| 1 | # Mode: narrative |
| 2 | |
| 3 | Story-arc persuasion. Carry the audience through situation → tension → resolution, using suspense, turns, and human framing so the point lands emotionally before it lands logically. For pitches, case studies, brand journeys, fundraising. |
| 4 | |
| 5 | --- |
| 6 | |
| 7 | ## 1. Narrative skeleton |
| 8 | |
| 9 | **Arc across the deck and within suitable beats**: scenario → conflict → resolution. Set a stake, raise tension, resolve it, and bridge to the next beat without forcing the complete arc onto every page. |
| 10 | |
| 11 | **Suspense and payoff**: pose a question at the right moment and answer it at the beat where the evidence lands. Let curiosity pull the audience forward. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | **Human framing**: anchor abstract points in a protagonist, a moment, a concrete stake ("a team that shipped in two weeks instead of three months"). |
| 14 | |
| 15 | **Narrative movement**: use a reframe, reveal, or change in stakes where the material supports it. The sequence should move rather than merely relabel flat exposition. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | Titles read as beats that advance the arc ("Then the numbers stopped adding up"), not as labels. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | --- |
| 20 | |
| 21 | ## 2. Page-structure tendencies |
| 22 | |
| 23 | - Vary dense and breathing beats according to tension, payoff, and audience fatigue; do not enforce a mechanical alternation. |
| 24 | - Visual weight guides the eye through each beat (hero image, one focal number, a pull quote). |
| 25 | - Continuity within a chapter, variation between chapters. |
| 26 | |
| 27 | > Structure serves the arc, not a grid. Layout / chart geometry lives in [`templates/charts/`](../../templates/charts/) and [`executor-base.md`](../executor-base.md); this mode decides *the emotional beat of each page*. |
| 28 | |
| 29 | --- |
| 30 | |
| 31 | ## 3. Speaker-notes register |
| 32 | |
| 33 | Conversational narration — like talking with the audience, not reading a report. Use scenario-conflict-resolution within a page when that beat benefits from it. Metaphors make the abstract tangible ("like adding a turbocharger"). Plain rhetorical questions create suspense; bridge each page from the prior one. Conversational data ("nearly a third", "more than doubled"). (Common framework: [`executor-notes.md`](../executor-notes.md) §1.) |
| 34 | |
| 35 | --- |
| 36 | |
| 37 | ## 4. Page skeleton example |
| 38 | |
| 39 | ``` |
| 40 | Page 3 (turn): full-bleed image + one line — "Then deployment broke." |
| 41 | Page 4 (payoff): the reframe — what changed, one focal number |
| 42 | Notes: "You might be wondering where the opportunity is…" (bridges, builds) |
| 43 | ``` |
| 44 |