Doug Lipman, Improving Your Storytelling: Beyond the Basics for All Who Tell Stories in Work or Play (Atlanta: August House, 1999)

Doug Lipman offers a very practical and complete guide to storytelling for amateurs and professionals alike. I was especially grateful for his expanded section on imagery and the distinctions between oral and written language. This distinction is often missed by professionals who have extensive experience in public speaking. As a pastor, I was also grateful for his emphasis on relationships: relationship between the storyteller and the audience, relationship between the audience and the story.

There are, of course, intuitive storytellers who do not invest much time in analyzing their style or honing their presentation. Such storytelling should be considered. But for most of us, it is a skill that requires conscious practice. It is for us that this book is useful.

The book also contains lots of useful tips for storytellers regarding preparation, practice, program planning a more. This is definitely a book to which I will return from time to time.