zcbot/skills/ppt/references/modes/narrative.md

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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.


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.


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/ and executor-base.md; this mode decides the emotional beat of each page.


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.)


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)