How to make a book about your relationship, step by step

Step 1: Gather your memories

Start wide. Scroll back through your photos year by year, reread old message threads, check your calendar for trips and concerts, and empty the drawer where the ticket stubs live. Ask a friend who was there what they remember about the night you met.

Write each memory on its own card or line: what happened, where, roughly when, and one detail you can still picture. Don’t judge anything yet; thirty rough memories give you plenty to choose from. If you get stuck, our love story book ideas has 40 prompts, from the first hello to what comes next.

Step 2: Pick about 15 moments and put them in order

A book about your relationship works best when it can be read in one sitting, so this step is about choosing. About 15 moments is a good size: enough for a real story, few enough that every page earns its place.

Sort your cards into three piles: keep, maybe and cut. Choose your opening and your ending first, then fill the middle from the keep pile. Time order is the easiest to follow, but you can also open on the present day and flash back to the beginning. Cut anything that needs a paragraph of explanation, or that would embarrass someone who isn’t in on the joke.

Step 3: Choose a tone and an ending

Decide how the book should sound before you write a word. Funny, sweet, romantic, reflective or a little bit of an adventure: one steady voice is what makes the pages feel like a story instead of a list.

Then write the last line. It is easier to aim at an ending you already know: a promise, a thank-you, a question or simply “to be continued.” If the last page holds a big question, such as a proposal, keep it hidden and ask the reader on the first page not to skip ahead. That is exactly how our proposal book works.

Step 4: Write each moment as a short page

If you have been wondering how to write a book about your relationship, the answer is simpler than it sounds: one moment per page, and keep it short. Here is the first spread of our fictional sample book, “The Little Things That Led to Us”. It runs to about 70 words:

Maya had ducked into the bookshop to save a very ordinary Tuesday from a very extraordinary downpour. Jordan arrived a moment later, carrying an umbrella that had chosen that afternoon to break. They reached for the same red book. “You first,” he said. “Only if you tell me whether it’s any good,” she answered. Outside, the rain kept falling. Inside, neither of them was in a hurry anymore.

Notice what it does. It starts in the middle of the scene, gives two concrete details (the broken umbrella, the same red book), includes a line of dialogue and ends on a small turn that makes you want the next page. Write yours the same way: use the names you really call each other, keep exact words where you remember them, and read every page aloud. Wherever you stumble, rewrite.

Step 5: Illustrate or add pictures, then lay it out

Give each moment a picture. That can be your own photos, simple drawings (stick figures have real charm) or artwork by a talented friend. Putting the picture on one page and the words on the facing page is easy to read and easy to build.

Keep the design simple: one or two fonts, generous margins and text in the same place on every page. Leave extra room on the inside edge for the binding. Add a title page at the front and a closing page at the back, and it starts to look like a real book.

Step 6: Print and bind it

You have three broad options. Print it at home on heavier paper and bind it with ribbon, binder rings or a simple stitched spine. Take the files to a local print shop and ask which bindings they offer. Or upload it to an online photo book or self-publishing service.

Whichever you choose, print a test page first, check every name and date, and leave plenty of time for printing and delivery before the day you plan to give it.

How to make a love book for your boyfriend

• Write about what he’d never expect you to remember. The shirt he wore on your second date, the way he answers the phone. Specific beats sweet.
• Let it be funny. A running joke that pays off on the last page is hard to beat.
• Include his world. His people, his dog, the hobby you have quietly learned to love.
• Keep it short. Ten to fifteen pages he can read in one go, ideally while you watch.
• End with something he can answer. A question, a plan, or tickets for your next trip tucked inside the back cover.

Rather give him a finished book? See our love book for him.

How to make a book for your girlfriend

• Tell it from your side. She knows what happened; she doesn’t know what you were thinking. Say what you noticed first and when you knew.
• Borrow her words. Her names for things, the phrase she always says, the text she sent after your first date.
• Ask her best friend. Find out what she said about you early on. It makes a great page, if her friend is happy to share.
• Choose photos she likes of herself. Pick the ones she would choose, not the ones you find funny.
• Handwrite the last page. Even in a printed book, a final note in your own handwriting feels like you.

Rather give her a finished book? See our love book for her.

Or have it written and illustrated for you

If six steps sound like more evenings than you have, we can take it from here. Every one of our love story books starts the same way: you bring the memories, and we write and illustrate them as a 32-page book. Write it however it comes out. A list of moments works. So does a long paragraph.

The finished book follows the same shape as the steps above. It has 32 interior pages: an opening title page, 15 story spreads with a different illustration on the left and text on the right, and a closing page. Covers are separate. It comes in an 8.5 × 8.5-inch square format, as a paperback or a hardcover. You choose the tone (Sweet, Funny, Adventure, Romantic or Reflective) and the words for the last page.

A private proof and one consolidated round of corrections are included. We do not submit your book to Lulu until you approve its current version. Changes after approval may not be possible once printing starts. Allow about 3 weeks for a printed book, including creation, your prompt approval, printing, and delivery. Dates are estimates. See our order and delivery details.