https://www.inc.com/alison-davis/to-improve-your-storytelling-skills-use-abraham-lincoln-as-inspiration.htmlInc.com breaks down the Gettysburg Address to show you the storytelling technique it uses, and how you can, too.
1. In the past...
2. Then this happened
3. So now...
4. Here's what we need to do
Pretty simple, right? Inc.com gives you examples from Gettysburg, and also a bank that reverted back to its old policy to better serve its customers.
Now let's apply this to the movie, Halloween [1978].
1. On Halloween Night, 1963, six-year-old Michael Myers, dressed as a clown, grabs a knife and kills his sister. He's sent to Smith's Grove-Warren County Sanitarium under the care of Dr. Loomis.
2. Then, on October 30, 1978, while being taken to his trial, Michael Myers escapes and Loomis goes on the hunt for his patient.
3. So now, everybody in Haddonfield is knife fodder. "Death has come to your little town. Sheriff."
4. "You can either ignore it, or you can help me to stop it."
All the President's Men [1976]:
1. Five burglars are caught breaking into the DNC at the Watergate Complex.
2. It soon becomes clear that the White House (and Nixon himself) was involved, and is now trying to cover it up.
3. So now, Nixon and his men are crooks who are getting away with all this crap.
4. Woodward and Bernstein have to keep digging deeper to uncover the truth and bring all the president's men to justice.
The Dark Knight [2008]:
1. The Joker and his henchmen pull off an epic heist.
2. Then we learn it was a mob bank.
3. So now, the Joker rules the Gotham crime scene and is outsmarting even Batman. The Joker even brings White Knight D.A. Harvey Dent down to his level, begetting Two-Face.
4. Batman must push the limits of the law (and his own ethics) to bring down the Joker and restore peace in Gotham.
Pretty neat, huh? :)