Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling Paperback – 15 Jun. 2018

I picked up this book because it was highly recommended and because I wanted to make my lectures and blog posts more entertaining. The author is a veteran of the storytelling circuit and clearly knows his stuff. The book draws the reader in from the first page, which is not something that I expected from a non-fiction book. In fact, I enjoyed his writing so much that I started to watch his other stories online. I also got all of the practical advice that I was hoping for, including exercises to find one’s own stories, guidelines on structuring a story, and neat tricks to make stories more engaging. The examples and application are mostly geared towards storytelling. Because that is not my interest, I would have wished for some more examples of how these methods can be applied for other formats, e.g. teaching, meeting presentations etc. However, I think I got enough of an idea from the book to try this out myself. This book is a treat to read and picking up any useful information is a (welcome) bonus.

There is so much power and profound wisdom contained in every chapter, in every page, in every sentence.If you've ever dreamed of becoming the type of person that other people drop everything to listen to, then this is a damn good place to start.Highly recommend.

I liked the overall tone and style, some of the stories were interesting and emotional.I think that a lot of the advice will br hard to put into practice just from reading this book. It is more of a primer.

Reading Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling has profoundly changed the way I perceive small issues. The steps outlined in the book have helped me create vivid and meaningful images of life and quality. A heartfelt thank you to the writer for sharing this wonderful book. It is truly a transformative read that I highly recommend.

In 2019 I came across Matthew Dicks talking about storytelling and thought he knew his stuff. Then I listened to his stories and thought he was amazing. But it was only when I read this book that he changed my life.His passion and knowledge about storytelling are far beyond anything I've come across so far, and I actually work with this! He will make you love stories and want to tell them - which is great.But his concept of Homework for Life might genuinely make you love yourself and your life more. It's done that for me.As Matt says, stories are about change, about how something has changed you as a person. My story has a clear inflection point: before and after reading this book. I believe it can do the same for you.

Well worth it if you want to really be a story teller

And we all need to be able to tell our stories. Dicks really helps explore technical aspects like structure and delivery, but he also has some really effective broader guidance about how to live one’s life. Interesting and very readable.

I read this after seeing it reviewed on Ali Abdaal's YouTube channel and I have mixed feelings. Mainly, it has some really excellent advice in and I already feel like my stories have improved. His "homework for life" strategy is one amazing piece of advice that can be used in so many situations. He also gives some advice on craft, including some very valid points about linguistic effects of certain devices such as choice of tense, and I've made a lot of notes and highlights.The two main reasons I didn't score this more highly are:• I did feel like there was a lot of repetition in there. It's like the gold nuggets (and there are lots) are buried under a lot of other stuff and much of it is the same. Honestly I think a fair amount could have been cut and the book would not have suffered, and might even have felt better for it. That being said, I know a lot of people really appreciate a point being hammered home and phrased in different ways to help it sink in, so I'm sure this is a personal opinion.• this is very definitely aimed at oral storytellers and much of the advice is specifically directed at these readers. This is great, he is an experienced and talented storyteller and it shows; it's just I expected maybe a little more broadly applicable advice. Again, however, this is just me and I'm pretty sure if someone was wanting to tell better stories (whether that's in a competition or just round the dinner table) they really must read this.And once again, the homework for life/5-second moment advice makes this book totally worth reading. Just a lot of it wasn't for me.