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Many people worry that using AI to polish their stories will make them sound like someone else — that their unique voice, their way of telling stories, their personality on the page will be replaced by something generic and robotic. It's a valid concern. But the best AI story polishing tools don't rewrite your words. They tidy them up. They're like a gentle copy editor who removes the \"um\"s and fixes the run-on sentences while leaving everything that makes your story yours exactly as it is.

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Tell Me Your Story uses this approach in its AI Story Polish feature. Here's exactly how it works, what it changes, what it doesn't touch, and why your voice remains authentically yours.

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Why Spoken Stories Need a Light Touch

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When you speak a story aloud, it's naturally different from written text. This isn't a flaw — it's how human language works. But some elements of spoken language can be distracting when read on a printed page:

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Filler words — \"Um,\" \"uh,\" \"you know,\" \"like,\" \"so anyway.\" Perfectly natural in conversation, but they clutter written text.
False starts — \"I went to the — well, first I should tell you about — so we drove to the coast.\" In conversation, you naturally restart sentences. On paper, it's confusing.
Repetition — \"It was a big house. I mean, it was really big. It was the biggest house on the street.\" When you talk, you emphasize through repetition. In print, once is usually enough.
Run-on sentences — When speaking, you connect thoughts with \"and\" and \"so\" without pausing. Written sentences benefit from periods.
Grammar quirks — Subject-verb disagreements, tense shifts, and dangling modifiers are invisible in speech but visible in text.

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None of these things are wrong. They're simply features of spoken language that become distractions in written form. A light polish removes the distractions while keeping everything that matters.

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What AI Story Polish Changes

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Tell Me Your Story's AI Story Polish makes specific, limited changes:

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1. Removes Filler Words

Before: \"So, um, we moved to Chicago in, you know, 1962, and it was, like, a completely different world.\"

After: \"We moved to Chicago in 1962, and it was a completely different world.\"

The meaning is identical. The voice is identical. The filler is gone.

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2. Fixes False Starts

Before: \"My father was a — well, he wasn't exactly strict, but he had these — he had rules, and you didn't break them.\"

After: \"My father wasn't exactly strict, but he had rules, and you didn't break them.\"

The thought is preserved, just expressed more clearly.

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3. Reduces Unnecessary Repetition

Before: \"It was cold. It was so cold. I mean, it was the coldest winter anyone could remember. Just freezing cold.\"

After: \"It was the coldest winter anyone could remember.\"

The emphasis remains. The repetition that reads awkwardly in print is trimmed.

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4. Smooths Run-On Sentences

Before: \"We got married in June and it was a beautiful day and my mother cried and my father shook Tom's hand and said welcome to the family and then we all went to the reception at the church hall.\"

After: \"We got married in June. It was a beautiful day — my mother cried, and my father shook Tom's hand and said 'Welcome to the family.' Then we all went to the reception at the church hall.\"

Same story, same details, same voice. Just easier to read.

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5. Corrects Minor Grammar

Before: \"Me and my sister went to the store and she says to me 'you ain't buying that' and I says 'watch me.'\"

After: \"My sister and I went to the store, and she said to me, 'You're not buying that.' I said, 'Watch me.'\"

Note: If a grammar pattern is clearly part of the storyteller's voice (like a regional dialect), Tell Me Your Story's AI is designed to preserve it. The polishing is gentle — it corrects what would look like a mistake in print, not what makes the voice unique.

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What AI Story Polish Does NOT Change

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This is the most important section. Here's what the AI leaves untouched:

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Your vocabulary — If you say \"the old jalopy\" instead of \"the car,\" it stays \"the old jalopy.\" Your word choices are sacred.
Your expressions — If you say \"madder than a wet hen,\" it stays. Regional phrases, family sayings, and personal idioms are preserved.
Your storytelling style — If you tend to build to a punchline, or pause for dramatic effect, or circle back to connect two memories, the structure of your storytelling remains.
Your opinions and perspectives — AI never adds, removes, or modifies your views, beliefs, or judgments. Your perspective is your perspective.
Factual content — Names, dates, places, and events are never altered. If you say you moved to Chicago in 1962, it stays 1962.
Emotional tone — If a story is funny, it stays funny. If it's sad, it stays sad. The AI doesn't inject emotion or tone-shift your stories.
Cultural and dialectal speech — Regional expressions, cultural references, and speech patterns that are part of who you are remain intact.

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You Always Choose

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Tell Me Your Story never applies polish automatically. Here's the process:

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You record a story and see the raw transcript.
You tap \"Polish\" if you want to try the AI version.
The app shows you the original and polished versions side by side.
You read both and choose which version to keep.
You can also mix and match — keep some paragraphs from the original and some from the polished version.

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Some storytellers prefer the raw transcript for certain stories (especially emotional ones where the natural pauses and repetitions add meaning) and the polished version for others. There's no right or wrong answer — it's always your choice.

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How It's Different from AI Rewriting

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Not all AI writing tools work this way. Many popular AI tools (ChatGPT, for example) will rewrite your text in their own style if you ask them to \"improve\" it. The result often sounds polished but generic — it loses the personal touch that makes a memoir meaningful.

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Tell Me Your Story's AI is specifically trained for memoir polishing, not rewriting. The difference is crucial:

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

AI Rewriting	AI Story Polish (Tell Me Your Story)
Replaces your words with \"better\" ones	Keeps your words, removes distractions
Imposes a generic writing style	Preserves your unique voice
May add content you didn't say	Never adds anything — only tidies
Result sounds like AI wrote it	Result sounds like you, cleaned up
No side-by-side comparison	Always shows original vs. polished

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Who Benefits Most from AI Polish?

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Spoken storytellers — People who record their stories by voice benefit the most because the gap between spoken and written language is where AI polish shines.
People self-conscious about grammar — If you worry that your grammar \"isn't good enough\" for a printed book, AI polish handles the technical aspects while you focus on what matters: your stories.
Busy families — Manually editing 30 transcribed stories takes hours. AI polish reduces this to a few minutes of review time per story.
People creating books as gifts — When the finished book will be read by many family members, a light polish makes the reading experience smoother without losing the storyteller's personality.

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A Real Example

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Here's a real-world example of what AI Story Polish looks like in practice:

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Original transcript (spoken):

\"So we, um, we moved into this house — it was on Maple Street — and it was, you know, it was tiny. Like really tiny. My sister and I shared a room and she hated it, I mean she really hated sharing with me because I was messy and she was neat, you know, like really organized, and so we'd fight about it, like, every single day. But looking back now, those were some of the best, um, some of the best years. We didn't have much but we had each other and that was enough.\"

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After AI Story Polish:

\"We moved into this house on Maple Street, and it was tiny. My sister and I shared a room, and she hated it — I was messy and she was neat, really organized, so we'd fight about it every single day. But looking back now, those were some of the best years. We didn't have much, but we had each other, and that was enough.\"

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Same story. Same voice. Same person. Just easier to read.

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The Privacy Side of AI Polish

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A common concern with AI tools is: \"If AI reads my stories, who else gets to read them?\"

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With Tell Me Your Story, the answer is: nobody. Your stories are processed and immediately discarded. They are never stored on the company's servers, never used to train AI models, and never seen by anyone except you. The polished text is stored only in your private iCloud, alongside your originals. This is fundamentally different from pasting your stories into ChatGPT or another general-purpose AI tool, where your text may be used for training.

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Your Voice, Polished — Never Changed

Tell Me Your Story's AI Story Polish tidies your spoken stories while keeping every bit of personality. See the original and polished versions side by side — you always choose.

\n Try Tell Me Your Story Free\n

","contentPlain","Many people worry that AI polishing will make their stories sound like someone else. But the best AI story polishing tools don't rewrite your words — they tidy them up. Tell Me Your Story's AI Story Polish is like a gentle copy editor who removes the \"um\"s and fixes run-on sentences while leaving everything that makes your story yours.\n\nWhy Spoken Stories Need a Light Touch\nSpoken language includes filler words, false starts, repetition, run-on sentences, and grammar quirks. These are natural in conversation but distracting on a printed page.\n\nWhat AI Story Polish Changes:\n1. Removes filler words (\"um,\" \"you know,\" \"like\")\n2. Fixes false starts (mid-sentence restarts)\n3. Reduces unnecessary repetition\n4. Smooths run-on sentences into readable paragraphs\n5. Corrects minor grammar while preserving dialect and voice\n\nWhat AI Story Polish Does NOT Change:\n- Your vocabulary — word choices are preserved\n- Your expressions — regional phrases and idioms stay\n- Your storytelling style — structure and pacing remain\n- Your opinions and perspectives — never modified\n- Factual content — names, dates, places untouched\n- Emotional tone — the feeling of the story stays\n- Cultural and dialectal speech — part of who you are\n\nYou Always Choose: The app shows original and polished versions side by side. You pick which to keep, or mix and match paragraphs.\n\nHow It's Different from AI Rewriting:\nAI rewriting replaces your words with \"better\" ones and imposes a generic style. AI Story Polish keeps your words and removes distractions. The result sounds like you, cleaned up — not like AI wrote it.\n\nPrivacy: Stories are processed and immediately discarded. Never stored on company servers, never used for AI training. Polished text is stored only in your private iCloud.\n\nReal Example:\nOriginal: \"So we, um, we moved into this house — it was on Maple Street — and it was, you know, it was tiny...\"\nPolished: \"We moved into this house on Maple Street, and it was tiny...\"\nSame story. Same voice. Same person. Just easier to read.","citations",[],"metaTitle","How AI Polishes Stories Without Changing Your Voice","metaDescription","How AI story polishing preserves your authentic voice while removing filler words and fixing grammar. Understand respectful AI editing for memoirs.","ogImageUrl","authorId",2,"categoryId",5,"status","published","publishedAt","updatedAt","createdAt","readingTimeMinutes","isFeatured",false,"author",{"_14":47,"_48":49,"_50":51,"_52":53,"_54":55,"_56":57,"_58":-5,"_59":60,"_61":62,"_41":-5,"_40":-5,"_12":34},"eleanor-mitchell","name","Eleanor Mitchell","bio","Eleanor Mitchell is a memoirist and oral history consultant who has spent over two decades helping families preserve their stories. She holds a Master's in Creative Writing from Columbia University and has guided more than 500 families through the memoir-writing process.","avatarUrl","https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1544005313-94ddf0286df2?w=200&h=200&fit=crop","jobTitle","Memoirist & Oral History Consultant","company","Tell Me Your Story","twitterHandle","linkedinUrl","https://linkedin.com/in/eleanormitchell","websiteUrl","https://tellmeyourstory.app","category",{"_14":65,"_48":66,"_67":68,"_79":80,"_28":81,"_30":82,"_83":-5,"_41":-5,"_12":36,"_84":-5},"memoir-writing","Memoir Writing","nameTranslations",{"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":74,"_75":76,"_77":78},"de","Memoiren schreiben","fr","Écriture de mémoires","pl","Pisanie wspomnień","es","Escritura de memorias","it","Scrittura di memorie","description","Practical guides for writing your life story, from getting started to organizing chapters and publishing.","Memoir Writing Guides & Tips","Step-by-step guides for writing your memoir. Learn how to find your theme, organize your stories, and turn your life into a book.","parent","parentId","faqs",[87,96,100,105,110],{"_12":88,"_89":13,"_41":-5,"_90":91,"_92":93,"_94":95},"en:how-ai-helps-polish-your-stories-without-changing-your-words:faq:0","postId","question","Does AI change your voice when polishing stories?","answer","No. Tell Me Your Story's AI Story Polish makes limited, specific changes: removing filler words, fixing false starts, reducing repetition, smoothing run-on sentences, and correcting minor grammar. It never changes your vocabulary, expressions, storytelling style, opinions, factual content, or emotional tone. Your unique voice is preserved — the AI tidies the text, it doesn't rewrite it.","sortOrder",1,{"_12":97,"_89":13,"_41":-5,"_90":98,"_92":99,"_94":34},"en:how-ai-helps-polish-your-stories-without-changing-your-words:faq:1","How does AI story polishing work?","You record a story and see the raw transcript. If you want, you tap 'Polish' and the AI creates a tidied version — removing filler words, fixing grammar, and smoothing sentences. The app shows the original and polished versions side by side so you can compare them and choose which to keep. You can mix and match paragraphs from both versions. The AI never applies polish automatically — you always control the process.",{"_12":101,"_89":13,"_41":-5,"_90":102,"_92":103,"_94":104},"en:how-ai-helps-polish-your-stories-without-changing-your-words:faq:2","Is it safe to use AI to polish personal stories?","With Tell Me Your Story, yes. Your stories are processed and immediately discarded — never stored on company servers, never used to train AI models, and never seen by anyone except you. The polished text is stored only in your private iCloud. This is fundamentally different from pasting your stories into general-purpose AI tools like ChatGPT, where your text may be used for training.",3,{"_12":106,"_89":13,"_41":-5,"_90":107,"_92":108,"_94":109},"en:how-ai-helps-polish-your-stories-without-changing-your-words:faq:3","What is the difference between AI rewriting and AI story polish?","AI rewriting (like asking ChatGPT to 'improve' your text) replaces your words with 'better' ones and imposes a generic writing style — the result often sounds polished but loses your personal touch. AI Story Polish (Tell Me Your Story) keeps your exact words and only removes distractions: filler words, repetitions, grammar mistakes. The result sounds like you, not like a machine wrote it. You always see a side-by-side comparison.",4,{"_12":111,"_89":13,"_41":-5,"_90":112,"_92":113,"_94":36},"en:how-ai-helps-polish-your-stories-without-changing-your-words:faq:4","Can I keep the original version of my story?","Yes, always. Tell Me Your Story stores both the original transcript and the polished version. You can choose the original for any story, the polished version, or mix paragraphs from both. Some storytellers prefer the raw transcript for emotional stories (where natural pauses and repetitions add meaning) and the polished version for more factual narratives. 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