Product Description
"I recommend this book to all aspiring novelists." —Kent Carroll, Publisher and Executive Editor Carroll & Graf

"I would not hesitate to recommend The Elements of Storytelling to aspiring writers, or to better published ones who need to be reminded of the essentials of the craft.

(That's all of us, by the way!)" —Robert Goddard

Author of In Pale Battalions and Full Circle

"Should be on every writer's bookshelf right between The Elements of Style and the thesaurus." —Tom Colgan, Senior Editor Avon Books

"A wonderful book that every aspiring professional writer should own." —Matthew Bialer, literary agent William Morris Agency

Telling a story is one of the most basic—and difficult—challenges a fiction writer must face. Acclaimed author, editor, and literary agent Peter Rubie knows that challenge firsthand. By sharing his creative and critical expertise, he gives you the helpful advice you need to master the art of storytelling, including how to:

• Create compelling characters and strong plotlines
• Pace a story and develop a coherent structure and style
• Refine your technique with thought-provoking exercises that hone your storytelling skills
• Anticipate the realities of getting your work published—how to make it happen while maintaining confidence and motivation

Customer Reviews (8)

Simple, interesting, and understandable
I agree with other reviewers who say this book is primarily for a beginner, but I find that it's the book to which I refer most frequently. When writing (or crafting a story for any medium), it's very easy for the author to become bogged down in details - this book reminds you to never forget your reader and what they expect (or sometimes how to give them what they DON'T expect). Furthermore, it's actually interesting to read.... not painfully dull like pretty much every other writing book out there. This is one of the most worn books on my shelf, and I'm sure it will be on yours as well. Highly Recommended!

This is good for a beginner.
But, don't expect to be made an apprentice to the writer.He will tell you to go from point A to point B.He'll even tell you why that is important and how avoiding this trip from A to B will be detrimental with a reason why.But, don't expect the author to actually guide you there with real life examples that lead you how to do it.

If you know nothing about writing, this book will give you the basics.Only expect to get something of substance from a book like "Characters & Viewpoint" by Orson Scott Card.Now, THAT is a book worthy of anyone's attention, pro or beginner.

Buy it.
If you've immersed yourself (or plan to) in writing fiction, then reading this book is a great example of a resource you should definitely read along the way.It's extremely helpful and will probably act mainly as a confirmation of many things you've already known or believed.The title is a daring reference to the classic 'Elements of Style' but Rubie appears to pull it off.It's well worth the money you'll spend.

Much to consider...
Rubie gives the reader many tidbits to consider and even a few morsels of meat, but not much in the way of consistent clarity.He concludes that good writing cannot be taught and that one should bury their heads in bestsellers and classics to glean the elements of style (good advice, of course).If this is the case though, then why bother writing a book on storytelling?Nonetheless, Rubie does provide good advice on how to dramatize sequences and on using descriptors sparingly, pointing to both classic and contemporary novels as examples.He points frequently to a book called "The Elements of Style" (a classic and "must have" in the writing world) and suggests that a copy be kept on every writer's desk.Perhaps his strongest advice on writing is that one should not be deceived about the strength of their own writing or the possibility of writing a blockbuster hit.

Some of Rubie's advice becomes a tad contradictory, as he seems to eschew certain types of creativity in favor of plain, bare bones prose while still encouraging writers to hold true to their own writing style.According to the author, writing is just plain hard, and in some cases, darn near a feat of miraculous and other-worldly genius.I suppose this is meant to underline the fact that good writer's are born and nutured, not bred.In short, the author leaves the reader with the understanding that there is no formula or magic for producing good writing, all that can be done is to grasp on to an understanding of the rules of writing (which, under certain circumstances, can be broken) and hope for the best.

Rubie's book does provide grounded, practical advice and excellent examples but it certainly falls short of inspiration or motivation; two things most writer's desperately seek.If you are looking for a book that will *both* inspire and inform, I do not recommend this one.For that, look to "How to Write & Sell Your First Novel" by Oscar Collier.At the very least, read Collier's book first.Rubie's book *does* provide excellent excercises for honing your craft; that alone makes the book an acceptable read.

One of the Best
I've read dozens of books on writing fiction and this is one of the best. It's not only informative, but interesting to read. Peter Rubie, himself,is a very good writer. ... Read more

Product Description

Archival Storytelling is an essential, pragmatic guide to one of the most challenging issues facing filmmakers today: the use of images and music that belong to someone else. Where do producers go for affordable stills and footage? How do filmmakers evaluate the historical value of archival materials? What do verite' producers need to know when documenting a world filled with rights-protected images and sounds? How do filmmakers protect their own creative efforts from infringement?

Customer Reviews (3)

Absolute MUST HAVE for all documentary filmmakers!

Archival Storytelling provides an excellent roadmap through the landmines of documentary film making when you have to work with archival materials. In fact, it's rare in the film industry to find a single volume that provides in-depth, all-encompassing information of such an important aspect of film making.

It's all here: Where to find archival films, how to find them, how to order them, how to use them, the facts about copyright, licensing, access, public domain, Fair Use, Fair Dealing, Errors and Omissions, International rights, the works! If you're making a film that relies on archival footage, you'll find this book not only cuts through the confusion of rights and licenses, but liberates you as a filmmaker.

If you make documentaries that even refer to past events, you need this book in your personal library.

We Now Have a Definitive Book on Archive-Based Programming
Kenn Rabin and Sheila Curran Bernard have written an important book, one that will serve as the definitive text on archive-based filmmaking for years to come. The authors are among the most seasoned professionals in the field, and they generously share their deep knowledge of the subject. Film and video archives are a stimulating palette for filmmakers, although the enormous technical, legal, and research demands can be overwhelming.This book masterfully navigates these routines while keeping the focus on the creative process:a collaborative process that relies on researchers and archivists, as well as producers and story-tellers, to create programs. In the end, this is an engaging and inspirational book about making GREAT programs, and it also serves as a reliable reference to research sources, production routines, and legal considerations.I have been working with film and video archives for over twenty years, and I understand the hunger for this information in the production communities.This book delivers the information, but also reinforces why the archive-based program, done right,is a critical part of our cultural conversation.Clearly, I recommend this book to those interested in the subject, and I am thankful that the authors provided us with this wonderful gift.

First book of its kind, very very helpful!
I'm a documentary filmmaker currently producing a feature documentary about the history of urban planning.I'm going to be relying on use of a lot of archival material, so when I saw this book on the Focal Press site several months back, I pre-ordered and anxiously awaited its arrival.

I was already familiar with the popular footage licensing archives and have spent many hours perusing material in the Prelinger collection at archive.org, and also quite familiar with other topics the book covers such as Fair Use and how E&O insurance comes into play - so I had the usual reservations about whether this book would have too much more to offer.My worries were put to rest.This book is right on target for anyone embarking on any sort of project that is going to require the use of archival footage.

I think the book might best be described as a sort of prologue to the work that eventually takes place whether a professional archival researcher is hired or a producer is going at it on their own.The segway from the book as prologue and the beginning of archival research is the book's website which has a fairly comprehensive list with brief descriptions of each source of footage that the book covers.This list is incredibly useful on its own.Having read the book, however, I feel armed and prepared to not make many mistakes I may otherwise have made just going down the list - mistakes which could have cost money, time, or even prevented me from obtaining footage I hope to use.The book sets up and explains the theoretical background many archives operate on - and dispels some of the mystique of some of the larger corporate and network archives (Getty Images, NBC, etc.)

Where the book adds an interesting dimension is in its discussion of Copyright law.To read between the lines, there is an urging that because we live in a time and place where we have amazing access to great quantities of material it is criminal not to make use of it.The extent to which Youtube contains copyright violating work is a vote of no-confidence in existing copyright law.Things are changing very quickly and the regulations which have bound and often prevented unadulterated creativity by way of use of other's material are not as restrictive as they once were.

Authors have been quoting other authors for centuries, musicians have been sampling other musicians for decades, and we now live in an era in which films and videos can make use of pre-existing content to create new works without the mega-budgets of TV networks or studios.This book is an excellent guide to navigating the still often rough waters of archival footage research and licensing and I know I'll be thankful to have read it as I begin pulling material for my own project. ... Read more

Product Description
Storytelling is an age-old art form. With Web 2.0 and the tools already available on most computers, students can use text, music, sound effects, videos, and more to create a multimedia presentation that links them to the world beyond the classroom. Storytelling has the potential to unleash creativity, engage, and motivate. Applicable across the curriculum, digital storytelling teaches students to work collaboratively and use new technologies, skills they will be required to have in the workforce of the future.

This book offers an overview of digital storytelling as well as its variations, including e-portfolios, digital photo essays, and scrapblogs. The many recommendations, overviews, and explanations of digital storytelling tools, along with lists of additional digital storytelling resources, will help educators to apply this exciting technology in their classrooms. Educators will also discover the ways digital storytelling can be used for their own professional development. Digital Storytelling Guide for Educators provides detailed directions to preparation, production, and presentation, and rounds out with a discussion on creating rubrics and evaluating student work. Readers will come away with an understanding of digital stories and the tools needed to create them.

Features:

* Assessment rubrics for each stage of digital storytelling
* Aligns digital storytelling to the NETS for Students
* Each chapter includes a list of resources and links

Topics include:

-Web 2.0
-multimedia
-presentations
-professional development
-e-portfolios
-web 2.0 tools

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) is the trusted source for professional development, knowledge generation, advocacy and leadership for innovation. ISTE is the premier membership association for educators and education leaders engaged in improving teaching and learning by advancing the effective use of technology in PK-12 and teacher education. Home of the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS), the Center for Applied Research in Educational Technology (CARET), and ISTE's annual conference (formerly known as the National Educational Computing Conference, or NECC), ISTE represents more than 100,000 professionals worldwide. We support our members with information, networking opportunities, and guidance as they face the challenge of transforming education.

Some of the areas in which we publish are:
-Web. 2.0 in the classroom-RSS, podcasts, and more
-National Educational Technology Standards (NETS)
-Professional development for educators and administrators
-Integrating technology into the classroom and curriculum
-Safe practices for the Internet and technology
-Educational technology for parents ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Digital Storytelling 101
I purchased this book for a college course literature circle assignment.What I like about this book is the many websites and internet resource links that provide examples of Web 2.0 technology and tools to begin storytelling in the classroom.The chapters are logically presented making learning digital storytelling easy even for novices like myself.I created a very basic Windows Movie Maker video using still pictures in a matter of minutes.For the educator who wishes to dabble in digital storytelling, this book is an excellent resource and tutorial guide.

Great Resource
This book taught me most of what I need to know to enhance teaching through digital storytelling.While not the authoritative book on the topic, it is a handy guide to creating interesting lessons, and most importantly, having students create their own lessons, using the powerful mixed medium of d.s. ... Read more

Product Description
Aside from guides to more than 40 powerful storytelling exercises, you'll find the Golden List of what an audience really needs from storytelling, a proven, step-by-step system for successfully learning and remembering a story, and the Great-Amazing-Never-Fail Safety Net to prevent storytelling disasters. More than 15,000 educators from across the country have successfully used this system. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A much appreciated book!
This book does seem to be better organized than the author's other book, Write Right. The "layers of onion" analogy used to describe layers of a story character still doesn't seem to work as well as it might.This is still not a real problem if the reader simply remembers what I believe is the author's major point in using that analogy: The CHARACTER is all important to the story, and strongly needs to be developed on different levels. It is a point well worth taking!

Whereas the author's book--Write Right: Creative Writing Using Storytelling Techniques--is about creative writing, this one is strictly about storytelling.It focuses mostly on the TEACHER'S use of storytelling in the classroom, but also has a chapter on teaching students to tell.The chapter on teaching students presents ONE WAY a teacher could help students learn to tell stories. The author also provides, in this chapter, a list of the pluses and minuses of different types of common stories.He attempts to assess what he calls the "tellability" factor for each type.He presents all this only as guidelines for helping students choose a story to tell.

Another thing I am glad to find in this book is a little guidance in the area of copyrights. It is very basic information, but enough to cover what a teacher needs to know and just a little bit more.

Finally, I would strongly suggest the purchase of BOTH this book and Kendall Haven's other book already mentioned above. Although it is a little expensive to do so, the information seems to me to be invaluable.

Happy Storytelling! ... Read more

Product Description
I Am Not Perfect is a simplestatement of profound truth, the first step towardunderstanding the human condition, for to denyyour essential imperfection is to deny yourself andyour own humanity. The spirituality ofimperfection, steeped in the rich traditions of the Hebrewprophets and Greek thinkers, Buddhist sages andChristian disciples, is a message as timeless as it istimely. This insightful work draws on the wisdomstories of the ages to provide an extraordinarywellspring of hope and inspiration to anyonethirsting for spiritual growth and guidance in thesetroubled times.

Who are we? Why sowe so often fall short of our goals for ourselvesand others? By seeking to understand ourlimitations and accept the inevitably of failure and pain,we being to ease the hurt and move toward agreater sense of serenity and self-awareness.The Spirituality Of Imperfection bringstogether stories from many spiritual andphilosophical paths, weaving past traditions into aspirituality and a new way of thinking and living thatworks today. It speaks so anyone who yearns to findmeaning within suffering. Beyond theory andtechnique, inside this remarkable book you will find anew way of thinking, a way of living that enablesa truly human existence. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (68)

very good read
i've owned the book for a couple years and never was able to dive into it. But I picked it back up recently and it finally made sense...i really like the guidance offered by this book...more growth expected for me on the horizon :o)

The Spirituality of Imperfection
This is a special book.I bought a second one so I would not have to lend out my original copy.Good soul reading.

Best Book on Spirituality, ever written.....
The best book I have ever read on the subject of spirituality. This is the gold standard for learning how to really accept onesself and understand the relationship between the quest for perfection and the inherent imperfection of being a human being.
On a scale of 1 to 10 this is a 12! The very best ever! Incredible!

Not as impressed as others
I was excited about the book through the first hundred pages or so, then it quickly dissipated.There are some great nuggets of wisdom and great insight strewn throughout the book, but they could have been conveyed much more succinctly.The authors overdid the whole storytelling bit.

Life changing! Invites your spirituality to be alive & yours
I found Spirituality of Imperfection to be an incredibly insight-provoking book. I enjoyed it very much even though I am not an alcoholic or addict & I'm not really that familiar with AA at all.

In fact, I would often read a few pages or even just a paragraph / story and then just 'sit with it' and allow the meaning to slowly show itself.I believe the people who rated this book poorly wanted a book that just laid out the 'answers to life' in simple, concise manner - & I definitely agree, that is not what this book offers. But it offers something MUCH greater in value... an invitation to think deeply and allow your spirituality to come alive.

Enjoy and be inspired!
... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

great book
This book is good. Bausch renders a far reaching and compelling argument for the craft of story. Story contains depth, insight, and - perhaps most important - transformational outcomes when entered into with metaphoric thinking as opposed to dogmatic thinking. Story is a thing that is alive according to the author - and I tend to agree with him. As we revise and retell our own stories new awareness is invoked on multiple levels. Furthermore, there is a lot of depth and insight in this book spanning theology, spirituality, and numerous others categories. Chapters 10 and 11 cover the types of stories we might encounter in our own experience. and in the experience of others.

Stories convey change and transformation; they illuminate our own lives. A good story tells us about ourselves in ways that are honest and forthright. they show us our humanity, and even our addictions. The entire spectrum of emotional content is engaged through story. As we read a good story, we discover ourselves in each retelling and this is the power of story. When this happens we may become more human and more loving. We may see ourselves not so much as we think we are, but as we really are. I think the point of the book.

This is a book that I would highly recommend.

Where does he get these stories ?
In a very interesting and compelling manner, the stories come alive with interest, relevance and humor.

Every story teller, may they be corporate exec or toastmaster wantabe needs a continuing supply of interesting,timely and poingnant messages to get the point across.And these storiesdeliver. ... Read more

Product Description
Children of all ages love hearing stories. Many parents, though, freeze when their children ask them to tell a story rather than read one, or panic when they begin to lose their attention mid-story. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Excellent Guide to the Art of Storytelling
I bought this book hoping for some basic tips and techniques to get me started on the path of storytelling to preschoolers and
elementary age children. Margaret Read MacDonald offers that and
much more. This professional storyteller, author and children's
librarian brings a wealth of knowledge by way of a PhD in folklore and more than 35 years of storytelling experience to
the fore in this engaging, highly readable book. This tiny volume is packed with encyclopedic-like wisdom. She includes dozens of actual stories, categorized by age of listener as well as type of tale, and offers practical suggestions on voice pitch, hand movements and facial expressions to help the novice storyteller bring the tale to life.

Best of all, she is so encouraging along the way, constantly
reassuring the reader that making up stories and/or retelling old favorites is a snap. If we follow her suggestions and practice, we'll be storytellers extraordinaire in no time. This book is an excellent resource for parents or caretakers who simply want to tell bedtime stories; but is also a wonderful introductory text for anyone wishing to embark on the path of professional storytelling.

The bibliography and additional suggested resources at the end of the book are invaluable.

If you have any interest in storytelling at all, this book is a must-have for your reference library.

Tall on stories, Short on techniques
I had purchased this book because I was looking for basic techniques on telling short stories.The majority of the book is stories with tips on telling those specific stories.I returned this book within 10 minutes of receiving it in the mail!

An invaluable skill for any parent or grandparent
The art of storytelling is an essential, invaluable skill for any parent or grandparent wanting to entertain a child. With Margaret MacDonald's The Parents' Guide To Storytelling: How To Make Up New Stories And Retell Old Favorites, now any parent or grandparent can learn how to spellbind eager youngsters with stories and tales that will pass along family traditions, values, histories, as well as nurturing familial bonds and affectionate intimacies. The Parents' Guide To Storytelling offers a wealth of tips and techniques suitable for use with children of all ages in the telling of favorite nursery narratives, fingerplay stories, bedtime yarns, folktales, and more. ... Read more

Product Description
Lipman outlines his basic coaching principles, guideines for emotional safety, the four primary obstacles to success, and suggestions for overcoming them. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Terrific book on coaching storytellers
Great advice and beautifully written and organized too. Vivid stories from various storytelling traditions and from the author's experience clarify his points. I'm enjoying it and learning a lot about coaching storytellers, too.

Become a better storyteller!
At storytelling festivals around the country, I have overheard storytellers--some librarians or teachers, but many just people who want to hone their skills spinning a story--recommend this book to each other.It is a very nurturing treatment of the hurdles to effective oral communication.Even preachers and insurance agents will benefit by its advice. ... Read more

Product Description
Storytelling is perhaps the most common way people make sense of their experiences, claim identities, and "get a life." So much of our daily life consists of writing or telling our stories and listening to and reading the stories of others. But we rarely stop to ask: what are these stories? How do they shape our lives? And why do they matter?

The authors ably guide readers through the complex world of performing narrative. Along the way they show the embodied contexts of storytelling, the material constraints on narrative performances, and the myriad ways storytelling orders information and tasks, constitutes meanings, and positions speaking subjects. Readers will also learn that narrative performance is consequential as well as pervasive, as storytelling opens up experience and identities to legitimization and critique. The authors' multi-leveled model of strategy and tactics considers how relations of power in a system are produced, reproduced, and altered in performing narrative.

The authors explain this strategic model through an extended discussion of family storytelling, using Franco Americans in Maine as their exemplar. They explore what stories families tell, how they tell them, and how storytelling creates family identities. Then, they show the range and reach of this strategic model by examining storytelling in diverse contexts: a breast cancer narrative, a weblog on the Internet, and an autobiographical performance on the public stage. Readers are left with a clear understanding of how and why the performance of narrative is the primary communicative practice shaping our lives today. ... Read more

Product Description

"Joe Turow's Playing Doctor disquiets and challenges the reader's intellect with cogent analysis of the forces that have shaped television's portrayal of doctors and the medical world. For that alone, it is a fantastic read. But Dr. Turow also pleases the mind with well written and amusing stories, interviews, and behind the scenes anecdotes that bring to life, in an eminently readable style, the fascinating world of TV medicine."
---David Foster, M.D., supervising producer, writer, and medical consultant for House

"Joseph Turow takes us behind the scenes of such hit television series as ER, Grey's Anatomy, and House to reveal the complex relationship viewers have with their beloved fictional caregivers. Turow carefully probes the history of TV medical series and presents a compelling argument for telling more truthful medical stories in the future to reflect---and address---the precarious state of our health-care system today."
---Neal Baer, M.D., executive producer of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

"The great contribution of Turow's book, in addition to providing a highly readable and smart overview of medical shows over the years, is to examine the consequences of the gap between the reality of medical care and the often romanticized, heroic depictions on television. This would be a very good book for professors to use in teaching a range of courses in communications studies, from introductory courses to more specialized classes on health and the media."
---Susan Douglas, Catherine Neafie Kellogg Professor, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, Communications Studies Department Chair, University of Michigan

Playing Doctor is an engaging and highly perceptive history of the medical TV series from its inception to the present day. Turow offers an inside look at the creation of iconic doctor shows as well as a detailed history of the programs, an analysis of changing public perceptions of doctors and medicine, and an insightful commentary on how medical dramas have both exploited and shaped these perceptions.

Drawing on extensive interviews with creators, directors, and producers, Playing Doctor is a classic in the field of communications studies. This expanded edition includes a new introduction placing the book in the contemporary context of the health care crisis, as well as new chapters covering the intervening twenty years of television programming. Turow uses recent research and interviews with principals in contemporary television doctor shows such as ER, Grey's Anatomy, House, and Scrubs to illuminate the extraordinary ongoing cultural influence of medical shows. Playing Doctor situates the television vision of medicine as a limitless high-tech resource against the realities underlying the health care debate, both yesterday and today.

Joseph Turow is Robert Lewis Shayon Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania. He was named a Distinguished Scholar by the National Communication Association and a Fellow of the International Communication Association in 2010. He has authored eight books, edited five, and written more than 100 articles on mass media industries. He has also produced a DVD titled Prime Time Doctors: Why Should You Care? that has been distributed to all first-year medical students with the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Praise for the first edition of Playing Doctor:

"With Playing Doctor, Joseph Turow has established himself as one of the foremost analytic historians of the interplay between television, its audiences, and other American institutions."
---George Comstock, S.I. Newhouse Professor at the Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University, in Health Affairs

Cover image: Eric Dane, Kate Walsh, Sara Ramirez, and crew members on the set of Grey's Anatomy © American Broadcasting Company, Inc.

Product Description

Ten years ago, Book Report called the third edition of Storytelling: Art and Technique, "invaluable … a volume no librarian will want to be without." This fourth edition of the classic storytelling "how to" is even better—with 30 percent new material, additional chapters, new stories, and updated bibliographies.

This edition provides both a history of storytelling in libraries and accessible instruction for bringing storytelling to contemporary listeners. It details the selection, preparation, and presentation of stories, as well as planning and administration of a storytelling program. Full texts of 13 stories for various ages and occasions are included, as is an extensive list of resources. Bonus essays offer a fascinating international perspective through a survey of storytelling in Ireland and the British Isles and a look at storytelling in contemporary China. Complete with everything one needs to know to launch a successful storytelling program, this is the perfect book for librarians, teachers, parents—and professional storytellers, too.

Product Description
Over the years, television and other cultural forces have robbed us of storytelling as a tool of communicating, learning, and healing. In The Healing Art of Storytelling, professional storyteller Richard Stone describes this crisis and its devastating effects, and then offers a step-by-step guide for creating a storytelling tradition that we can use to transform our families, our friendships, and ourselves. This ancient art offers us a fresh approach to issues such as coping with death and grieving, building esteem in ourselves and our children, finding courage in the face of uncertainty, and discovering the miraculous in the everyday.

With The Healing Art of Storytelling, readers will gain a deeper sense of integrity, purpose, and direction and, most importantly, see the story of their lives in a new light. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A View From a "Self-Help Book" Junkie
From "The Healing Art of Storytelling" Richard Stone writes,
"When we recognize that our deepest aspirations cannot besatisfied by a culture that has reduced life's meaning to a smorgasborg of the senses and material possessions, we must search for new sources of meaning, struggling with the same questions that challenged our ancestors" (Page 3).
"Our longing to find our place in this world is more than just a feeling." (Page 3)

If all these self-help books did what they claimed to do,
I would be at peace with myself, with my family, and even with my enemies, but this is not the case.We in the West have forgotten our philosophical roots: "Know thyself."

In order to bypass my rational mind where I have formed certain prejudices, I need stories to help me slip past the "rational" guards standing there protecting my ego.

Initially, my quest toward using stories to heal began with James Hillman's book "Healing Fiction." Richard Stone in his book "The Healing Art of Storytelling" offers a simpler and more understandable approach.

I certainly appreciate Mr.Hillman motivating me to look to fiction to aid me, but his critical and academic approach confused my simple layperson's mind.Mr. Stone's approach is more understandable because he offers his views in simple everyday language.

I am a realist at heart. I do not expect Romantic endings in life, but I do expect to find my way in and out of circles and through the many mazes of mysteries in my life.Richard Stone's book "The Healing Art of Storytelling" could be an aid for those looking for satisfaction that materialism has not been able to acccomplish or will ever able to do.

Thank you Mr. Stone.

Healed by storytelling.
Storyteller Richard Stone relates specific
steps to bringing the richness of storytelling
to our lives.With personal examples and many
exercises, he leads the reader down the ancient
road of story.This road leads past the quick
fix mentality of the '90's and the stuckness of
pop psychology toward the creativity which
has sustained cultures for generations.Buy
this book to help you reconnect to your story
and the story of those around you.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Sloppy publishing
I purchased this book for a college course.I was so excited to receive it that I started reading right away, though classes hadn't started yet.I threw it down, disappointed, at the third glaring typo/grammatical error by page 10.I have trouble relying on the work of an author who cannot be bothered to abide by common rules of language.I will share my disappointment with both my professor and my learning institute.

Get your hands on this book
This book is available for sale directly from the Center for Digital Storytelling website for $25 by visiting: www.storycenter.org/book.html

The proceeds of the book, if purchased directly from the Center, go to the CDS scholarship fund.

Thank you for your interest.

Great resource
This book is a gift to all of us who seek to tell our stories and those of our families and our communities. Excellent chapters on capturing memories, storyboarding,and digital filmmaking. Filmmakers, educators, media artists, oral historians, and genealogists will all find a treasure trove of accessible information --- and powerful, motivating stories. ... Read more

Product Description
For more than fifteen years, Mario Blaser has been involved with the Yshiro people of the Paraguayan Chaco as they have sought to maintain their world in the face of conservation and development programs promoted by the state and various nongovernmental organizations. In this ethnography of the encounter between modernizing visions of development, the place-based "life projects" of the Yshiro, and the agendas of scholars and activists, Blaser argues for an understanding of the political mobilization of the Yshiro and other indigenous peoples as part of a struggle to make the global age hospitable to a "pluriverse" containing multiple worlds or realities. As he explains, most knowledge about the Yshiro produced by non-indigenous "experts" has been based on modern Cartesian dualisms separating subject and object, mind and body, and nature and culture. Such thinking differs profoundly from the relational ontology enacted by the Yshiro and other indigenous peoples. Attentive to people's unique experiences of place and self, the Yshiro reject universal knowledge claims, unlike Western modernity, which assumes the existence of a universal reality and refuses the existence of other ontologies or realities. In Storytelling Globalization from the Chaco and Beyond, Blaser engages in storytelling as a knowledge practice grounded in a relational ontology and attuned to the ongoing struggle for a pluriversal globality.

... Read more

Product Description
Storytelling is perhaps the most common way people make sense of their experiences, claim identities, and "get a life." So much of our daily life consists of writing or telling our stories and listening to and reading the stories of others. But we rarely stop to ask: what are these stories? How do they shape our lives? And why do they matter?

The authors ably guide readers through the complex world of performing narrative. Along the way they show the embodied contexts of storytelling, the material constraints on narrative performances, and the myriad ways storytelling orders information and tasks, constitutes meanings, and positions speaking subjects. Readers will also learn that narrative performance is consequential as well as pervasive, as storytelling opens up experience and identities to legitimization and critique. The authors' multi-leveled model of strategy and tactics considers how relations of power in a system are produced, reproduced, and altered in performing narrative.

The authors explain this strategic model through an extended discussion of family storytelling, using Franco Americans in Maine as their exemplar. They explore what stories families tell, how they tell them, and how storytelling creates family identities. Then, they show the range and reach of this strategic model by examining storytelling in diverse contexts: a breast cancer narrative, a weblog on the Internet, and an autobiographical performance on the public stage. Readers are left with a clear understanding of how and why the performance of narrative is the primary communicative practice shaping our lives today. ... Read more

Product Description
Recent years have seen amateur personal stories, focusing on me, flourish on social networking sites and in digital storytelling workshops. The resulting digital stories could be called mediatized stories. This book deals with these self-representational stories, aiming to understand the transformations in the age-old practice of storytelling that have become possible with the new, digital media. Its approach is interdisciplinary, exploring how the mediation or mediatization processes of digital storytelling can be grasped and offering a sociological perspective of media studies and a socio-cultural take of the educational sciences. Aesthetic and literary perspectives on narration as well as questioning from an informatics perspective are also included. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Best Scholarly Book on Digital Storytelling to Date
If you are an educator or multimedia developer with an interest in digital storytelling, this may not be the book for you.It won't give you much guidance on how to lead others in telling personal stories through screen media.If, however, you are a scholar interested in theory and research on the reciprocal relationship between communications media and the authoring and interpretation of narratives, or the function of digital storytelling for the storytellers, this is the best book available on the topic.

The book is an edited anthology of 16 chapters held together fairly well by a focus on digital storytelling and "mediatization", theorizing the relationship between media and social practice.The authors begin with Digital Storytelling as developed by Lambert and the Center for Digital Storytelling at Berkeley, but expanded to include large-scale undertakings like the BBC's Telling Lives and Capture Wales projects, and Australia's efforts to bring digital storytelling into schools.Attention is also paid to the general and unorganized distribution of narratives through Web 2.0.There are some familiar US contributors (Glynda Hull, James Wertsch), but most of the authors are from Scandinavia, UK, Australia, and New Zealand, and they bring perspectives of media theorists together with cultural psychologists. Together, they invigorate thinking about the implications of digital narratives by ordinary people. ... Read more

Product Description

This pathbreaking book looks at everyday storytelling as a twofold phenomenon--a response to our desire for coherence, but also to our need to probe and acknowledge the enigmatic aspects of experience. Letting us listen in on dinner-table conversation, prayer, and gossip, Elinor Ochs and Lisa Capps develop a way of understanding the seemingly contradictory nature of everyday narrative--as a genre that is not necessarily homogeneous and as an activity that is not always consistent but consistently serves our need to create selves and communities.

Focusing on the ways in which narrative is co-constructed, and on the variety of moral stances embodied in conversation, the authors draw out the instructive inconsistencies of these collaborative narratives, whose contents and ordering are subject to dispute, flux, and discovery. In an eloquent last chapter, written as Capps was waging her final battle with cancer, they turn to "unfinished narratives," those stories that will never have a comprehensible end. With a hybrid perspective--part humanities, part social science--their book captures these complexities and fathoms the intricate and potent narratives that live within and among us.

Customer Reviews (2)

Sad Commentary on Linguistics
The authors' choice to consider ALL narratives, anytime, anywhere, pretty much doomed them to making bland, unsurprising claims, such as some narratives are organized chronologically and others aren't. And these "narratives"--actually, just tiny snippets of conversation from random people--are neither engaging nor open to further analysis because so little context is provided.

It's sad because this obsessive typologizing---i.e., "let's create a name and file for every kind of possible talk among humans"--is common practice in discourse analysis, [...].

Adequate but boring
Bought this book for a class on conversational narrative. At times it can be entertaining, but for the most part it's a real snoozer. ... Read more

Product Description
Today's postmodern world prefers mystery over logic, impression over rationale, aesthetic beauty over practicality, and symbolism over obvious answers. We live in an art-enriched, art-minded world.

For ministers, this rebirth of creativity and imagination opens the door for exciting possibilities. Scripture itself is an art form. The story of our Christian faith is woven together with the mystery, imagination, creativity, and beauty that characterize the very mind of God. No other book contains more murder plots, love stories, betrayals, adulterous affairs, heroic feats, tragedies, triumphs, and redemptive endings than the Bible.

Preaching as Art challenges pastors and speakers to use the Bible and its colorful imagery and literary brilliance to celebrate God's amazing story. It encourages preachers to invite their listeners to dialogue with them, to experience the Bible stories as they are being told, and by doing so participate in the very nature and image of God.Author Darius Salter provides practical ideas, sermon illustrations, examples, and a variety of media options to help speakers enrich and transform their messages into art forms that will lead listeners to appreciate the artistry of Scripture and encounter God as never before. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Christmas gifts for the grandchildren...
I purchased The Flannel Board Storytelling Book as the first step in making flannel board stories for my grandchildren. I am very pleased with this purchase. The figures are simple. Though preparation of the stories will be time-consuming, I believe first teaching the stories, then letting my grandchildren teach me will be well worth the price I paid for this book. It is a collection of both well-loved stories from my childhood, and many others that teach values and offer the opportunity to talk about life situations. I'm excited for Christmas. R ALLEN

The Flannel Board Storytelling Book
As a volunteer storyteller for our local library's storytime, I have recently looked through this book and found it to be a superb addition to our resource section. Here are 4 reasons I have found this book to be helpful enough to own my own copy. 1. It is instantly useable, no need to tweak and edit the stories. 2. The stories lend themselves to puppets as well. 3. The stories and rhymes are simple and easy to use. 4. The book itself is nicely organized.

Everything you need to know to tell flannel board stories.
I train childcare teachers and use this book when teaching how to tell flannel board stories.The author gives guidelines for using the flannel board story with different age groups.A total of 50+ stories, poems, andsongs are included, some appropriate for the younger child, some for agesfive and older.The selection is varied, including familiar stories suchas "Three Billy Goats Gruff" and "The Three Pigs". Also included are folktales which are less familiar but equally wonderful. For each story, the author shares special directions for using the flannelboard characters and how to include the children in the telling of thatstory.For me, a special feature of this book are the patterns for thecharacters--they are large, clear, and easy to duplicate. ... Read more