Playing a Sport

Alright, so you played a sport throughout your childhood and high school – that’s awesome! Maybe you also played a sport in college? Writing a story about your journey playing a sport from childhood through high school and beyond can be a rewarding and insightful experience. It can also inspire other aspiring athletes.

Preparation

• Take some time to reflect on your entire sports journey. Consider the key events, milestones, challenges, and triumphs you experienced.
• Create an outline that covers the different stages of your journey: childhood, high school, and beyond. Identify key moments that shaped your experience.
• Gather your thoughts and materials. Review your diary, journals, notes, or mementos that might help you remember details and significant events.
• Get out your photo album and perhaps your year books. Access your digital photo storage account. Browse those photos and jot down key memories, emotions, and sensory details that stand out to you.

Audience

Are you writing this story primarily for fun and self reflection, or will there be an 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 inspire others, 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 experiences playing a sport. 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. Start with an engaging opening that draws readers in. This could be a memorable moment, an emotional experience, or an interesting anecdote. Provide some background information about how you got introduced to the sport and what it meant to you as a child.

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. Tell it in your own voice as you lived it (first person), or as an impartial observer watching a young person learn and grow through playing a sport (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 sports journey. 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 that experience.

Add Details

If your virtual biographer fails to ask you a key question about playing a sport, 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:

• Develop Your Characters: Portray yourself and other key figures (coaches, teammates, family members) as multi-dimensional characters. Highlight your personalities, motivations, and growth over time. Describe how your relationships with these individuals influenced your sports journey. Show their influence through dialogue or anecdotes.
• Highlight Key Moments: Focus on significant events and turning points in your sports journey. These could include your first competition, notable victories, injuries, and moments of personal revelation. Share the challenges you faced and how you overcame them. Highlight moments of resilience, perseverance, and personal growth.
• Real Conversations: Recreate important conversations that illustrate your experiences and emotions. Dialogue adds realism and depth to your narrative. Use dialogue to reveal underlying tensions, emotions, and unspoken thoughts.
• Self-Reflection: Include introspective passages where you reflect on what you’ve learned from your sports journey. How has playing the sport changed you? What insights have you gained?
• Facing challenges: Don’t shy away from struggles. Did you face self-doubt, competition anxiety, or injuries? Show how you persevered.
• Not Just an Athlete: Show how the sport shaped your personality, work ethic, and relationships with teammates and coaches.
• Lessons Learned: Share any lessons or advice you have for others who might be on a similar path.

Don’t Just Tell; Show

Open with a vivid memory – a winning goal, a nerve-wracking penalty, or a childhood moment that sparked your love for the sport. Let your enthusiasm for the sport shine through your writing. 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 $0.99 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

I. Introduction

• A. Hook
  • A vivid description of a memorable moment in your sports journey.
• B. Brief Overview
  • Introduction to the sport and your initial interest.
  • Mention the stages: childhood, high school, and beyond.

II. Childhood

• A. Early Interest
  • How you discovered the sport.
  • Initial feelings and excitement.
• B. First Experiences
  • First time playing the sport.
  • Early lessons and who taught you.
• C. Development of Skills
  • Learning the basics.
  • Challenges and small victories.

III. High School

• A. Joining the School Team
  • Tryouts and making the team.
  • Initial reactions and emotions.
• B. Team Dynamics and Coaching
  • Relationship with teammates and coaches.
  • Key lessons learned from coaches.
• C. Memorable Games and Tournaments
  • Highlights of significant matches.
  • Personal achievements and team successes.
• D. Balancing Academics and Sports
  • Challenges of managing schoolwork and sports.
  • Time management strategies.

IV. Beyond High School

• A. Transition to Higher Levels
  • College sports or local leagues.
  • Differences between high school and higher-level play.
• B. Continued Passion and Growth
  • Personal development through the sport.
  • Advanced skills and techniques learned.
• C. Influence on Personal Life and Career
  • How playing the sport shaped your personality and career choices.
  • Lifelong friendships and networks formed.

V. Reflections and Lessons Learned

• A. Key Takeaways
  • Important life lessons from playing the sport.
  • How the sport has influenced your perspective on life.
• B. Advice to Young Aspiring Athletes
  • Encouraging words for young players.
  • Tips for balancing sports and other aspects of life.

VI. Conclusion

• A. Recap of Journey
  • Summarize the stages and key points of your journey.
• B. Final Thoughts
  • The enduring impact of the sport on your life.
  • Looking ahead to future involvement in the sport.

By weaving these tips into your narrative, and using this outline as a guide, you can create a story that not only details your sports journey but also engages readers on a deeper level, sparking inspiration and love of sport.