You don’t have to listen to The Paper Wings Podcast for very long before you realize that storytelling guru Brian McDonald is one of our greatest heroes.
He just released a new book called Ink Spots - a compilation of essays from his ‘Invisible Ink’ Blog.
It is just as inspiring and challenging as his first two books on storytelling: Invisible Ink and The Golden Theme.
(You can read my full review from Amazon.com at the bottom of this blog post.)
Bonus: Disney legend Glen Keane wrote the foreward!
I cannot recommend highly enough that you take some time to listen (and re-listen) to his interview our podcast and his appearance on The High Bar – a web series for creators who want to tell meaningful stories.
If your creative contribution to this world is, in any way, related to storytelling in any form, you should read Brian’s books (affiliate links below):
Must-Read Books by Brian McDonald:
Invisible Ink: A Practical Guide To Building Stories That Resonate: Paperback | Kindle
The Golden Theme: How To Make Your Writing Appeal To The Highest Common Denominator: Paperback | Kindle
…and now, Ink Spots is available in paperback and on Kindle.
My Amazon Review Of ‘Ink Spots’
Beyond Story Structure
A lot of screenwriting books provide a “connect the dots” approach but they don’t help you understand WHY you’re struggling to connect them or whether the dots you have should even be there in the first place.
The books by Brian McDonald will inspire you to tell a meaningful story and provide countless practical examples of how and why history’s great, meaningful stories have been told and told well.
While I do recommend starting with ‘invisible Ink’ (Brian’s first book on storytelling) I HIGHLY recommend ‘Ink Spots’ (as well as Brian McDonald’s other remarkable work ‘The Golden Theme’) to any storyteller of any kind.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Chris and Lora,
I got Invisible Ink, Inks Spots and The Golden Theme last week and inhaled all three. Invisible Ink is the most helpful to me. Reading it had an immediate impact on the story I was working on.
I can see why you guys are such a big fan of Brian’s. He really cuts to the heart of what makes stories work. I’m also having a good time working through his movie lists and trying to see things with a trained eye.
Thanks for the recommending Brian’s work in this post and in others. Hopefully it will lead to some good comics!
Thanks for the tip, Chris. Invisible Ink is such a great read, I’ll most definitely get this!
Just bought an eReader on Ebay. I think I’m going to start a weekly habit of reading time at a local coffee shop with it. I’ll add this book to the list
Regards,
Nealtse
Cool, new podcast … can’t wait!
I just finished Invisible Ink and it was enlightening to say the least. Can’t wait to pick this one up too.
Good to know, Chris. I saw it a month a go and wasn’t really thinking about buying (which is crazy, because I LOVE the other books) so I’m glad to know your thoughts. Are the “spots” well organized?
Oh yeah. I mean, he’s a Jedi Master and thus, the book is just what you’d expect from a Jedi Master.
Ok, I’m sold. It’s on my amazon wishlist!
I heard about that! Is it just a collection of his blog posts? Which ones are in there so far that you’ve seen?
Rachel, it goes back about five years so even if there are not any bonus essays, it’s a no-brainer for me to buy because I’m never going to sit there and read through the blog archives for that long.
The Kindle version is perfect for me because it reads like a book and I have it on my iPhone.
I did read something somewhere that led me to believe that there is some new content in there but I wouldn’t be able to tell since I’ve only been reading his blog since I first bought Invisible Ink a year or two ago.