I read Donald Millers new book about a month ago and then went to hear him speak about it in Orlando. "A million miles in a thousand years," is the new book and it's super great! I would HIGHLY recommend it to YOU. Donald Miller is the guy that wrote Blue Like Jazz a few years ago; anyway his new book is a kind of experiment in which he takes the basic principles of what makes a good story and applies those same principles to his life in an attempt to turn his life into a great story.
It might sound strange but just shut up and go read it.
So, one of the main focal points of the book is the principle of conflict. In every good story the Hero wants something and must overcome conflict to get it; the story isn't about getting the girl or making-out with a debatably hot, effeminate vampire or Daniel Larusso winning the All Valley Karate Tournament using a super secret chinese bird kick move thats REALLY HARD TO LEARN!!! But only for about the first 5 minutes after which you'll pretty much have it down; it isn't about winning or loosing, the story is pretty much always about the conflict itself. Conflict causes us to change, it molds us, for better or worse, and the process of change is what all the best stories are REALLY about.
Donald also talks about his "practice stories" or, in other words, little adventures that caused him to face and overcome an area of conflict in his life; searching for his long lost father was an example of one; climbing the inca trail to Machu Picchu was another. He writes about overcoming each conflict and how it changed him little by little. The Donald at the end of the book is completely different from the Donald at the beginning. His "practice stories" change him and prepare him for ONE BIG STORY.
It's very inspiring.
SO...
Jake's practice story #1.
I made a list of goals once while trying to impress some friends of mine and one thing I lied about was wanting to run a half marathon. I do a lot of running and I have run 13.1 miles unofficially in the past so I'm pretty confident that I can complete a half marathon without a tremendous amount of training SO, practice story #1 is to run a FULL marathon. The point is to overcome conflict and the thought of running 26.2 miles scares the living crap out of me!
The ING Marathon comes to Miami on Jan 31st. Now I doubt highly that I can get in shape to run a full marathon by Jan 31st BUT I bet I could run the half marathon on Jan 31st and keep training to run a full marathon in like March or something. I will be looking out for Marathons for March time in various parts of the country so please help me find one.
1 more thing. The whole point of Donald Millers book is that no matter how exciting or amazing your story seems to be, if you are not living for a cause greater than yourself then you are not really living a very great or inspiring story and most people probably just think of you as a self-centered ass.
I am running a Half marathon AND a Full marathon, but for what? I need a cause. I've decided to find a charity and get people to sponsor me. I'm not sure which charity yet, I'm still looking for one and I'm open to suggestions, my only criteria for consideration is that the charity must directly benefit children. Oh and I also need your money.
Practice Story #2
To Save Us All... A worship project by Jake Barreth. Coming Summer 2010...
2 comments:
Jake, let's be honest, some stories ARE all about making-out with a hot vampire... oooor a werewolf who takes off his shirt:)
AND I bet that word 'debatable' was a last minute addition to this blog post...
Count me as another vote for recommending "A Million Miles". Donald Allen is the one writer I know of who can hypnotize me after I read the first page of a book he wrote. I can't put the book down. His book meant a lot to me because I'm a writer, too, (though not as widely published as Don is). A writer writing about writing grabbed my attention. The search (though reluctant) for his dad and the climb up the mountain made powerful points for me.
Congratulations on setting the ambitious goal of a full marathon. I want more details on that worship project you mentioned.
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