A glimpse of the second book in the Living Story series!
Thank you to Scotty Smith, Nancy Puryear, and Daniel Taylor for kind endorsements.
Amazon so graciously has given you a look inside. Click here to see the rest.
Posts Tagged ‘Daniel Taylor’
In chapter 6 of Daniel Taylor’s book (see yesterday’s post for Part 1), he talks about telling a good story:
“Everyone, I have claimed, has the ability to tell a story, and particularly a story from their own life. You do not have to be taught how to tell a story, or need “five secrets to good storytelling ” articles, or advice from people like me. Telling stories is as natural as breathing, and you have been doing it since before you could talk (pointing and crying and making faces being among our first storytelling strategies).”
To persuade us to write these stories down so that they may remain as a legacy, Taylor encourages,
“We have this deep-seated misconception that anyone can talk but only writers can write – as though putting our story on paper puts us in competition with Tolstoi.
Let it go. You’re not competing with Tolstoi. You’re competing with oblivion, which is what you’ll have if you don’t pass on your stories. Any story, whether beautifully or primitively written, is a strike against being forgotten.
Taylor goes on in this chapter to get some theory helpful instructions about how to begin writing down stories. Making lists of stories and characters, organizing around scenes, and telling the truth are just a few of the many excellent suggestions he offers. Again, this is where a blog fails in its capacity to share the many riches Creating a Spiritual Legacy contains. Buy the book. Write a story. Leave a legacy.
Don’t you just love it when you discover a hidden treasure in your very own bookshelf? Such was my great pleasure this weekend when, while cleaning my study, I unearthed Creating a Spiritual Legacy by Daniel Taylor. Since it was a gift from the author himself, who has graciously taught me so much about story, I’ll admit straight forth my bias. Daniel Taylor is a wise man, scholar of story, and he does a great job of cheering on ‘every woman/man’ to ‘just do it,’ get out there or in there and tell a story. Not only does he encourage us; he actually tells us how,mwith some specific, short exercises any of us could do instead of scrolling through Facebook or Twitter.
He includes stories from a broad spectrum of folks, old and young, to show us that leaving legacies is for everyone. Here’s a brief quote about ‘why story.’ stay tuned for a few more savory bites over the next few days. Caveat: reading blog excerpts will NOT be enough to summarize the wealth of story-help in this delightful book. Go ahead and order it now.
“Stories are, among other things, organisms for storing and preserving a life. But they do not do so and a static,mothballed way. Stories do not preserve our lives in the same way that mummification preserves a body or quite and the way that a battery preserves a charge. Rather, stories preserve a life and the way a plant preserves the sun. They absorb and embody the energy and dynamism of a life as a tree ties up the energy of the sun in its limbs, ready to be released again should someone strike a match.”
Daniel Taylor, “>Creating a Spiritual Legacy
