Unabridged Audiobook
After about ninety minutes of the audiobook, I was already worn out from sifting through Matthew’s endless tales, though he’s clearly got a talent for spinning them. If you’re aiming to pick up the knack for telling a gripping story, I wouldn’t steer you toward this book. What I really wanted were concrete techniques to hone my own storytelling, but he spends way more time recounting his own life than dishing out teaching methods. The key thing I took away was the value of jotting things down in a personal log—except he doesn’t call it a “diary.” You might say it’s a journal, but he skips that term too. He dives deep into what are basically diary entries and lays out nearly every moment he’s lived through, yet he didn’t hold my interest enough to keep me hooked on all his stories.
At first, I thought he would just tell his stories, but as the book develops, he gives very good explanations, tips, and exercises of how to tell a good story.
This book made me feel something I haven’t felt in a long time. I feel inspired to create and absolutely love the advice he gives. Amazing!
If you want to learn how to tell a great story, I don't recommend this book. Matthew tells you pretty much every story of his life, and even goes into his diary entries. Although he doesn't refer to it as his diary. He spends all his time on telling stories and very little time on actual teaching methods. An hour and a half into the audio and I was already exhausted from listening to his stories. He is very good at telling stories, but failed to keep me interested enough to listen to them all. What I really wanted was to learn methods that would teach me to tell great stories. The most I took from it was to keep a diary. Again, Matthew doesn't call it a diary, but by all definitions, that's what it is. Or, you could call it a journal, but he doesn't use that word either.
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