A million miles in a thousand years : how I learned to live a better story / Donald Miller.

pt. 1. Exposition. Random scenes -- A million miles in a thousand years -- They fell like feathers -- My real life was boring -- Flesh and soul better -- My uncle's funeral and a wedding -- Going to see the professor -- The elements of a meaningful life -- How Jason saved his family -- pt. 2. Character. Writing the world -- Imperfect is perfect -- You'll be different at the end -- A character is what he does -- Saving the cat -- Listen to your writer -- Something on the page -- pt. 3. A character who wants something. How to make yourself write a better story -- An inciting incident -- Pointing toward the horizon -- Negative turns -- A good story, hijacked -- A practice story -- A positive turn -- Meeting Bob -- pt. 4. A character who wants something and overcomes conflict. A better story -- The thing about a crossing -- The pain will bind us -- A tree in a story about a forest -- The reason God hasn't fixed you yet -- Great stories have memorable scenes -- pt. 5. A character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it. Squeezing the cat -- The beauty of a tragedy -- All you have to do is try -- To speak something into nothing -- Summer snow in Delaware -- Where once there was nothing.

Full of beautiful, heart-wrenching, and hilarious stories, "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" details one man's opportunity to edit his life as if he were a character in a movie, showing how to get a second chance at life the first time around.