Write your memoir in private, and choose who reads it first

An autobiography tries to tell a whole life, usually in order. A memoir takes a slice of one — a year, a marriage, an illness, a place — and makes a story of it, with a question at its centre that the writer is still working out. Readers expect a shape and an insight, not a record of everything that happened.

Readers also expect truth, and they know what that can and cannot mean. Nobody remembers a conversation from 1998 word for word. Memoirists reconstruct dialogue to carry what was said, and many say so in an author's note. Compressing time, merging minor events or changing names is common; inventing events is where readers' trust breaks.

The hardest part is often other people. Your family, your former partner and your old friends are characters in a book they didn't agree to be in. Many memoirists show those people the relevant pages before publication. Writing about real, identifiable people can also raise legal questions such as defamation and privacy, which vary by country; if you're concerned, speak to a lawyer who handles publishing, not to software.

1. Put the events in order under Timeline in Story Hub. The "When (in-world)" field is free text, so "summer before Dad's surgery" works as well as a date. Add a lane for each thread, such as childhood and the year of the move.
2. Add the people in your story under Characters, with a Free Note on what you've already told each of them about the book.
3. Draft without worrying about the first version. Earlier versions are kept for 7 days on Free, 90 on Premium and 365 on Pro, and you can save a version by hand before a difficult rewrite and restore it later.
4. Ask Robin: "Where do I first mention the house on Elm Street?" or "How many times do I say Mum was angry, and in which chapters?" Robin searches your chapters and answers in chat. What you do about it is up to you.
5. A review link shares the whole book, so when the chapter about your sister is ready, copy it into a book of its own (on Free, that uses your second book). On that book, choose Invite a beta reader and create a Read only link labelled "for Dana" with an expiry of 14 days. She reads it in her browser without an account, and you can revoke the link at any time.
6. Before you publish, add an author's note about reconstructed dialogue and changed names, and export DOCX for an editor or EPUB to publish.

• It is not legal advice and does not review your book for defamation or privacy risk.
• Robin cannot tell you what really happened. It knows only what your pages and notes say.
• Robin never changes your manuscript on its own. In Edit Mode it can suggest changes, and nothing lands unless you keep it. Proofing runs when you ask it to, and changes only what you accept.
• A voice profile needs at least three samples and 5,000 words in total, so it may help more with your second draft than with your first.