A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: How I Learned to Live a Better Story Author: Visit Amazon's Donald Miller Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1400202981 | Format: PDF
A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: How I Learned to Live a Better Story Description
From Publishers Weekly
Miller, the accidental memoirist who struck gold with the likable ramble
Blue Like Jazz, writes about the challenges inherent in getting unstuck creatively and spiritually. After
Jazz sold more than a million copies but his other books didn't follow suit, he had a classic case of writer's block. Two movie producers contacted him about creating a film out of his life, but Miller's initial enthusiasm was dampened when they concluded that his real life needed doctoring lest it be too directionless for the screen. Real stories, he learned, require characters who suffer and overcome. In desultory fashion, Miller sets out to change his own life—to be the kind of guy who seeks out his father, chases the girl and undertakes a quest. Along the way, he comes to understand God as a master storyteller who doesn't quite control where his characters are going. An unexpected bonus of this book is Miller's insights into the writing process. Readers who loved
Blue Like Jazz will find here a somewhat more mature Miller, still funny as hell but more concerned about making a difference in the world than in merely commenting on it.
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--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Donald Miller is a speaker, founder of The Mentoring Project, and author of
A Million Miles in a Thousand Years,
Blue Like Jazz, Searching for God Knows What,
Through Painted Deserts, and
Father Fiction.
- Paperback: 257 pages
- Publisher: Thomas Nelson; 2009 edition (March 8, 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1400202981
- ISBN-13: 978-1400202980
- Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
- Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Ok, I'm a word snob. I write a lot and read even more. I know that Donald Miller is a good writer. A d-mn good writer. And there were many spots of superb prose on enough pages that kept me on the lookout for the next beauty of a passage. Like this one, for example, on page 155:
"And once you live a good story, you get a taste for a kind of meaning in life, and you can't go back to being normal; you can't go back to meaningless scenes stitched together by the forgettable thread of wasted time. The more practice stories I lived, the more I wanted an epic to climb inside of and see through till its end."
That is great writing. Miller is totally on his A-game with his craft in AMMiaTY.
Yet the whole time I was reading, there was a tension in my mind.I could not completely enter the dreamland that a book can take you to. I was distracted by a kind of angsty resistance to my perceived takeaway message of the content. The above passage is an example of what I mean.
Normal and ordinary living seem devalued in the premise of the Story about story. Epic living, like hiking the Inca Trail, biking across America, starting a non-profit....all great endeavors, and God knows we can all use a bit of epic goodness in our lives. Yet I can't help but wonder about celebrating normal and steady.
Most of us most of the time must make the best of the story we find ourselves in and make peace with the lack of epic drama. Most of us work at jobs to pay our rent and provide for the people we care for. We are kind to our neighbors and give at the office. This is our epic: that we show up everyday.
My tension with the author's premise about changing your story if you are living a boring life is perhaps just my own effed up issue.
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