Storytelling and the Art of Imagination Paperback – May 1, 2003

Student needed book for an assignment. Paid for rush delivery and got it Sunday morning. He got 100% on the assignment. Thank you

This is my favorite book on storytelling. It is not the kind of book that you read through and are done with. I jump in and out of the book, working with the wonderfully imaginative pictures that the author paints of the various story characters and settings. I really enjoy the storytelling challenges that she gives at the end of each section. I have written and told more than one good story based on these challenges. This is a book that encourages you to become a storytelling. It teaches through encouragement, not by analysis of story forms. There are other books that do that. A great companion to this book is Kendall Haven's "Story Smart." He takes a story apart into its components. Nancy Mellon shows you how to tell a story. Kendall Haven presents the intellectual side of storytelling. Nancy Mellon presents the imaginative. Read them together for the full picture.

Book was very helpful, however it arrived too late for the event I was preparing for.

Nancy Mellon, in her Storytelling and the Art of the Imagination deeply understands the unique place of storytelling among other arts. For her, storytelling is ultimately the art form of the imaginative realm. Story-work explores our myths, our symbols, our hurts, and our triumphs, wrapped in the many layers of voice, movement, and language. In a story, a boy is not only a boy, or a genie only a genie. These story characters become expressions of ourselves and of the potent energies of creativity and self-discovery which we all contain.On a more practical level, the book is not just fantastical explorations of the imagination -- each section ends with story-starters or ideas that will allow for the brave soul to experiment with the topic of a particular essay. Topics run the gamut, from different roles and objects in stories, to the kinds of landscapes and descriptions used. In my opinion, the essays work in increasing difficulty, making this an excellent text by which to learn some of the fundamentals of good storytelling.Full disclosure: I will be teaching a class on storytelling in a theatre department later this quarter. This is the book I chose as my text. I did so, not only for the reasons mentioned above, but because ultimately I needed a text to guide my students, predominantly actors and teachers, to understand storytelling in its own terms. Storytelling is a narrative, performative, and poetic art form --- and one which, I believe, is the most natural for us. Even if you say you have “no musical talent,” you can make up a story about your day, or about how something could be. To that end, I most appreciate Nancy Mellon’s book for its clarity about storytelling, and the warmth and eagerness she brings to the art form.

Fabulous and enjoyable

This book covers a lot of territory but the initial statement of the Introduction captures its intent "This is a book to help restore story wisdom to your daily life". The writer draws on a great deal of personal experience as a storyteller in educational and therapeutic settings to show how stories can help heal and teach.The writer covers most aspects of ancient lore from "Once upon a time" through to "and they lived happily ever after". A ittle like Joseph Campbell she helps us to understand stories as our support as we seek self-knowledge, self discipline, a way to overcome obstacles and unhappiness, and an understanding of the nature of true happiness.She helps us understand the geography and landforms of story, the elements, seasons and, most of all, the classic characters.The writer gives many exercises to help readers develop their storytelling powers, step by step. She gives examples of stories and story forms - all in all this is a comprehensive look at the topic that does not get bogged down in irrelevant detail.I would recommend this book to anyone who wishes to tell better stories, or understand the deeper meaning of the stories they are tellnig. The power of metaphor is alive and well and interpreted in this book.