38 Your Turning Point Message
L
ast night Nerissa and I watched the movie,The Rookie.We
loved it. It’s the inspiring true story of an older man who gets a
chance to pursue his dream of playing major league baseball. It’s a
great movie.
The ads for the movie all say it’s about going for your dreams.
They’re right. The movie certainly nudges you in that direction.
But that’s not all the movie has to offer.
Every movie—every book, play, article, sales pitch, or anything
else that might be called a story—has what I call a turning point
message. You can call it a TPM, for the sake of sounding cool.
A TPM is usually one line that causes the story to almost com-
pletely turn around. It might seem like the motto of the movie. Or
the main message of the story. Or even just a mental stumper to get
you to think. It will often feel like the philosophical foundation for
the entire story.
A TPM is the central message of the story that causes the lead
character to rethink what he or she is doing, or even to cause you,
the witness to the story, to rethink what you are doing.
It’s usually given at the point of dramatic transformation, when
the entire plot changes or the main character changes.