Telling Stories: The Craft of Narrative and the Writing Life

by Lee Martin

A prolific and award-winning writer, Lee Martin has put pen to paper to offer his wisdom, honed during thirty years of teaching the oh-so-elusive art of writing. Telling Stories is intended for anyone interested in thinking more about the elements of storytelling in short stories, novels, and memoirs. Martin clearly delineates helpful and practical techniques for demystifying the writing process and provides tools for perfecting the art of the scene, characterization, detail, point of view, language, and revision—in short, the art of writing. His discussion of the craft in his own life draws from experiences, memories, and stories to provide a more personal perspective on the elements of writing.

Martin provides encouragement by sharing what he’s learned from his journey through frustrations, challenges, and successes. Most important, Telling Stories emphasizes that you are not alone on this journey and that writers must remain focused on what they the process of moving words on the page. By focusing on that purpose, Martin contends, the journey will always take you where you’re meant to go.
 

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction

253 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 1, 2017

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author on Goodreads with the name Lee Martin.

Lee Martin, author of The Bright Forever.
Lee Martin, Mystery Novels.
Lee Martin, Pseudonym of Anne Wingate
Lee Martin, Western Novels.

Reviews

[Romie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I truly thought I would appreciate this book a lot more.
There were a lot of interesting advices, but I was expecting something a bit more structured and scholar I guess, something concrete and not all these informations given to you this way.
It was interesting, but not necessary.

2.5

[SundayAtDusk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some books about writing by authors, including those who teach writing, are sometimes more memoir that writing exercises. I personally prefer those books; although, from reading reviews online, it’s obvious others feel cheated if there is not a lot of discussion about techniques or a lot of exercises. This book by Lee Martin should please both interest groups.

Even though it’s lighter on memoir, there is enough about Mr. Martin’s life to give the reader a good picture of where he came from and how his farm childhood made him the man and writer he is today. His father, who lost both hands when the author was an infant, still worked the farm with his mother’s help, but was often an angry man. Mr. Martin admits to his own anger problems earlier in his lifetime, but tells how he overcame them by writing out his feelings of anger. As he points out, to write honestly, you can’t run away from your feelings and fears, but must confront them.

Writing out your feelings, fears and childhood memories. Writing while slowly rocking in a rocking chair or recliner. Writing in one’s writing room. Writing in longhand at times, when writing on the computer just isn’t hitting the mark. Writing after daydreaming quite a bit about a story and the characters in it. Writing after taking a long quiet walk outside where only the birds are talking.

When I first started reading this book, I liked Lee Martin okay and thought he appeared to be a helpful writing teacher. By the time I reached the end of the book, however, I really liked Mr. Martin and understood where he was coming from; as a man who was a child, during the 1950s-1970s, who spent a lot of time alone; a lot of time out in nature, a lot of time thinking and dreaming. There are plenty of highly useful writing exercises in his book; as well as references to stories by other authors one can study to learn techniques; as well as both practical and heartfelt advice about the writing life. One of the author’s best pieces of advice is that sometimes silence or quietness is what a writer needs the most to succeed.

(Note: I received a free e-copy of this book from NetGalley and the author or publisher.)

[Stephen Bacon · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an aspiring writer I've read many 'how to' books over the years. There are thousands out there, probably hundreds of thousands. Some are more well known than others. This has probably more to do with the person writing them, than the quality of the advice contained with the book. A great deal of the time the advice is repeated. This is usually because the advice is sound. But it does tend to make these kind of books slightly samey when it comes to reading them. Which brings me to Telling Stories - the Craft of Narrative and the Writing Life by Lee Martin. This one felt rather different to the usual offerings.

I have never heard of Lee Martin. As far as I know this is the only book of his I've ever read. And yet his book is one of the most memorable 'how to write' books I've come across. Actually to classify this book as a 'how to write' piece of non-fiction is to do it a disservice. It's far more than that. Martin talks about the mechanics of writing, sure, but there is so much more to it than that. It's part memoir, part writing guide, part fiction theory analysis. By the time I had finished this book I felt like I knew a little bit more about Lee Martin's life, his fears and hopes, his methods and aims. His book is accessible whilst also managing to not pander to the reader. I think it's fair to say that Martin expects a level of writer who isn't starting out with their first blank sheet of paper and pen. It's assumed that the reader already has the basics and is in need of inspiration as well as encouragement. Martin discusses some more complex aspects of storytelling, so in this regard I'd say that this probably isn't the first book you should read if you're looking to start out writing for the first time. In my experience, the path of writing is in itself a journey of discovery. This book is something that you'd expect to come across quite a way along the route. But, in a way, it's exactly that that makes it rather unique. I have a feeling that Telling Stories will be a book that I return to again and again in the future.

[Diane Hernandez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Practical ideas for improving your writing.

Telling Stories covers most areas of writing short fiction, novels and memoirs. It has sections on structure, characterization, detail, point of view, language and revision. It also has a short section on the writing life, which includes how to start writing and defeat writer's block.

The author uses many quotes from contemporary fiction to show rather than just tell the reader how the skills he is discussing are used. Since the author is a creative writing teacher, he also explains how his students improved their writing by applying his tips. Exercises and writing prompts are sprinkled liberally throughout the book.

Reading with the goal of improving the style and structure of my book reviews, this is my first writing manual. So the book contains many ideas that are fresh to me. However, this book seems geared to newbies like myself rather than to experienced writers or even those who have read a few similar writing guides previously. The author's homey, I'm talking directly to you style is refreshing. There is none of the I know everything and you know nothing effect of many works of instructional non-fiction. The structure is well-organized from simple to complex themes that are ordered in the way that a writer would create a piece. Telling Stories is a solid 3 and a half stars rounded up to 4.

Thanks to the publisher, University of Nebraska Press, and netgalley for an advanced review copy.

[Nat · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book was interesting in its discussion of creative non-fiction, but I have to say I was hoping it would be more on the academic side. The majority of the book consisted of the author talking about his family, conferences and personal experiences that oftentimes had nothing to do with writing. It might have been a good example for people who write non-fiction but to me, it felt like he was just filling pages without actual meaning a lot of the time. The structure of the book was also quite lanky and I was hoping for more details on the topics rather than just examples upon examples. Sometimes you have to get academic about it instead of analysing other people's work.

[Leda Frost · Rating 3 out of 5]

A writing manual with an emphasis on creative nonfiction is a rare beast in itself, but Martin does an excellent job illuminating what could be called the structure of memoir and offering insight into such details as characterization, narrative voice, persona, revision, and the writing life.

[sarah morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent resource for writers of all genres. I found Martin's prompts to be different from others I've read and found them quite inspiring. Example of a short story prompt:
"Open a [short] story with a line something like this: 'I was cutting wheat when Burton Quick came to tell me [fill in the rest of the line however you'd like.]' Something in the first line signals that the story is opening in the midst of something that will make this day unlike any other in our narrator's life."

I'll be keeping it close to my writing desk.