# How it works: from a conversation to a finished book Most memoir products send a question a week by email and bind the answers. That is a scrapbook, not a book. Here is what a book takes, and how this does it. ## 1. A visit, not a form The person tells their story by voice, in visits of fifteen to twenty minutes, in the app on their phone or a tablet. A text message reminds them when a visit is waiting. Phone-call visits at a set time, on any phone, are available as a premium add-on. Nobody types. Nobody logs in. The invitation from their family is the login. The interviewer (named Wren in the app) asks one question, listens to the whole answer, and asks the next question a good listener would: "Who else was there?" "What did she say, exactly?" "What happened the day after?" Six to eight questions a visit. Two or three visits a week is the ceiling for most people at eighty. ## 2. It remembers everything Every answer goes into one record: the people, the places, the years, the sayings, the stories with their beginnings and ends. Wren knows which stories stop halfway, which people are still faint, which years nobody has spoken about. The next question comes from that, not from a list. Between visits there is one small daily card: a thirty-second question by voice ("What did your father keep in his pockets?"). Cards harvest the texture a book needs and keep the thread warm. ## 3. The book is designed before it is written When the record holds what a writer needs (every central person whole, every turning point told start to end), the book is designed: its shape, its chapters, where it starts. Only then is anything drafted. Memoir mode writes only what was said, in the person's own voice, with hearsay marked as hearsay. Novel mode builds a story around the true facts and lists, at the back, exactly what was invented. The family reads a proof. Anything sealed by the teller stays sealed. Anything the teller wants left out is left out. ## 4. You own it Every recording, every transcript and the book itself belong to the person who told it. Export everything, free, at any time, as audio, text and PDF. There is no subscription that locks your stories away when it lapses, because there is no subscription. ## Questions ### What is this, in one sentence? You tell your life story by voice, a few minutes at a time, to a listener that asks good follow-up questions and remembers everything, and Tellforth writes it as a real book your family will read. ### Is it really a book, or a pile of answers? A real book. Tellforth works out the shape of the book before writing a word: where it starts, the chapters, the people who matter. The memoir uses only what you said, in your words. The novel builds a story on the true facts and lists what was imagined at the back. ### Who is it for? Anyone with a story. Most often a parent or grandparent telling their life for the family, but also people facing an illness, people writing their own memoir, founders, veterans, and parents keeping a child's own made-up stories. ### How long does it take? As long as you like. There is no deadline. A visit is about fifteen minutes and most people do two or three a week at most. The book is written once the record holds what a writer needs, and you can watch the chapters fill in as you go. ### Who is doing the asking? An interviewer in the app, named Wren. It asks one question at a time, listens to the whole answer, and asks the next question a good listener would. It never rushes you and never asks the hard questions first. ### Do I need to be good with technology? No. You open the app and talk, that is all. Nothing to type and no password to remember. A text message reminds you when a visit is waiting. If you would rather not use an app at all, phone-call visits on any phone are available as a premium add-on. ### I am not well. Can I still do this? Yes, and at your own pace. Five minutes is a visit. There is no deadline and nothing to keep up with. You decide what is asked, what is kept private, and who reads what. If you would rather stop, you stop. ### What if I do not remember things well? That is normal and it is fine. The listener asks about things you can see, smell and hold, which is how memory works best, and never tests you. A story told twice in two ways is kept both ways. ### What about things I would rather keep private? A story can be sealed: for one grandchild only, for after you are gone, or until a date you choose. Your family reads a proof before printing. Anything you want left out is left out. ### Can I speak in another language? You can answer in your first language and the words are kept beside the English. Tell us which language when you start.