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An old truck, a crooked gate, a bolt in a tobacco tin. Elias begins with scattered memories. Follow the conversation and see the story they become.

Meet Elias, our fictional storyteller. Follow his rough telling, the questions he answers, and the story that takes shape.

Step 1 of 3

"I'm telling it all out of order."

He presses Record your story and begins. He jumps around, doubles back, and wonders what an old bolt has to do with anything.

Well, Dad's gate. That's what I was going to tell you. The bottom hinge was never quite right after that. We were outside Hague, on the farm. I was sixteen, I think. Don't ask me the year because I couldn't tell you. He had this old grain truck. You had to pull on the door to get it shut. That's nothing to do with the gate, except it was that truck.

My brother could back it through there. I wanted to do it without somebody standing beside me telling me which way to turn. Dad was always there, you see. Checking. I thought he didn't believe I could do anything. Well, anything with a motor.

Anyway, I backed into the gatepost. Not fast. Just enough. The gate dropped and there was this awful scrape along the truck. I remember sitting there with the engine still running. Then I shut it off. I didn't get out straight away.

Read the rest of his telling

Funny what you keep. There's a bent bolt in a tobacco tin in my shed now. No tobacco in it. Washers, bits of string, that sort of thing. That bolt is from the gate. My daughter asked me why I kept a useless bolt. I couldn't explain it very well.

Dad came over from the shed. I thought, well, that's the end of me driving. We did get the gate hanging again. It wasn't quite straight. He didn't say much about it after. I still think about that afternoon more than some of the big things, if you know what I mean. I'm telling it all out of order.

When his draft appears, he chooses Ask me a question.

A fictional demonstration. Questions and story prepared by our AI from the supplied words. Listen uses a computer voice.

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About this example

Elias and his memories are fictional. We created his rough telling and answers for this example. Our AI asked the questions and prepared the story, then revised it in response to the editing request shown above. Listen uses a computer voice.

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