A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
I have recently had the pleasure of reading Donald Miller’s new book “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years”. In this book Donald Miller explores the connection between spiritual principles and the basic structure of story telling; a theme that Miller explores in other books and lectures. The book is structured as a narrative that follows the life-changes he personally undergoes while turning a previous autobiographical book “Blue Like Jazz” into a movie.
Exposition
Miller begins to discover that his life is boring and directionless. Miller sets the stage of what a writer’s life is like after writing a successful book. The depressive funk, the inability to make deadlines, the lack of direction. He begins to wonder if he could turn his current life into a better story. “I wonder whether a person could plan a story for his life and live it intentionally.” (p. 39)
A Character
Miller discovers that characters in movies are about action. Books can delve into the thoughts, feelings and motivations of character but film is about action. A Character is what he does. “The stories we tell ourselves are very different from the stories we tell the world.” People only see the surface; they know us from what we say and what we do.
A Character Who Wants Something
Miller realized that, for life to have meaning, he needs to decide what he wants. If he wants to live an interesting story he is going to need to go after something important. Miller sets out on his first life re-write: to get the girl and go on an adventure (in this case it was the Incas Trail).
At risk of retelling the whole book and spoiling it I’ll stop here. I will continue by saying I have always enjoyed Millers earthy yet spiritual way of approaching life and Christ. His call to consider and possibly edit your own story has been a helpful way of me considering new possibilities for myself.
December 17th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
I here it’s going to be made into a movie starring mathew broderick!
Cheers,
Dickie