You have a funeral to help plan, and someone has asked you to speak. Or maybe you volunteered, because you loved this person and you want to do right by them. Either way, you are sitting with grief and a blank page, and the words are not coming.
ChatGPT can help with this. It will not replace what you know about this person, but it can take the raw material you give it and shape it into something you can actually say out loud. The catch is that you have to give it enough to work with. Hand it nothing, and it will hand you back a speech about a kind soul who loved their family, which could describe almost anyone. Hand it the real stuff, and it can give you a real starting point.
If you have never used ChatGPT before, here is how to get there. Go to chatgpt.com and make a free account. Once you are in, you will see a box at the bottom of the screen. Type your message there and press Enter. That is all there is to it. You cannot break anything, and if the answer it gives you is not right, you can just tell it that and ask again.
Gather the real details before you type a single word
This is the step most people skip, and it is the most important one. Writing a eulogy is hard when you are grieving, but if you sit down with a few questions first and just write whatever comes, you will have the raw material you need. The actual writing gets easier after that.
Ask yourself things like: Where did they grow up, and what shaped them early on? What is one moment that shows exactly who they were? What did they do that nobody else did quite the same way? What did they care about most? What would make the people in that room smile and nod?
One question worth sitting with: what is one memory that captures who they were? Not a summary of their whole life. One specific moment. The answer to that question is often the heart of the whole speech.
Also think about the length you need. A main speaker usually aims for five to seven minutes. If several people are speaking, three to four minutes each works better. A five-minute speech is roughly 600 to 700 words, so you are not writing a novel.
What to put in your instructions to ChatGPT
The more specific you are, the better the answer will be. A good eulogy has a shape: it opens with something that immediately captures the person, moves through a couple of stories that show who they were to different people, touches on their humor or a quirk that made them them, and closes with something the room will carry home. You can ask ChatGPT to follow that shape.
Here is a block of instructions you can copy and use. Copy this exactly, then change everything in [square brackets] to your own details.
Please help me write a eulogy for [name]. They were my [relationship, e.g. grandmother, best friend, father]. The service is [date or timeframe], and I will be speaking for about [length, e.g. five minutes].
Here is what I want you to know about them: - They grew up [brief detail about their background or hometown] - One memory that captures who they were: [describe a specific moment or story] - Something they did that nobody else did quite the same way: [a habit, a phrase, a skill, a quirk] - What they meant to other people: [how friends, family, or community saw them] - Something that would make the room smile: [a funny or warm detail] - What I most want people to leave feeling: [e.g. grateful, comforted, like they knew her better]
Please write a eulogy that opens with a specific moment or line that captures them right away. Include two or three short stories that show who they were. Leave room for [any topic to avoid, e.g. the circumstances of their death]. Use plain, warm language. Do not invent any details I have not given you.
Here is what that looks like filled in with real details:
Please help me write a eulogy for Margaret. She was my grandmother. The service is this Saturday, and I will be speaking for about five minutes.
Here is what I want you to know about her: - She grew up on a dairy farm in rural Vermont, one of six kids, and never lost the habit of waking before sunrise. - One memory that captures who she was: every Sunday she made pie from scratch, and she always let me crimp the edges, even when I did it wrong. She never once took over. - Something she did that nobody else did quite the same way: she kept a small notebook in her apron pocket and wrote down things people said that made her laugh. - What she meant to other people: her neighbors called her first when something went wrong. She was the person you called. - Something that would make the room smile: she once told my cousin that the secret to a good marriage was "separate bathrooms and the same politics." - What I most want people to leave feeling: like they just spent a few more minutes with her.
Please write a eulogy that opens with a specific moment or line that captures her right away. Include two or three short stories that show who she was. Use plain, warm language. Do not invent any details I have not given you.
What to do with the draft it gives you
Read the whole thing through once before you change anything. Just read it for the shape, the feeling, whether it sounds like it is about her or about a stranger. That first read will tell you what is working and what needs your hand on it.
Then go sentence by sentence. Any line that could describe anyone, replace it with something specific. Any word that does not sound like you, change it. ChatGPT does not know how you talk, so the voice will need adjusting. That is normal and expected.
One thing to be careful about: ChatGPT sometimes fills in details it was not given. Read every sentence and ask yourself, did I tell it this? If the answer is no, take it out or replace it with something true. The people in that room knew this person. They will notice.
If the eulogy touches on a death by suicide, keep the focus on the person's life, not the circumstances of their death. You can tell ChatGPT this directly in your instructions.
A last thought
You are not trying to write a perfect speech. You are trying to give the people in that room a few minutes with someone they loved. The details you gathered, the specific memories, the small true things, those are what will do that. ChatGPT can help you shape them. The material itself only you can provide.
If you would like your instructions checked and improved before you use them, fixmyprompt.net/try does it free, three times a day.
Sources
- https://aiacademy.com/how-to-use-chatgpt-to-write-a-eulogy/
- https://vegavid.com/blog/chatgpt-prompts-for-eulogy/
- https://wheelchairjohn.com/chatgpt-eulogy/
- https://heatherstang.com/chatgpt-eulogy/
- https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-write-eulogy-chatgpt-ai
Sources
- https://academy.techpresso.co/prompts/chatgpt-prompts-eulogies
- https://vegavid.com/blog/how-to-use-ai-to-write-a-eulogy
- https://wheelchairjohn.com/2026/07/30/using-chatgpt-to-write-a-eulogy
- https://heatherstang.com/eulogy-writing-prompts
- https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-use-get-better-chatgpt-ai-prompt-guide
- https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPTPromptGenius/comments/1dwu0t5/eulogy_writing