What's Your Story?: A Workbook for the Storyteller in All of Us

by Margot Leitman

Overview

Whether you want to give a memorable toast, nail a business presentation, or perform onstage, Moth champion storyteller Margot Leitman will have you brainstorming ideas in this engaging workbook, developing them into fully fleshed-out stories, and telling them aloud in no time!

A complement to her bestselling storytelling guide, Long Story Short, five-time Moth champion storyteller Margot Leitman has created this useful and inspiring workbook with exercises and prompts that walk you through creating a story from idea to performance. What's Your Story? includes lists and guided prompts for generating ideas, story templates for developing your stories, and bonus content geared toward performance storytelling. Perfect for aspiring storytellers, including The Moth performers, comics, memoirists, and public speakers, as well as anyone hoping to tap into the power of storytelling in their personal or professional lives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781632172150
Publisher:	Sasquatch Books
Publication date:	08/27/2019
Series:	Long Story Short
Edition description:	Workbook
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Margot Leitman founded the storytelling program at Upright Citizens Brigade and is a five-time winner of The Moth and a winner of the Moth GrandSLAM, achieving the series' first ever score of a perfect ten. She has performed on Best Week Ever and Late Night With Conan O'Brien, and her stories have been featured on The Moth podcast, RISK!, and NPR's Good Food, and Unfictional. Her storytelling workshops at corporations, theaters, and comedy groups are popular on both coasts.

Read an Excerpt

LET’S DIVE IN
 
Have you ever had something running through your mind and needed to vent? And when you finally share it with a friend, they said, “I totally know how you feel” Or maybe your friend finally got you to laugh about what happened. The simple act of sharing the problem with another person often makes us feel better. The situation at hand hasn’t fundamentally changed, but by talking about it out loud you’ve altered the weight it has on you. You’re no longer carrying around that story you have been telling yourself; it now lives somewhere else.

This workbook is basically a rent-free apartment for all your stories. Sharing a story via the page or the stage gives your experiences an outlet, so they are no longer swirling around only in your head. The simple act of releasing a story from your mind, where its only purpose is to take up space and distract you, can be cathartic, healing, and can also change the course of your life and career.

I know this from personal experience. For the past ten or so years, I’ve been fortunate enough to tell true stories for a living and teach others all around the world to do so. I’ve seen lives changed by just beginning this journey. Students of mine have ended relationships, gotten sober, proposed to their partners, begun therapy, quit jobs, launched successful businesses and more—after discoveries they made through the process of sharing their stories in front of others. I never cease to be amazed by how powerful it is to simply share your truth.
 
Before you begin, it will help to understand what exactly a story is. Throughout this workbook, when I use the word “story” I am talking about a true experience that moved or affected you, and one that contains a beginning, middle and end. Great stories have conflict and build to a climax, leading to a resolution and conclusion. But don’t be overwhelmed by the technical stuff. All you need to remember to get started is: be free, keep it true, and have fun.
 
 
No matter what your end goal is, as you use this journal, be sure to make it a judgment-free/censorship-free activity. No one ever needs to see this but you, and if you choose to take a story onstage, to the boardroom or in print, you’ll have plenty of time to edit then.

Editorial Reviews

"When you watch Margot Leitman telling stories onstage, you find yourself laughing hysterically and somehow feeling less alone in a world where it seems everyone else got some kind of instruction manual."
—Dan Kennedy, host of The Moth storytelling podcast, and writer-performer
 
"Margot Leitman is a rare thing: she's a performer, a writer, and... the teacher you secretly have a crush on. Sharp as hell, Leitman teaches you how to tell your own story. Through sharing her process, telling personal stories, and giving practical exercises, she will give you the tools and confidence you need to share your story with the world."
—Elna Baker, author and regular contributor to This American Life
 
"For our improv show ASSSSCAT the success of the performance hinges on how meaty the story is that the monologist gives us. Margot always delivers a nice thick cut of filet mignon."
—Matt Besser, cofounder of Upright Citizens Brigade and author of The Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisation Manual
 
"Margot Leitman and Michael Jordan are both naturally good at storytelling/basketball. But they're not content to coast on their natural abilities; they also work at their craft/dunks. But where they differ is that Michael Jordan has retired and Margot Leitman continues to hone her formidable skills on the word processor/court."
—Rob Delaney, comedian and best-selling author
 
"Margot Leitman is not only an incredibly skilled and entertaining storyteller but also a gifted teacher. She is the person you most want next to you around a campfire, at a grungy bar, or cheering you on at your first PowerPoint presentation." 
—Jillian Lauren, New York Times bestselling author of Some Girls: My Life in a Harem
 
"Whether you know it or not, there are great stories inside of you, and Margot Leitman is the perfect person to help you find them and squeeze every drop of humor and emotion out of them when you do. Long story short, she rules. Buy this book."
—DC Pierson, author of The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To

From the Publisher