Leslie Leyland Fields - Your Story Matters: Finding, Writing, and Living the Truth of Your Life

Leslie Leyland Fields was not only my first writing mentor: She continues to mentor me with the way she actually lives her life and then shapes it into an unforgettable story that gives sojourners hope and gives God all the glory. She is a profoundly wise, Christ-formed guide whose every word I will always read.

ANN VOSKAMP, New York Times bestselling author

When I first began writing, Leslie quickly became a trusted voice. Not simply on the art of writing but on the living, breathing act of writing. Its hard enough to use good verbs and precise language, but thats not the hardest part. The ghosts of our stories, the self-doubt, and the fear those are the parts of the writing journey we all need a hand holding ours through. Leslie offers that critical companionship and inspires by example of what can happen when we learn to tell our stories.

LIZ DITTY , author of Gods Many Voices

Leslie has a deep commitment to writing life-giving words. She crafts them beautifully and helps others do likewise. This book promises to prompt the best out of storytellers and creatives.

MAX LUCADO , New York Times bestselling author

This inspired writing warrior has plunged deep into her well of talent to teach a vital lesson: We dont own our stories. God writes them on our lives, then appoints us to stand up and share them. Its time to heed this truth and act. An impassioned Leslie Leyland Fields dares to show us how.

PATRICIA RAYBON , award-winning author of My First White Friend and I Told the Mountain to Move

A magical, moving, and essential book for anyone who wants to understand why their story matters and to write that story! Leslie Leyland Fields tells her story while helping others tell their stories, all while creating an extraordinary story of writing itself. Personal and profound, inspirational and practical, God-focused and with its feet firmly placed on the ground, this is a necessary and beautiful book for anyone and everyone because weve all been blessed with the story we have and that story is worth our telling.

BRET LOTT , New York Times bestselling author, director of MFA program at the College of Charleston

Like many others, Ive learned much about storytelling from Leslie. Leslies many stories, some heartbreaking and some glorious, do something an abstract proposition can never do: They penetrate the hidden realities of the world in which we live, into the barely known realities of our own life. Leslie will teach you how to find those hidden realities with texture and tone.

REV. CANON DR. SCOT MCKNIGHT , professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary

Whether you write because you seek meaning from your lifes experiences, wish to pass on your story to family and friends, or dream of sharing a testimony of Gods work in your life with a wider audience, veteran writer Leslie Leyland Fields believes that your story matters. This book is a lively, relatable, and gracious master class that will guide you step-by-step through mining the riches of your lifes experiences, bringing the core events to the surface, and shaping those events into writing that will communicate the story only your life can tell. Loaded with examples, prompts, and warm insight, this beautiful book belongs in the hands of everyone who longs to find a way to communicate their story to others.

MICHELLE VAN LOON , author of Becoming Sage

If you are never blessed with the opportunity to take a writing class from Leslie Leyland Fields, then at least read this book. Its a work of four strands: why you can and should tell your life stories, clear teaching on how to do so (with helpful exercises and student examples), stories from her own life, and a useful tale of working with an agent and getting published in short, the entire journey. All told with the wit and wisdom of someone who is doing the hard work right along with you.

DANIEL TAYLOR , author of Tell Me a Story and Do We Not Bleed?

The greatest power of Story is to illuminate. Thats how Leslie Leyland Fields begins her own story a vivid retelling of pivotal events in her own life and an encouragement to each of us to tell ours. Written in her own bright, conversational style, this fresh writing book is chockablock with lived experience that translates into guidelines for our own storytelling. The authors energy bleeds from the pages. Read this, come face to face with this woman of God, and hear her affirm, You can do this, and heres how.

LUCI SHAW , author of Thumbprint in the Clay and (forthcoming) The Generosity: New Poems

Whether you consider yourself a writer or are just beginning to find your story, I cannot imagine a more inviting mentor than Leslie Leyland Fields. The book you hold in your hands will take you on a journey. Im convinced youll find your voice, and the tools to use it, along the way.

CATHERINE MCNIEL , author of Long Days of Small Things and All Shall Be Well

NavPress is the publishing ministry of The Navigators, an international Christian organization and leader in personal spiritual development. NavPress is committed to helping people grow spiritually and enjoy lives of meaning and hope through personal and group resources that are biblically rooted, culturally relevant, and highly practical.

For more information, visit NavPress.com.

Your Story Matters: Finding, Writing, and Living the Truth of Your Life

Copyright 2020 by Leslie Leyland Fields. All rights reserved.

Visit the author at LeslieLeylandFields.com.

A NavPress resource published in alliance with Tyndale House Publishers.

NAVPRESS and the NavPress logo are registered trademarks of NavPress, The Navigators, Colorado Springs, CO. TYNDALE is a registered trademark of Tyndale House Publishers. Absence of in connection with marks of NavPress or other parties does not indicate an absence of registration of those marks.

The Team: Don Pape, Publisher; Caitlyn Carlson, Acquisitions Editor; Elizabeth Schroll, Copy Editor; Dean H. Renninger, Designer

Cover photograph of road copyright Matt Smith/EyeEm/Getty Imagescopyright. All rights reserved.

Cover photograph of car by Sergio Souza on Unsplash.com.

The author is represented by the literary agency of WordServe Literary, www.wordserveliterary.com.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked GNT are taken from the Good News Translation in Todays English Version, Second Edition, copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by permission. Scripture quotations marked RSV are taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked BSB are taken from The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible, BSB. Copyright 2016, 2018 by Bible Hub. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Scripture quotations marked GW are taken from GODS WORD, copyright 1995 by Gods Word to the Nations. Used by permission of Gods Word Mission Society. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.