Long Story Short

The Only Storytelling Guide You'll Ever Need

By: Margot Leitman

Narrated by: Margot Leitman

Length: 4 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

This is a practical storytelling guide from comedian, winner of multiple Moth storytelling competitions, and founder of the Upright Citizens Brigade storytelling program Margot Leitman.

Did you ever wish you could tell a story that leaves others spellbound? Storytelling teacher and champion Margot Leitman will show you how! With a fun, irreverent, and infographic approach, this guide breaks a story into concrete components with ways to improve content, structure, emotional impact, and delivery through personal anecdotes, relatable examples, and practical exercises.

©2015 Margot Leitman (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Too long

Had to stop with an hour left. Felt like, "what more could you say??"

Did learn some things, and her performance was great

Average, Not What I was Looking For

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

It was ok. It was useful if you're looking for advice on storytelling. I was looking for advice on structuring narrative non-fiction. So it wasn't that the book was bad, it just wasn't ideal for what I wanted.

Has Long Story Short turned you off from other books in this genre?

No, definitely not.

What about Margot Leitman’s performance did you like?

She had a nice, accessible style.

Do you think Long Story Short needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No

Good not great

Overall the book provides the basics on how to structure a story and outlines important details one can include to give stories life, but I wasn’t a fan of the example stories given.

Most stories that were given as an example contained way too many details and inner monologue. The humor wasn’t funny and it almost seemed “try hard” for lack of better words.

In the end the basic structure helped a little but the value of the book declined with all of the less than helpful stories provided.

what an excellent find

I spent a good 10 or 15 minutes shopping on audible.com for a how to guide to storytelling. I found this book hilarious, engaging, touching, and very practical. The author maintained a brilliant balance between anecdote and advice. I loved it and would love to take a workshop led by her. I can't imagine a better book to get me started on the path to turning my tales into engaging stories.

A Super Helpful Book

This book was amazingly helpful in helping me develop and refine my storytelling. It was compelling, which is ridiculously hard in a Non-Fiction self-help book. It gave me all of the information that I needed to go from "How to do tell my story" to "I'm ready to give this a try".

This is by far the best book of its type I've ever seen and I'd go so far as to say it ranks highly among all the books I've read that try to teach you anything.

It was read by the author and as expected, she had a great delivery of her message.

I'll pick one bone with her and that is the subtitle. This is definitely the only storytelling book you will ever need if you want to tell your story. If however, you are looking to tell stories in general, this book does not cover that topic at all. The book and its lessons were so good in its target area that I can forgive the inaccuracy of the subtitle.

Some good points if you can ignore the self assured smugness

Margret Leitman comes from an overly self assured sex in the city world who thinks that the rest of the planet is the same. Many of her ideas can resonate outside the smug cosmopolitan life she inhabits, but her cockiness is still off putting.
All this becomes more unbearable as you pass the midpoint of the book.
No Margaret, we don’t all feign passion for things we don’t care about or salivate over the far left publications that you admire.

How to tell true fun stories about yourself

Fantastic complete course on becoming a master storyteller. Listen to this with a notebook in hand and practice her fun suggestions. As she points out, "everything in life is either a good time or a good story." Chock full of self-deprecating personal stories, this is one of those rare books where there is beautiful harmony between the form and the content. I mean, it is a well-told personal story about telling well-told personal stories. Long Story Short is full of fun and humor, and concise hard-hitting advice from a veteran award winning storyteller and comedian. A must read, even for those who are just curious or want to appreciate the art of listening to well-told stories. And of course, only the author could have read it so well.

Amazing and inspiring!

This books really pumped me up to be a better story teller and made me realized that I could work on bettering myself in other ways. I was so inspired i sign up for her real class in Los Angeles. Class starts January, 2017, I’ll update my review once the class is over but this book is a must read. I want to be able to improve on my interview skills and public speaking at work.

she does herself justice!

just finished my 3rd listen. the exercises are perfect rudiments to start with. we all have stories, even if the urge to tell them or the confidence to compose them has been beaten out of you by someone like a parent or teacher. (inner monologue: was that too much sharing?) she leaves the breadcrumbs to slowly find your way and bring these amazing stories back. thank you Margot.

Margot helps you tell your stories... better.

I found this one of the best storytelling audible books I have ever listened to, as Margot is profoundly expert at her material AND her delivery. She's a storyteller telling a story about how to tell stories better. Practical and just perfect.

I am starting this all over again to work on her directed exercises. I also think this will help my fictional work too, though Ms. Leitman explicitly states that is NOT her aim in this book.