Master the 4-Part Formula for Memorable Stories

There have been hundreds, maybe thousands of movies made over the years, and nearly every one of them have four things in common. When you understand these four things, you will be able to enjoy a movie more, you'll be able to understand a book better, and perhaps you will even be able to write a movie or a book script yourself because you Understand that these four key truths welcome to Becoming Wiser with Dr. Robert A Rome author and world renowned public speaker, as he shares stories involving his experiences and lessons learned in a good, spirited, positive and fun way. Here's Dr. Robert A. Rohm.

Hi, I'm Dr. Robert Rohm and on this week's podcast I want to share with you something that I learned probably 30 years ago, and it was one of the most revolutionary insights that I ever learned about how stories unfold, how movies and plays and novels are written. And of course, before I learned what I'm going to share with you on this podcast, I perhaps thought there were hundreds of different methodologies. But I discovered and learned through a friend of mine who taught me the information I'm going to share with you that there's just four parts to every great story I never will forget. A few years ago I was talking to my good friend Patrick and Christy Pettibon. Patrick's the Vice president, Personality Insights, and Christy, of course is his wife, and they have 11 children, Livara Farm in Texas. And Patrick and I have been dear friends for well over 20 years now. And I was talking to Christy and she was letting me know she had just returned home from a convention. And I said, what kind of convention did you attend? She said, oh, well, they taught us all about how to write books, how to write novels, how to write stories, and how to understand that process. And I asked her, I said, did they cover the four points of every great story? And she looked at me and said, what are you talking about? And I shared with her the four points that I'm going to share with you on this podcast and I'll never forget. She just laughed and laughed. She said, well, leave it to you to teach me more in a few minutes than I learned in an entire week about writing novels and writing stories and how to understand how movies are made. So again, this isn't original with me. I can't take credit for it, but I certainly have used it over and over and over. Because when you understand these four steps, these four points, these four aspects of nearly every great story that has ever been written, you will be able to see better how things unfold as you watch them or Read them. And as I mentioned earlier, if you ever want to write a book yourself or write a movie script, you will have these four steps under your belt and you'll be able to use them. So let's get started. I'm going to use the movie the Sound of Music as an example. I will add to that as we go through the podcast. But I want to use the movie the Sound of Music. It perhaps is one of the all time greatest cinematic movies that was ever made. It came out around 1965. I remember going to see it. Julie Andrews played the part of this young girl who was perhaps going to be a nun. And she was struggling between whether or not she wanted to go into the ministry and devote her life to helping others by being a nun, or if that wasn't for her, and whether or not she should take a different route. Well, I know you've seen the movie. I know. I've watched it so much, I pretty much have memorized the script. But the first thing we learn and the first step that we learn in recognizing the four steps of every great story is introduce your audience to Maria. Step number one, introduce your audience to the main character. You watch the movie and Marie Maria comes running up the hill singing the hills are alive with the sound of Music. She's outside, she's so young and beautiful and she's addicted to nature and all of the flowers and trees and everything. And she's just so full of life and enthusiasm. So step number one, introduce your audience to Maria. Step number two, as the movie moves along, you begin to identify with Maria as someone who is in a situation where she's young and wants to have all of the blessings and enjoyments of life. And she's just simply someone that you watch. You realize that she's a little bit quirky in that she loses track of time. She runs back to the abbey where the sister mother is. She's late. The second step is get your audience to fall in love with Maria. Get your audience to fall in love with the main character. You see, the story is crafted in such a manner that all of the things that happen make your heart go out to Maria. Oh, isn't she beautiful? Oh, isn't she special? Isn't she fun? Isn't she a little quirky like me? Isn't she a little bit different? Isn't she wonderful? Isn't she odd? Isn't she fantastic? Isn't she special? Isn't she just someone you'd really like to know? Step number one, introduce your audience to Maria. Step number two, get your audience to fall in love with Maria. I mean, after all, who could not fall in love with someone who has so many qualities that all of us have? Every person listening to this podcast, myself included, we have our ups and our downs. We have the moments where we're involved in something and we totally lose track of time. We get excited about something. We find something that we enjoy. We find something that leads us in a direction. And all of us, having had those different directions and twists and turns in life, realize we're a lot like Maria. We identify with her. We fall in love with Maria. Well, as the story moves along, and I'm sure you've seen it again, and I'll. I'll use other examples as well, but I want to lay out these four steps. The story moves along, and Maria, she works for Captain von Trapp. Captain von Trapp is. His name, is pronounced sometimes von Trapper. But Captain von Trapp is a widower. He has these seven children, and his wife has passed away. And he's there at the house with. From time to time. He's still involved in his military responsibilities and activities. And he's engaged to a baroness. And Berea goes there to be what we would think of as the nanny. She goes there to. To be the one to take care of the children. She's the one who is set that Captain von Trapp calls the abbey and he says, I need someone to come and be like a surrogate helper to my children. It's not a position of being an assistant wife. It's not a position of being a mother. She actually is called the children's governess. We would think of her as a nanny or someone who is there to babysit. The children only live inside, like an au pair. Perhaps. You get the idea. You've seen the movie. So she's there for a period of time, and all things begin to. It's almost at. A lot. I'm almost at a loss for words. She begins to realize she has feelings for Captain von Trapp, and he has feelings for her, except she's going to be a nun and never marry, and he's engaged to another woman who is the baroness who's set to be his wife. Well, step number three, get Maria into trouble. And that's the third step in every great story you see. You introduce your audience to Maria, you get the audience to fall in love with Maria. Step number three, you get Maria into trouble. And now we've got a real pickle of a situation.

She has feelings for The Captain. The captain seemingly has feelings for her, but he's engaged to be married to someone else. And she's got a career path to be a nun. So she one night packs up and is no longer the governess. She's no longer anything. She leaves. She decides this is getting too hot in the kitchen, too hard to handle. So she goes back to the abbey and talks to the sister mother, who explains to her that she needs to find her way in life. And we all have had that struggle of being in trouble, being in a situation. We didn't know what to do. We didn't know how we got in there, and we certainly didn't know how to get out. And so the plot thickens. The storyline gets very, very challenging. And so three steps have taken place so far in this great story, and I might add, in every great story. Number one, introduce your audience to Maria. Number two, get your audience to fall in love with Maria. Number three, get Maria into trouble. Well, I know you're already thinking ahead of me. Step number four, Maria comes back and she talks to the captain. She faces her fears. She's not sure what to do, but she knows she can't run from her problem. You need to run into your problem. It may turn into. Turn into a great opportunity. So she goes back and she talks to the captain and she apologizes for leaving suddenly. And he shares with her how. He accepts her apology. And he also shares with her how he's broken off the engagement to the baroness. And the baroness has left. And of course, young Maria is a little confused. And she said to him, you know, why didn't you do that? Why is there not going to be a wedding? And of course, the most touching part in the whole movie, Captain von Trapp looks at her and he says, well, it's hard to marry someone when you're in love with someone else. And he turns as he says that, and he looks to her. Her. I'm almost get all choked up just telling you about it. I've seen it a thousand times. You. And. And so the fourth step is get Maria out of trouble. Well, with that, the plot certainly changes because now everything is different. Maria and Captain von Trapp eventually get married. They take the children, they escape out of Austria, where Nazi Germany is taking over their country. And they flee through the hills as the sound of music plays to begin their new life. Now, you have those four steps, but I want you to notice something very carefully. Remember, introduce your audience to Maria. Number two, get your audience to fall in love with Maria. Number Three, get Maria into trouble. Number four, get Maria out of trouble. Let me show you how this works. Introduce your audience to Rocky Balboa. We've all seen all of the Rocky movies he's made, so introduce your audience to him. Number. Number. Step number two, get your audience to fall in love with Rocky. I mean, who couldn't fall in love with this guy? He's just, Just such a. He just pulls on your heartstrings. He's just such a good natured guy. Not real, real smart, makes a lot of mistakes, but wants to have a better life. Isn't that the story of all of us? We've all made mistakes. We all do things that we wish we had done differently. We fall down, we get back up. Well, get your audience to fall in love with. With Rocky. That's the second step. First, introduce your audience to Rocky. Second, get your audience to fall in love with Rock. Well, then, step number three. Rocky, through a lottery, almost wins an opportunity to fight the heavyweight champion of the world, Apollo Creed. And now he's facing the heavyweight champion and he's. Rocky's just. He's only been fighting basically in bars and nightclubs, and now he is on the stage, front and center, to fight the heavyweight champion of the world. And of course, he takes the beating like no one's ever taken before. But he says, if I can just stay on my feet till the last round, then I'll know I'm not just another bum from the neighborhood. And so we introduce your audience to Rocky. Get your audience to fall in love with Rocky. Get Rocky into trouble. And by the end of the movie, he's still standing on his feet, taken a beating like no one has ever seen before, but he's still on his feet. Get Rocky out of trouble. He doesn't win the fight, but he wins our hearts. And in the next fight, he wins. And then he goes on to become, in the Rocky series, the heavyweight champion of the world. Listen, just to. Let me put on my pastor hat for a second, this even handles biblical or spiritual truth. Introduce your audience to Jesus. Get your audience to fall in love with Jesus. Get Jesus into trouble. Isn't that what happens around Easter time? Isn't that what the crucifixion is all about? Number four. Get Jesus out of trouble. We call that the resurrection. When I began to learn these four steps, I started looking at nearly every movie or every novel I had read, or every great storyline. And now you have them. The four steps of every great movie, of every great novel, of every great storyline Introduce your audience to the main character. Number two, get your audience to fall in love with the main character. Tell stories, events, examples, situations that make your heart go out to that person and you fall in love with them. Step number three, get them into trouble through a series of situations and events. All of a sudden, they find they're in serious trouble. But step number four, through another series of unexpected twists and turns, you get that character out of trouble. If you're in high school or if you do any writing, you now have the four steps that you can follow. When Christy said to me, that's amazing, she said, I learned more from you in just a few minutes than I did in a week of how to write stories, novels, and successful literature. Well, I hope this week's podcast will give you a little bit of insight as you start thinking about all the movies you've seen in your life. I mean, I can go on and on and on and on about every movie I've seen, and you could too, but starts thinking about them. How did they introduce you to the main character? How'd you fall in love with that character? How'd that character get in trouble? And how did that character get out of trouble? I hope our podcast are simply things that cause you to smile, to feel better, to have some insight about life, and most of all, to become wiser in everything you do. That's why we call this podcast becoming wiser. I'm Dr. Robert Rome. I hope you like podcast this week. I look forward to sharing with you again sometime soon. Thank you so much. God bless you. Bye. Bye. For more information about this podcast, please visit ww.becoming wiserpod podcast. Com.