Donald Miller's Blog, page 157

Lance Armstrong Saves a Cat

There's this trick in screenwriting/storytelling called "Saving the Cat" in which you have your protagonist do something good, say on page fifteen or so of your screenplay, that way when the movie ends, and your character beats back the bad guys, the audience will be glad for him, and feel contentment about the story they just experienced. It's true in life too.

It was troubling today, then, to see Alberto Contador bashing his teammate Lance Armstrong in a press conference in Spain. Contador won

Interview with Mike Hyatt of Thomas Nelson Publishers

Anne Jackson, over at Flowerdust.net sat both Mike Hyatt (CEO, Thomas Nelson Publishers) and I down to talk through what Mike and I will be sharing at the upcoming Story conference in Chicago. You can find this video on her blog, but I thought it was interesting enough to feature here as well. The event will come in just about the middle of the Million Miles tour, but I will be sharing most of the same material there that I will in the other 60 cities. Looking forward to the conference. Thanks,

Another Sample Chapter

I wanted to post another chapter before I left for Nashville. I actually posted a good chunk of this chapter a couple months ago, but seeing as I turned in all the final edits yesterday, I thought I'd post the entire thing. It's a short chapter, but it's gotten some good feedback. There's a small section in the middle of the chapter that calls back to an earlier chapter in the book. I attended a Robert McKee seminar, and in one of his lectures he addresses the power of conflict as a means of cha

Interviewing the Greats

I'll write till I die, I suppose. Writing got much harder for me after Blue Like Jazz took off, and until this last book I even considered finding other work, mostly because my voice began to feel affected. Million Miles changed that because, for reasons I don't understand, I stopped caring how the words made me sound, and cared more about how the words sounded. The process reminded me that I could actually love writing the way I did before I got published. I hope whatever book comes next is as

The Winner of the funniest comment contest.

 

Yesterday I ran a contest to see if people knew the significance of this photo. I was surprised so many of you did. Way to know cycling, or random facts, or geek trivia, whatever fits you. And then we opened it up for a second contest to see if anybody could come up with a funny explanation of the photo. Out of more than 200 entries, in which on more than one occasion I looked at Lucy and rolled my eyes, and on a singular occasion she did the same to me, we actually got one that came with a sur

Win a Free copy of A Million Miles, right now.

Okay, the first person who can correctly say why this photo is significant, on this day, wins a free book. Here is a hint, today is Bastille Day. Have fun!

A Poem for Aiden Reeves

 

My friends Chase and Mellisa Reeves are, as I type, bringing their son Aiden into the world. We are all following Chase' twitter updates as though they were weather forecasts. It's like being around a radio in the forties or something. So tonight I went on a walk and said a prayer for Aiden, and for Chase and Mellisa, who have had a hard labor. I also wrote Aiden a "welcome to the world" poem. Welcome, Aiden, to your family, to your community, and to God.

 

The Proper Grieving of a Fallen World

A

An Update on These Numbers Have Faces

A few months ago I wrote about my roomate, Justin Zoradi who started an organization called These Numbers Have Faces, a non-profit providing scholarships for students in South Africa. Many of you jumped in and supported his work. We actually hired Justin at The Mentoring Project as our Director of Communication. He works for us part time, and still manages These Numbers as they grow and provide more scholarships.

I wanted to share something of a celebration video with you regarding one of their s

Lessons in Leadership, Robert McNamara teaches the most important lesson

I won't follow anybody who can't admit a mistake. I led a college group at a church once, and as part of a series I created I asked all the pastors at the church to address the college group regarding mistakes they made when they were the age of my students. The pastors agreed, save one, who, as humbly as he could, explained he hadn't made any mistakes. As the years went on, I noticed something about this pastor, I noticed he never admitted he was wrong, about anything, and I also noticed a trai

Million Miles Tour Update

We are nearly finished booking the Million Miles Tour. I'll be hitting the road, speaking in 65 cities this fall. In about a month, I'll post the names of the cities, and information about when and where I will be. I'm very much looking forward to hitting the road with this book. Susan Isaacs will be out with me and she is very funny, so it should be a good night for all. We still have several cities we want to hit but are looking for the right venue. If you happen to live in or near one of thes