52-0d8f6b2c4a17/8a1d5c0f-2e6b-4f93-a7c4-51b0e9d3f286.jpg. Photos are kept as JPEGs, no more than 2,048 pixels on the long side.
An empty chapter still exports its heading, so The Middle Years prints as a title waiting for its moments. A blank author prints “Memoir”. There is no import: a book goes out of the app, not back in. Books, chapters, moments and pictures sync through iCloud; a deleted book waits in Recently Deleted for 30 days.
Tips
- Leave a date as “Sometime” rather than guessing. A Sometime moment goes to the end of its chapter, and you can date it later.
- Writing someone else’s story? Open the Prompt Deck with them, ask the questions out loud, and write down what they say.
- If you stop mid-page, choose “Save for Later”. The page will be waiting the next time you start a moment in that chapter.
- A moment dated only to a year sorts after the days in that year, so “1986” lands after “September 2, 1986”. Give it a month if it should come earlier.
Questions
About Memoir day to day.
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Can I write someone else’s life story?
Yes. Choose “Someone else's” under “WHOSE STORY” and add their name. It goes on the cover as “The life of …”, and the Prompt Deck asks you to put its questions to them out loud.
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Do I need to know the exact date?
No. A moment can be dated to a year, a month or a day, or left as “Sometime”. The date only suggests where it sits in the chapter, and the order is yours.
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Does Memoir pull in my journal or timeline?
No. Memoir holds only what you write in it. It does not read your Journal, Timeline, Legacy or People.
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Does my memoir sync between devices?
Your books, chapters, moments and pictures sync through iCloud. A page you saved for later and your reader settings stay on the device you set them on.
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How do I export my memoir?
From the book’s ⋯ menu, choose “Export PDF”, “Export EPUB” or “Export Markdown”. The Markdown export is a ZIP with each book as a text file and its photos in their own folder.
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What happens if I delete a book?
Every chapter, moment and picture goes with it to Recently Deleted. It waits there for 30 days, then it is gone.
Already have HourLife?
Memoir is under Life Design in the module list, and it is part of HourLife Premium. It opens on your shelf. A book’s ⋯ menu holds the Prompt Deck, the chapters and the exports.
Memoir is in the Library, under Life Design. If it isn’t there, turn it on in Settings → Look & Feel → Modules. It needs HourLife Premium.
What would you like to know?
Ask a question about this feature or tell us what’s missing.
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