Tale of Life
Write your autobiography in guided chapters at your own pace
Small update: just published a new piece on the blog about writing someone else's story, not just your own.
The prompt for it came from something personal. My grandfather told the same stories hundreds of times, they were amazing, and none of us ever wrote a single one down. Now they're fading, and there's no getting them back.
That's really the whole reason Tale of Life exists. If there's a parent, uncle, or family member whose stories you keep meaning to capture, the post walks through how to start without it feeling like a formal interview.
Read it here: https://talesof.life/write-your-mothers-story-or-your-fathers-or-your-uncles/
Still the same core product underneath, one question at a time instead of a blank page, works whether you're capturing your own story or someone else's.
Quick build-in-public update: the biggest drop-off we saw on Tale of Life was people opening their profile, staring at an empty "Early Age" or "Family" section, and closing the tab. "Write your life story" is just too big an instruction to start from cold.
So we built a standalone generator that asks one specific question at a time — no account needed to try it, type or speak your answer, and there's an optional AI assist if you're stuck turning a memory into a sentence (you still edit and approve everything).
Live here if anyone wants to poke at it or has feedback on the questions themselves: https://talesof.life/life-story-question-generator/
Happy to share what we changed in the UX to get people past that first blank page if it's useful to anyone else building something similar.
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The blank-page drop-off is a useful signal. After adding the question generator, are more people actually completing and saving a life-story section, or has the friction simply moved from “starting” to “finishing”?
Hey Indie Hackers,
I've been building Tale of Life (talesof.life) — a platform for writing your life story in structured chapters (childhood, family, work, personal growth) instead of one overwhelming blank page. Each section has built-in prompts, and you control visibility per chapter — public, friends-only, or private.
Live now with real early users writing their first chapters. Currently running a slow, organic launch across a few communities to get honest feedback before pushing harder on growth.
Would love this community's perspective on:
- Positioning — is "slow, thoughtful alternative to social media" a clear enough hook?
- Monetization — planning free core + premium AI writing assistance later. Thoughts on pricing this kind of product?
- Any blind spots you're noticing from the landing page
Link: https://talesof.life
Happy to share more about the build/tech stack if useful to anyone here.
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