Storyteller Tactics Review: Style
Storyteller Tactics Review: The Rule of Three
Snap, Crackle, Pop!!!
Menu
- Surefire Story Tactic
- Three is the Magic Number
- Three Sticks in the Mind
- The Three of Styles
- The Good, the Bad, and the Punchline
- What Links Here
- Three is the Charm
Surefire Story Tactic
One of the oldest and most effective laws of storytelling is to take three swings at your topic. The first one is a miss, the second fouls off, the third sails away over the bleachers.
You know the deal. Three wishes, three little pigs, three bears, three wise men.
As a photographer, I follow a rule of three. If I can photograph an odd number of things, it somehow works better than an even number. One, three, five, and seven are good but for some reason three is the magic number, especially if I can space them out unevenly.
Look at those three cutesy kittens above. Almost immediately our mind begins asking questions, unsettled by the imbalance. Why aren’t they lined up properly, like soldiers on parade? Is it two against one? Two seem to be looking at one thing just out of view, the other has spotted the camera. Uh-oh; what will happen next?
Three is curiosity and uncertainty, three is wondering how the pieces will tumble. Three has story built-in.
Three is the Magic Number
In the Pip Decks Storyteller Tactics card deck, this is a Style card. Style isn’t so much the stylistic polish and individual voice you add to your story, so much as the way of telling it so that the audience remembers the important points.
If you emphasise three points in your story, those will probably stick in the memory.
You, standing before a crowd and telling the story, won’t need notes to get these three things right. But if you had four or five, you might want to write them down as bullet points.
If you need notes to remember the highlights, most likely your audience will as well and you don’t want to rely on people having a notebook and a stub of pencil on them.
Boil the big picture down to three things that lodge in the memory and you have a fighting chance of your story being the one that people remember and understand.
It can be as crude as:
- Beginning
- Middle
- End
The traditional three-act play. Nothing fancy, just three parts of the story, each one moving from one place to another. We’ll look into this later with the Structure cards.
Think of three characters:
- Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the Harry Potter saga.
- Luke, Han Solo, and Princess Leia in Star Wars.
- Vito, Sonny, and Michael in The Godfather.
Each of these movies (and/or books) has a bewildering list of characters, but if you keep your eyes on the three stars, you have most of the story in hand. Even the villains in these sagas have relatively minor parts, rarely appearing onscreen for long. But the three main characters is where the real deep story is being told.
Three Sticks in the Mind
If you have three big points for the listener to remember in your presentation, find a way to link them in a memorable fashion.
If you have one vital point, you might want to have it as one of three, but make it the one that sticks out. Make it the punchline. Make it the Third Little Pig that brings home the, um, baked goods.
Or it can be more subtle than that. The three can be the framework on which you hang your whole story. Three acts, three characters, three places. Make each of these memorable and either the memory juices will be flowing as the story is told, or the audience thinks, I want another go at that to get the bits I missed.
The Three of Styles
The Three is the Magic Number card has — you guessed it! — three sections on the back of the card:
- Attention. There is a great James Bond quote given to the effect that if something happens three times, it’s no accident. If something happens three times in your story, the audience takes note.
- Reversal. As noted above, this is the structure of so many jokes. Three men on a desert island. One finds a genie in a bottle offering three wishes. The first man wishes he was home with his wife. The second wishes the same. The third, a bachelor, realises he has one chance to get this absolutely correct. “Geez,” he muses aloud, “I wish my friends were back here to help me.”
- Moderate. The Goldilocks situation where three things are presented. The first two are extremes but the third is just right. Can you tell a story where two courses of action are contemplated but won’t work out but the third — your brilliant solution — finds a perfect middle ground?
The Good, the Bad, and the Punchline
Look at how many memorable titles are based on Three.
- Everything Everywhere All at Once
- The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
- Three Amigos
- And Baby Makes Three
- Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves
- Rocky III
How many three-word advertising slogans are there? Lots.
- Just Do It
- Where’s the Beef?
- Finger Lickin’ Good
- Snap, Crackle, Pop!
If you are going to base your story on three in some fashion, maybe have the title reflect this, just to drive home the message.
What Links Here
This card links to the Data Detectives card. If your message is all about data, you run a big risk of your audience getting buried in facts.
Pick three key facts and make them into a story. Your listeners may not remember every data point, but they have a fighting chance of remembering the story you tell that ties everything together.
Three is the Charm
In so many ways, you can make this magic number work for you to unsettle the audience, wake them up, entertain them, and brand your chosen points into their memory.
Use my discount code BRITNIPEPPER to get 15% off. I get a few dollars in return. The bold links above are affiliates, same deal. Or just go to the website, no strings attached, look around, discover the system for yourself.
My review series is free. I explore the cards, the systems, the tactics, link to independent reviews, and even show you how to get every word, every diagram, every dot point on every card for free, without paying a cent, with the blessing of the firm.
I believe in these cards. They are the wisdom of storytellers, passed on from ages past. The tactics work. They are a secret guide in the palm of your hand and, though they are expensive, they come with a money-back guarantee.
Britni
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