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A Story is a Promise & The Spirit of Storytelling
This is the writing workbook that will help new or struggling writers to understand both the art and craft of storytelling.This book has three sections. A Story is a Promise explores the mechanics of telling a story. Deep Characterization explores what happens when an author makes characters an extention of the author's issues. The Spirit of Storytelling suggests techniques for authors to create characters with fully realized inner lives; characters who are vibrant, dynamic, and resonate with readers.The book includes a link to an outline of The Lovely Bones and a diagram for developing the dramatic truths of characters, and new reviews of popular movies, including Inception, and detailed reviews of Romeo and Juliet (the play), The Heidi Chronicles (play), The Shawshank Redemption and The Usual Suspects (movies), and The Lovely Bones (novels). These reviews are meant to help writers understand the underlying process that creates popular stories.Learn storytelling from the reading or watching the stories you love!
- GenresWriting
318 pages, Paperback
First published September 15, 2001
34 people are currently reading
208 people want to read
About the author
Bill Johnson
763 books539 followersBill Johnson and his wife Brenda (Beni) Johnson are the Senior Pastors of Bethel Church in Redding, California. Johnson is a fifth generation pastor.
Johnson was born in Minnesota in 1951 and became a Christian as a young child. Soon after, Johnson read seven books on prayer, which significantly affected his perspective and subsequent ministry.
Bill Johnson and his wife have three children: Eric, Brian and Leah.
Johnson speaking at a conference
Bill Johnson and Beni (Brenda) began as singles pastors under his father at Bethel. In 1979, they became senior pastors of Mountain Chapel in Weaverville, California.
While pastoring in Weaverville, Johnson attended a 1987 conference led by John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard Church Movement. According to Johnson "A number of healings and manifestations broke out and I didn't know what to do with it. I didn't object to it, I wasn't opposed to it; I just didn't know how to pastor it in a way that it would continue and increase".
In 1995, Johnson attended the Toronto Blessing revival at the Toronto Airport Vineyard church. Johnson relates: "In Toronto I said, 'Lord, if You touch me again I will never change the subject.' So I went up for prayer every time it was offered. I didn't have anything dramatic happen, but I came home and said, 'I am going to give the rest of my life to this.'"
In February 1996, after 17 years of leading the Weaverville church, the Johnsons were invited to become senior pastors of Bethel. Today Johnson describes Bethel as a church where "everything we do either fuels revival or is fueled by revival." Under his leadership, Bethel left the Assemblies of God in 2006 to become a nondenominational charismatic church.
According to a recent book written by Johnson, "Face to Face with God", Bethel is "a church where supernatural encounters with God happen regularly, miracles are common, and the congregation has an infectious passion for spiritual growth." The church has approximately 1,500 members, and a School of Supernatural Ministry.
Their Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry has 1,200 students enrolled with over 370 from other countries. Johnson leads a network of churches dedicated to global, multi-generational revival, Global Legacy. Johnson has written a number of books and travels extensively as a featured revival conference speaker. Johnson is also involved with the Northern California Revival Fellowship, a group of north Californian pastors committed to revival.
Source: Wikipedia
Johnson was born in Minnesota in 1951 and became a Christian as a young child. Soon after, Johnson read seven books on prayer, which significantly affected his perspective and subsequent ministry.
Bill Johnson and his wife have three children: Eric, Brian and Leah.
Johnson speaking at a conference
Bill Johnson and Beni (Brenda) began as singles pastors under his father at Bethel. In 1979, they became senior pastors of Mountain Chapel in Weaverville, California.
While pastoring in Weaverville, Johnson attended a 1987 conference led by John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard Church Movement. According to Johnson "A number of healings and manifestations broke out and I didn't know what to do with it. I didn't object to it, I wasn't opposed to it; I just didn't know how to pastor it in a way that it would continue and increase".
In 1995, Johnson attended the Toronto Blessing revival at the Toronto Airport Vineyard church. Johnson relates: "In Toronto I said, 'Lord, if You touch me again I will never change the subject.' So I went up for prayer every time it was offered. I didn't have anything dramatic happen, but I came home and said, 'I am going to give the rest of my life to this.'"
In February 1996, after 17 years of leading the Weaverville church, the Johnsons were invited to become senior pastors of Bethel. Today Johnson describes Bethel as a church where "everything we do either fuels revival or is fueled by revival." Under his leadership, Bethel left the Assemblies of God in 2006 to become a nondenominational charismatic church.
According to a recent book written by Johnson, "Face to Face with God", Bethel is "a church where supernatural encounters with God happen regularly, miracles are common, and the congregation has an infectious passion for spiritual growth." The church has approximately 1,500 members, and a School of Supernatural Ministry.
Their Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry has 1,200 students enrolled with over 370 from other countries. Johnson leads a network of churches dedicated to global, multi-generational revival, Global Legacy. Johnson has written a number of books and travels extensively as a featured revival conference speaker. Johnson is also involved with the Northern California Revival Fellowship, a group of north Californian pastors committed to revival.
Source: Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 14, 2014
While cleaning up the other day, I found a long-lost treasure, a diamond in the rough: Bill Johnson's "A Story is a Promise & The Spirit of Storytelling". I've read it two or three times now, and I'm about to dive into it again.
There are, of course, many books on story writing. I've found Johnson's to be among the most useful. If you ever come across a copy of it, I suggest that you pick it up and give it a read. It could really give your writing a boost.
Why I like Bill Johnson's book:
1. Short chapters -- I know, I know, that can be a rather silly reason to recommend a book. But in this case, short chapters serve a purpose beyond making the book easier to read. It gives the reader / writer a convenient opportunity to put the book down and ... you know ... write.
2. The questions at the end of each chapter -- Johnson offers up a lot of good advice and presents some good theories on the philosophy of storytelling. But Johnson's goal isn't just to dispense advice or convince you that his theories are right. He wants you to USE the new information, apply it to your writing, to apply it to your understanding of storytelling. The most obvious use is to apply what you've learned to your own writing. But the questions can also be used as a springboard to analyzing someone else's writing. Do his theories explain why the classics of literature are so well-loved? I'll leave that for you to decide.
3. His philosophy of storytelling -- For Johnson it's not just about writing a good story, it's also about analyzing WHY people love the stories that they do.
4. Variety -- With (roughly)forty chapters in this book, Johnson covers a lot of territory. Beginning with WHY we love stories, he moves on to the promise of a story. (What IS the promise of your story? If you're not sure, Johnson can help you figure it out.) He also delves into theme, plot, dialogue, character types, etc. Johnson also reminds us that there is more than one way to tell a story. To be sure, Johnson spends most of his time on the written word. But he also spends time analyzing stories in film and plays.
Johnson's book however, is not without its problems
The downside:
1. Copy-editing -- Or, rather, the paucity of it.
Paragraph breaks occur in the
middle of sentences,
partial phrases are repeated are repeated, and one essay ends rather abrup
The errors, of course, do not occur with the frequency I have portrayed here. But they do stick in my mind, and I'm afraid some would be unnecessarily put off.
Still, I recommend this book to writers who are struggling with their story writing.
I received this book for free through the GoodReads First Reads program. I was not required to write a review.
There are, of course, many books on story writing. I've found Johnson's to be among the most useful. If you ever come across a copy of it, I suggest that you pick it up and give it a read. It could really give your writing a boost.
Why I like Bill Johnson's book:
1. Short chapters -- I know, I know, that can be a rather silly reason to recommend a book. But in this case, short chapters serve a purpose beyond making the book easier to read. It gives the reader / writer a convenient opportunity to put the book down and ... you know ... write.
2. The questions at the end of each chapter -- Johnson offers up a lot of good advice and presents some good theories on the philosophy of storytelling. But Johnson's goal isn't just to dispense advice or convince you that his theories are right. He wants you to USE the new information, apply it to your writing, to apply it to your understanding of storytelling. The most obvious use is to apply what you've learned to your own writing. But the questions can also be used as a springboard to analyzing someone else's writing. Do his theories explain why the classics of literature are so well-loved? I'll leave that for you to decide.
3. His philosophy of storytelling -- For Johnson it's not just about writing a good story, it's also about analyzing WHY people love the stories that they do.
4. Variety -- With (roughly)forty chapters in this book, Johnson covers a lot of territory. Beginning with WHY we love stories, he moves on to the promise of a story. (What IS the promise of your story? If you're not sure, Johnson can help you figure it out.) He also delves into theme, plot, dialogue, character types, etc. Johnson also reminds us that there is more than one way to tell a story. To be sure, Johnson spends most of his time on the written word. But he also spends time analyzing stories in film and plays.
Johnson's book however, is not without its problems
The downside:
1. Copy-editing -- Or, rather, the paucity of it.
Paragraph breaks occur in the
middle of sentences,
partial phrases are repeated are repeated, and one essay ends rather abrup
The errors, of course, do not occur with the frequency I have portrayed here. But they do stick in my mind, and I'm afraid some would be unnecessarily put off.
Still, I recommend this book to writers who are struggling with their story writing.
I received this book for free through the GoodReads First Reads program. I was not required to write a review.
December 30, 2015
Fantastic read for anyone working on better plotting.
November 18, 2013
It’s hard to critique a book by someone you know and associate with. Bill Johnson is the office manager for Willamette Writers, a great Oregon organization in which I have been active for many years. I have attended his workshops and they’re wonderful. But this book, at least the e-book version, which adds new material to his original 2001 book, is a difficult read. He makes great points about what it takes to create a good story, and I bookmarked a lot of pages, but I found the text rambling and repetitious. It also needed another proofreading to fix distracting little errors. Fiction writers can glean a lot from this book, but I wish it were streamlined and better edited. I do recommend Bill’s classes. Check out his website at http://www.storyispromise.com.
October 23, 2014
This is a great resource for fiction writers. I took a workshop with Bill Johnson at a Writing Conference and it was so good, I bought his book, which expands on A Story is a Promise. The aspect of writing a story line and a plot line and making a promise to readers in the beginning of the novel make this book a keeper on my book shelf. I analyzed a number of novels and movies after reading this book, just go get ideas about what works and if a story doesn't work, why doesn't it? This is a book I'll read again and keep for reference.
June 24, 2013
One of the 4 KEY instructional guides on storytelling
January 8, 2013
A bit convoluted at times, mostly due to complex sentence structure. But overall a good read and a helpful tool for writing/revising a novel.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews