A creative writing manual for high school to adult aged writers and storytellers, this volume includes the authors' philosophy regarding story creation and pointers especially related to the variety of choices regarding point of view available to writers and other story-creators or refiners. "Delving deeply into the structure of stories, Niemi and Donoval focus on point-of-view and the emotional arc of stories. This insightful new book builds upon their years of helpfulness to writers and storytellers. Loren and Nancy are the "A-Team" of story development! Grab this tome and read it from beginning to end; you will be glad you did!"    -- Robin Bady, storyteller and educator, New York City "Storytellers change us by the stories they tell. These authors--who are also storytellers--lead us to create universally accessible narratives through which people can make meaning of the things that matter. Loren Niemi AND Nancy Donoval do this better than most anyone on the planet."   -- Dr. Hank Roubicek, professor of communication at the University of Houston "Niemi and Donoval invite you to push the limits of your storytelling. When Loren encouraged me to tell my story from different voices, points of view, and tenses, I realized so many brand-new possibilities for increasing its impact. I never tell a story now without thinking of the unique emotional journey of my characters, my audience, and myself."   -- Steve Tate, North Carolina-based storyteller “Loren Niemi is one of my life and writing heroes. With this book, you can also get up to speed on Nancy Donoval's exceptional knowledge-base."   -- Mike Finley, the "Poet King of St. Paul, Minnesota" "A strong beginning sets our expectations for all that follows. In traditional stories, the invitation to adventure and what is at stake is often very clear. It can be as simple as take this basket to your Grandmother or Helen running off with Paris and her husband calling on Odysseus to join the siege of Troy to win her back. That one is the start of two great stories – The Iliad , in which Odysseus is a secondary character but the man who makes the tragic end of the Trojan war possible and The Odyssey in which his striving to return home is the entire story. As we will see in greater detail in the following chapters, one of the functions of a strong beginning is to establish the point of view and in the best of narratives, the emotional arc of the story from the first few words."