99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style

99 Ways to Tell a Story is a series of engrossing one-page comics that tell the same story ninety-nine different ways. Inspired by Raymond Queneau’s 1947 Exercises in Style, a mainstay of creative writing courses, Madden’s project demonstrates the expansive range of possibilities available to all storytellers. Readers are taken on an enlightening tour—sometimes amusing, always surprising—through the world of the story.

Writers and artists in every media will find Madden’s collection especially useful, even revelatory. Here is a chance to see the full scope of opportunities available to the storyteller, each applied to a single scenario: varying points of view, visual and verbal parodies, formal reimaginings, and radical shuffling of the basic components of the story. Madden’s amazing series of approaches will inspire storytellers to think through and around obstacles that might otherwise prevent them from getting good ideas onto the page. 99 Ways to Tell a Story provides a model that will spark productive conversations among all types of creative people: novelists, screenwriters, graphic designers, and cartoonists.

Customer Reviews:

Stop me if you've heard this one...

By Kevin McCloskey - October 22, 2005

The illustrator James McMullan once said the search for style is a very personal thing, like deciding if one prefers to wear silk or cotton. Matt Madden tries on 99 shirts in 99 pages here and while the results vary, in toto, the book is quite astonishing. This is not a graphic novel, not even a collection of graphic stories, but a short visual sequence repeated 99 times with great inventiveness. Visual artists such as cartoonists and graphic designers may appreciate Madden's feat most, but anyone who takes delight in creativity will enjoy this. 99 Ways to Tell a Story is a remarkable demonstration of persistence of vision within self-imposed constraints.

You Don't Have to Love Comics

By Bruce Altner "space cadet" - November 10, 2006

I couldn't disagree more with the reviewer who dismissed this clever, funny, and insightful work as boring and unworthy. OK, it's NOT great literature and there are certainly more scholarly books out there to read if you want to work on enhancing your creativity, but let's not be snobbish about this: the book is a fast, fun read the first time through and delivers even more rewards when you go back to it. Madden is a talented cartoonist, and his purposeful imitations of the styles of other famous cartoonists is used to great effect in some of the exercises.

Did this loosen me up and make me more creative? Am I now ready to write the great American novel? Well, not yet. But it has gotten me thinking about new approaches to plotting and characterization, and I think that's the whole point. Thanks, Matt!

Great for teaching and learning about comics, and well priced

By C Hill - February 18, 2006

I teach comic art at the California State University, Fullerton and in workshops. Matt Madden's book is the best I have found to present complex ideas quickly about form in the language of comics. "99 Ways" is a perfect tool to showcase how your visual storytelling would function if you used, say, a close-up vs. a full shot, a vertical panel vs. a horizontal one, or if you used a specific genre, such as film noir, manga, and so on. People studying comics get it right away. They appreciate the strengths and limitations of each approach and device Madden presents, and his examples make the point better than long verbal discussions! What I also found very attractive is the very reasonable price (one that most students can afford). Combine it with McCloud's "Understanding Comics" and you've got a power punch of a combination for learning and teaching comic art (these two books complement each other perfectly).