Best Friends

You can’t pick your family but you can pick your friends. If you have a best friend, or several very good friends, count your blessings! No doubt they have enriched your life in numerous ways. Here’s a chance to reflect on your friendships and the memorable times you have shared together. This story makes a wonderful gift to your friends on their birthdays, a reunion, or the anniversary of your first meeting.

Preparation

• Decide whether you are going to tell a long, overarching story of your best friends, or a series of short stories touching on each one and specific times you shared together.
• Before you start the story, reflect on significant moments in your friendships, such as how you met, memorable experiences, and turning points.
• Gather your thoughts and materials. Review your diary, journals, notes, or mementos that might help you remember details and significant events.
• Identify themes that are important in your friendships, such as loyalty, support, laughter, or shared interests.
• Get out your photo album or access your digital photo storage account. Browse through photos of the times you spent together.

Audience

Are you writing this story primarily for fun and self reflection, or will your friends and others be the audience for the story? If the story is primarily for your own consumption and reflection, don’t worry too much about structure or flow. Simply reminisce freely without worrying about spelling, grammar or sentence structure. Your virtual biographer will compile your memories into a coherent story for your enjoyment.

If you are writing the story as part of your life story, or to celebrate your long friendship at a celebration with your friends, give some thought to what they would enjoy most about the story. What is the key message you want your audience to takeaway from your cherished friendships? Share this insight with your virtual biographer.

Structure and Flow

A story written for others starts with a good “hook” and unfolds with authenticity and emotion. Begin with an engaging anecdote or a powerful statement that captures the essence of your friendship. Set the scene that drew you together and established the connection. Life stories can be told both chronologically and thematically. A chronological structure is good for recounting the order events happened. A thematic structure is focused on the ideas, thoughts and feelings of the characters in the story. Your virtual biographer can weave both approaches.

One of the most important choices to make about writing the story is what point-of-view the story will take. Do you want to tell it in the “First Person” (you as narrator) or the “Third Person” (an objective narrator). Most autobiographies, memoires, and life stories are told in the first person because they are character-driven stories. They are more intimate. However, writing and telling the story in the third person offers objectivity and omniscience. Do you want to tell the story in your own voice, from the perspective of how you lived it (first person), or as an impartial observer of how friends met and became close (third person)?

Answer the Important Questions; Skip Those Less Relevant

The ‘Times of My Life’ app provides you with a Virtual Biographer (VB) to interview you about your best friends and the memorable times you shared together. Yes, it’s an AI bot, but a very smart and intuitive one. Your VB has instant access to similar stories written and shared by millions of other people. It can help you relive events, thoughts and feelings. It can help illuminate the essence of your experience, and then tell a story that is uniquely yours. If your VB asks a question that doesn’t seem relevant to your experience, just skip it and move on to the questions that assist your recall and are important to how you lived the experience.

Add Details

If your virtual biographer fails to ask you a key question about your best friends, simply tap the “Add Details” icon to add the memory when it comes to your mind. To add a detail, you can type it or use the microphone to record it. The VB will use your answers and the extra details you add to write a great story.

These ideas will get you in the mindset to answer questions and add details:

• Paint a Picture: Use vivid descriptions to bring your memories to life. Describe your friends’ personalities, appearances, and mannerisms.
• Engage the Senses: Incorporate sensory details to make your writing more immersive, such as the sound of your friend’s laughter or the atmosphere of a favorite hangout spot.
• Illustrate with Anecdotes: Use specific anecdotes to illustrate your experiences. Personal stories make your narrative more relatable and engaging. Put sentences in quotation marks to let your virtual biographer know that it is a direct quote, and who said it.
• Be Honest: Write honestly about any challenges or conflicts you’ve faced in your friendships and how you resolved them.
• Highlight Resilience: Describe how overcoming these challenges has strengthened your bond.
• Express gratitude: Let your friends know how much they mean to you. Use heartfelt language to express your appreciation.

Don’t Just Tell; Show

Instead of just stating facts, show what happened through detailed descriptions and actions. For example, don’t just say they are “supportive” or “funny.” Describe specific qualities you admire. For example, is your friend a great listener who always offers a shoulder to cry on? Or are they a hilarious storyteller who can lift your spirits with a joke? Photos, narration, and music will also help you “show” the story. The ‘Times of My Life’ app is excellent at helping you visualize the story in multimedia formats.

Write the Story; Add Media

• After the interview and after you add whatever details you think are important, you will have the option of writing the story yourself, or having your virtual biographer write the story. It only cost $0.00 to have your VB write the story — and will save you hours of work writing it yourself. You can always edit what the VB writes.
• If you prefer to write the story yourself, use your answers from the interview and the details and notes the app captured, to guide your writing. Tips for writing the story yourself can be viewed by tapping the “Tips” icon in the app. Additional tips are listed below.
• After the story is written you will end up at the ‘Enhance Story’ screen. This is where the magic happens.
  • Tap “Add Media” to insert images and/or video clips into the narrative of your story.
  • Tap “Narrator” to choose a narrator. NOTE: A narrator is great if you ask your virtual biographer to write the story in the Third Person. If it is written in the First Person, then YOU are the narrator of the story.
  • Tap “Music” to add background music to your story, assuming you plan to publish it as an audiocast or a video.

Edit and Revise

After the story is written by you or your virtual biographer, you can “share” it for free through he app with friends and loved ones. Their feedback can provide valuable perspective and help you improve your story. After you get their feedback you can go back and edit the story as desired — or ask your VB to rewrite it with the feedback!

Publish Your Story

One of the best features of the ‘Times of My Life’ app is that it will produce the story in multimedia formats.

• Tap PDF to create a nicely formatted printed version.
• Use Audiocast to download an MP3 file.
• Click Video to download a high resolution video, complete with narration (if you choose a narrator), background music, and your uploaded images and video clips.

Sample Outline

Introduction

• Hook: Start with a captivating statement or anecdote that introduces your best friends and grabs the reader’s attention.
• Context: Provide a brief overview of how and when you met your best friends.
• Thesis: State the main theme or message of your story, such as the importance of friendship or how your friends have impacted your life.

Meeting Your Best Friends

• First Impressions: Describe the first time you met each friend and your initial impressions.
• Early Interactions: Share early interactions or experiences that laid the foundation for your friendship.
• Bonding Moments: Highlight specific moments or activities that helped solidify your bond.

Shared Adventures and Experiences

• Memorable Events: Detail significant events, trips, or adventures you’ve shared.
• Everyday Moments: Include everyday activities that brought you closer, such as studying together, hanging out, or shared hobbies.
• Challenges and Triumphs: Describe challenges you faced together and how you supported each other through tough times.

Character Sketches

• Friend 1: Provide a detailed description of one of your friends, including personality traits, interests, and what makes them special.
• Friend 2: Do the same for another friend, highlighting their unique qualities and your favorite memories with them.
• Additional Friends: If you have more best friends, include brief sketches for each, ensuring each person’s individuality shines through.

Lessons Learned

• Personal Growth: Reflect on how your friendships have contributed to your personal growth and development.
• Shared Values: Discuss the values and lessons you’ve learned from your friends.
• Influence: Explain how your friends have influenced your decisions, outlook, or life path.

Funny and Heartwarming Moments

• Humorous Anecdotes: Share funny stories or inside jokes that illustrate the lighter side of your friendships.
• Heartwarming Stories: Include touching moments that showcase the depth of your bond, such as acts of kindness, support, or loyalty.

Overcoming Obstacles

• Conflicts: Describe any conflicts or misunderstandings you’ve had and how you resolved them.
• Growth Through Adversity: Highlight how overcoming these obstacles strengthened your friendship.

Current State of Your Friendships

• Present Day: Discuss where your friendships stand today, how often you see or communicate with each other, and what your relationships look like now.
• Future Plans: Share any future plans you have with your friends or aspirations for maintaining your relationships.

Conclusion

• Summary: Recap the main points of your story, emphasizing the importance of your best friends in your life.
• Final Thoughts: Reflect on the enduring nature of your friendships and what you hope for the future.
• Gratitude: Express gratitude for having such meaningful friendships and the impact they’ve had on you.

By following this outline and these tips, you can create a heartfelt and engaging story that celebrates your best friends and the special bonds you share.