How to Write Your Life

Everyone has a story to tell. It's never been easier to write it down.

Learn all my tips and tricks for writing with AI! I'm dyslexic. I still can't spell "again." I fought my first book for eight years. Then I finished it with a machine, won a 2026 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award, and confessed the whole thing in Fortune. It's the first openly AI-assisted memoir to win one.

This is the map I wish someone had handed me. You don't need to be famous. You need a story, and the nerve to tell it.

How to Write Your Life walks you through the Hero's Journey, the shape hiding inside every great story, from The Wizard of Oz to your grandmother's kitchen table. You'll find where your story really starts, and the chapter you've been too scared to write. And you'll learn how to use AI without letting it write for you.

And it's not just how to write. It's how to publish, launch, and get press. This is the definitive guide to doing everything in independent publishing, from your first voice memo to launch day: your own ISBNs, agents and query letters, early reviews, promos, awards, podcasts, and press.

Yes, you could ask a chatbot how to publish a book. It would tell you. It could probably write you one too. But it can't give you this. This is exactly what I did, and I'm putting it all here because I think everybody deserves the same opportunities.

Inside the game:

The Overworld Map. The Hero's Journey in plain English, so you can find the shape of your own life.It's Dangerous to Go Alone. How to set up AI as a writing partner that asks the questions, fixes the spelling, and never takes the pen.The Dungeon. How to write the hard chapters: grief, the people who can't answer back, and the ones who are still alive.Ford the River. Self-publishing step by step, from your own ISBNs to a real printed book.The Final Boss. Launch week, reviews, awards, press, and finding your first thousand readers.Side Quests. Agents and query letters, plus how to get press, podcasts included.Extras. Worksheets, a Spell Book of copy-and-paste prompts, and Cheat Codes for your fridge.

Praise for Luke Stoffel's debut memoir, How to Win One Million Dollars and Shit Glitter

"The combination of memoir with a perceptive judgment of America's often-empty vision of success is powerful, and Stoffel's candid and honest reflection on the twists and turns of his life will resonate with readers." - Publishers Weekly BookLife Prize, 10/10 for Prose

"An exuberant life story written with humor, panache, and heart." - Kirkus Reviews, Verdict: Get It!

"Readers who may have thought Catcher in the Rye and other coming-of-age stories held wry humor along with insights will find these classics must take a step back for contemporary authors such as Luke Stoffel."- Midwest Book Review, Reviewer's Choice