How to Tell a Story: The Essential Guide to Memorable Storytelling from The Moth Paperback – April 25, 2023

I can’t put it down! Helpful, real examples and actionable advice. I shared with my toastmasters group. This is a great buy!

If you are looking to learn how to tell a story that is truthful, honest, and connects with people, this book is for you.The book is well written with short sections and short chapters to appeal to those of us with shorter attention spans, but not so short that you lose the "distance" readers.Every chapter is well crafted to feed into the next. There are summary pages that help you review and deepen the points of the chapter (they are not a good substitute for reading the book).This would be a great book for professors to assign to their students in a speaking, writing, and/or composition course. *If you or someone you love is struggling to get out of academia, tell them: it gets better. Stop the violence against faculty!

As a radio and TV personality in Los Angeles, I’ve been telling stories for decades. Somehow, it just came naturally. I had a lot of encouragement from parents, teachers and friends who seemed to always enjoy my stories. However, I’m also an avid learner with a lot of curiosity. So, I must say that I really enjoyed this book. A lot of it seemed familiar - things that I had heard before. But it was also filled with new angles and ideas worth my full attention and consideration. If you love to share stories, you should read this book. Chances are, you’ll become even better at what you’re already doing.

A complete end to end formula for how to tell effective and interesting stories

My brother loves the book.

SUPER GLEN, THE BOOK PEDDLER, MAKES A DIFFERENCE IN THE DISCOUNT BOOK ARENA. IF HE CAN ANTE UP BETTER SHIPPING RATES...IT WOULD BE GLORIOUS...BUT THANK YOU, SUPER GLEN "THE COLPOLTEUR" OF LITERATURE.

I’m rating at 3 stars because it’s incredibly niche. Laugh >>> Cry. If you want to tell a TRUE PERSONAL story that has personal meaning, make it honest, entertaining and funny, while also making it hit home, then this is your manual.I was looking for broader structure on the craft of storytelling, but this feels like a workshop in preparation for going on stage and baring your heart to an audience about an experience that changed you. Every story gets punctuated with a clever one-liner that succinctly summarizes your growth as a person. “Maybe the real treasure was the friends we made along the way.”Perhaps it’s my own upbringing and how storytelling was a tool to grow me, especially in my formative years, but stories, even true personal stories, do not necessarily need to round out to some personal growth moment in order to be powerful. The ones I reflect on often simply expose truth about the world around us; reality cleverly reveals its nature to us in a trillion tiny teaching moments, if you’re quick enough to catch it. And if you’re a good storyteller, you can give that shred of insight to others that they may accept as truth, and perhaps even do it in a way that explains you as person.There is some useful stuff in here about the power of storytelling that is transferable to stuff outside of a Moth recital scenario. Mostly though I just resent that I cannot listen to a Moth story now without hearing the guidance from this book and perceiving the stories as a more involved fill-in-the-blank

I will likely never have the courage to tell a story at The Moth, but that doesn't mean knowing how to tell a story with conviction, confidence, and efficiency is without merit. We all know someone who meanders, loses the plot, and sometimes frustrates all those in attendance, and this book could actually help even those who struggle carrying a normal conversation. This book acts as an entertaining primer into storytelling, but also acts as a guide on how to be a more effective conversationalist. The applications are relevant to anyone that wants to interact with other people in the best way possible. And yes, there are stories which are delightful. It's worth your time.