# Mode: narrative

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.

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## 1. Narrative skeleton

**Arc, per deck and per page**: scenario → conflict → resolution. Set a stake, raise a tension, resolve it — then bridge to the next beat.

**Suspense and payoff**: pose a question at the right moment, answer it on the next page. Let curiosity pull the audience forward.

**Human framing**: anchor abstract points in a protagonist, a moment, a concrete stake ("a team that shipped in two weeks instead of three months").

**At least one turn**: a reframe, a reveal, a "but here's what changed". Flat exposition is not narrative.

Titles read as beats that advance the arc ("Then the numbers stopped adding up"), not as labels.

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## 2. Page-structure tendencies

- Pages alternate rhythm: a dense beat followed by a breathing page (single image / quote / turn) to prevent fatigue.
- Visual weight guides the eye through each beat (hero image, one focal number, a pull quote).
- Continuity within a chapter, variation between chapters.

> 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*.

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## 3. Speaker-notes register

Conversational narration — like talking with the audience, not reading a report. Scenario-conflict-resolution per page. 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-base.md §8`](../executor-base.md).)

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## 4. Page skeleton example

```
Page 3 (turn):   full-bleed image + one line — "Then deployment broke."
Page 4 (payoff): the reframe — what changed, one focal number
Notes:           "You might be wondering where the opportunity is…" (bridges, builds)
```