Storytelling — Presentation Planning Skill

Turn any content into a structured story plan with speaker scripts and visual evidence notes. Built on the Storytelling Canvas framework (Kernbach) and presentation design principles (Duarte, Reynolds, Alley).

What This Skill Produces

storytelling.json

file containing:

Presentation Blueprint — shared context for the entire story (topic, audience, goal, narrative arc)
Story Beats — each beat is a content unit with: headline, speaker script, visual evidence, and story metadata

Beats are story units, not slides. One beat may become 1 slide, multiple slides, or part of a slide — that mapping is the output skill's responsibility.

This file is a format-agnostic content plan — usable by any output skill: slide generators, social media posts, TikTok scripts, articles, etc.

Workflow — 5 Steps

Step 1: Receive Content

Accept content from any source:

User types/pastes directly
Reference to a NotebookLM notebook
File path to a document
URL

Read or gather the raw content. Don't ask the user to restructure it — that's your job.

Step 2: Clarify (ask only what's missing)

Check what information you already have from the content and conversation. Only ask for what's genuinely missing. Never ask more than 3 questions at once.

Required inputs (must have before proceeding):

Field	Why it matters
Audience	Determines vocabulary, depth, emotional appeals
Goal (Before → After)	What should the audience think/feel/do differently after?

Optional inputs (use smart defaults):

Field	Default if not specified
Tone	"professional"
Language	Same as input content

If the user gives a brief like "pitch to investors, 10 min" — you already know audience (investors), goal (get funding), duration (10 min). Don't re-ask. Just confirm your interpretation.

Step 3: Create Presentation Blueprint

Synthesize everything into a per-presentation blueprint. Read

references/storytelling-canvas.md

for the full framework, but here's the core:

Presentation Blueprint
──────────────────────
Topic:          [what it's about]
Audience:       [who + what they care about]
Goal:           Before: [current state]
                After:  [desired state]
One Big Idea:   [single sentence — the thesis]
Storyline:      [Report / Explanation / Pitch / Drama]
Sparkline:      [What Is ↔ What Could Be pattern]
Tone:           [professional / casual / inspiring]
Language:       [Thai / English / mixed]

Choosing the storyline type:

Pitch — user wants approval, budget, buy-in → alternate what-is/what-could-be
Explanation — user wants to teach or inform → progressive complexity
Report — user presents findings/results → data-driven narrative
Drama — user tells a story to inspire → classic hero's journey arc

Show the blueprint to the user for confirmation before proceeding.

Step 4: Generate Per-Beat Details

Once the blueprint is approved, generate full details for every beat directly. Skipping an intermediate beat plan table keeps the focus on story depth rather than a skeleton that could anchor thinking to the wrong format.

Deciding beat count: Let the content and the narrative arc determine how many beats you need — not a duration target. A short input may yield 5–6 beats; rich, multi-topic content may yield 12–15. Every beat must carry real content — a beat with nothing substantial to say shouldn't exist just to fill a quota. The minimum arc every story needs is: Opening → Problem → S.T.A.R. → Solution → CTA. Add beats in the middle only when the content genuinely supports them.

S.T.A.R. placement: The S.T.A.R. moment lands hardest after tension has built through problem and evidence beats — placing it too early wastes the impact. It belongs in the second half of the story.

Each beat has 2 layers:

Layer 1: Briefing (for humans)

Core Takeaway:  [1 sentence — if the audience forgets everything, they remember this]
Transition IN:  [sentence connecting from previous beat — needed for every beat except the first]
Script:         [what the presenter/author says — at least 100 Thai characters or 50 English words,
                 even for short beats like dividers and CTAs. Complement, not duplicate the content]
Transition OUT: [sentence setting up the next beat — needed for every beat except the last]

Why transitions matter: Each beat must flow into the next — without transitions, the story feels like disconnected information. The transition_in reminds the audience where they are; the transition_out creates anticipation for what comes next. Beat 1 has no transition_in (it's the opening). The last beat has no transition_out (it ends with the CTA).

Every beat needs a script, even short ones. A divider beat still has a spoken line that carries the audience across the arc.

Read

references/storytelling-canvas.md

Section "SUCCESS Formula" for how to craft each script based on the beat's story role.

Layer 2: Beat Spec (format-agnostic)

SUCCESS Element:[which element of the Canvas this beat addresses:
                 simplicity / unexpectedness / concreteness / credibility / emotions / storyline / star_moment
                 — null for opening, divider, reward, and CTA beats]
Visual Evidence:[what should be shown to support the headline — described as content intent,
                 not as a prompt. e.g. "bar chart comparing 3 competitors" not "flat vector infographic"]
Emotional Tone: [alarming / confident / curious / relieved / inspiring / shocking / nostalgic]
Priority:       [essential | important | supplementary]
                essential     — story is incomplete without this beat
                important     — significantly aids understanding; include if space allows
                supplementary — adds depth but the story holds without it
Cluster:        [opening | problem | evidence | solution | closing]
                — which narrative section this beat belongs to; output skills use this
                  to group beats when mapping to multi-post or section-based formats
Condensed Script:[1–2 sentence version of the script for space-constrained formats
                  such as social captions, infographic labels, or short-form video]

Why SUCCESS element matters: The middle section of a story must cover all dimensions of the Canvas — Simplicity, Unexpectedness, Concreteness, Credibility, Emotions. Tagging each beat keeps the story balanced and prevents over-indexing on one type (e.g., 5 data beats in a row).

Why priority + cluster + condensed_script matter: This blueprint is a master source of truth — output skills (slides, social posts, TikTok, infographics) will consume it with different space constraints. Priority lets them select beats automatically: a 5-slide deck takes

essential

only; a 12-slide deck adds

important

. Cluster lets them group beats into sections or posts. Condensed script gives them a pre-written short version rather than truncating the full script awkwardly.

Show progress to the user as you generate:

กำลังสร้างรายละเอียด 12 beats...
✅ Beat 1/12 — Opening
✅ Beat 2/12 — Common Ground
...

Step 5: Save storytelling.json

Write the complete output to

storytelling.json

in the current working directory.

Schema:

jsonc

{
  "canvas": {
    // — General Conditions (Kernbach) —
    "topic": "string",
    "audience": "string",
    "audience_type": "doer | supplier | influencer | innovator",
    "audience_analysis": {
      "before": {
        "think": "string — what they currently believe",
        "feel": "string — how they currently feel",
        "know": "string — what they currently know",
        "want": "string — what they currently want to do"
      },
      "after": {
        "think": "string — what they should believe",
        "feel": "string — how they should feel",
        "know": "string — what they should know",
        "want": "string — what they should want to do"
      }
    },
    "goal": {
      "before": "string — summary of audience state before",
      "after": "string — summary of desired state after"
    },
    "one_big_idea": "string — single thesis sentence, the one thing they must remember",
    "common_ground": "string — shared experience or vision between presenter and audience",

    // — Story Architecture —
    "storyline": "pitch | explanation | report | drama",
    "plot_type": "man_in_a_hole | rags_to_riches | cinderella | icarus | riches_to_rags | oedipus",
    "conflict_type": "self_vs_self | self_vs_others | self_vs_environment",
    "sparkline_type": "what_is_vs_what_could_be | progressive | data_driven | hero_journey",
    "star_moment_index": "number — index of the S.T.A.R. moment beat",

    // — Ending —
    "reward": {
      "personal": "string — how the audience personally benefits",
      "sphere": "string — how it benefits people around them",
      "humanity": "string — how it contributes to something larger"
    },

    // — Delivery —
    "tone": "string",
    "language": "string"
  },
  "beats": [
    {
      "index": 1,
      "type": "opening | common_ground | problem | data | star_moment | divider | solution | process | roi | comparison | reward | cta | ...",
      "story_role": "string — e.g. beginning/start_with_why, middle/credibility, end/reward",
      "success_element": "simplicity | unexpectedness | concreteness | credibility | emotions | storyline | star_moment | null",
      "sparkline_position": "what_is | what_could_be | shift | neutral",
      "emotional_tone": "string",

      "headline": "string — full-sentence assertion (Alley model)",
      "visual_evidence": "string — what should be shown to support the headline, described as content intent",
      "content": ["array of specific data/text items to include"],
      "core_takeaway": "string — 1 sentence: if they forget everything else, they remember this",

      "transition_in": "string | null",
      "script": "string — spoken words, 100+ Thai chars or 50+ English words",
      "transition_out": "string | null",

      // — Output skill hints —
      "priority": "essential | important | supplementary",
      "cluster": "opening | problem | evidence | solution | closing",
      "condensed_script": "string — 1-2 sentences for space-constrained formats"
    }
  ]
}

After saving, tell the user:

📄 storytelling.json พร้อมแล้ว (X beats) — นำไปใช้ต่อได้เลย

Note:

storytelling.json

เป็น format-agnostic content plan — skill ใดก็ได้รับไปเป็น context แล้วตีความสู่ output format ของตัวเอง

Important Principles

On beat types: Each beat has exactly one

type

— the primary narrative function (opening, problem, data, solution, star_moment, etc.). If a beat is trying to do two things at once (e.g., establish common ground AND deliver the S.T.A.R. moment), split it into two beats. The

success_element

field is separate — it tags which Canvas dimension the beat serves, not the narrative role.

On S.T.A.R. placement: The S.T.A.R. moment is the climax of the story — it lands hardest when the audience has traveled through problem, data, and stakes. Placing it before that tension has built wastes the impact. S.T.A.R. belongs in the second half of the story, after the Middle section has done its work.

On beats vs slides: Beats are story units, not slides. A beat represents one narrative idea — it may become 1 slide, multiple slides, or share a slide with another beat. The split into visual units is the output skill's responsibility. Don't think in slides when planning beats.

On headlines: Every beat headline is a full-sentence assertion (Michael Alley's model). "ต้นทุนซ่อนเร้นสูงถึง 1.2 ล้านต่อปี" not "ต้นทุน". This is backed by research — audiences understand and remember assertion headlines significantly better than topic labels.

On content density: Each beat carries exactly one idea. If you find yourself putting two arguments, two data points, or two emotional appeals into a single beat — split it. The script can elaborate, but the headline and core takeaway must be singular and sharp. Audiences remember one thing per moment, not five.

On emotional arc: Stories that just dump information are forgettable. The Sparkline pattern (Duarte) alternates between "what is" (current reality, problems) and "what could be" (vision, solutions). This tension and resolution keeps the audience engaged and makes the final vision feel earned. For Pitch storylines, this is essential — tag each beat's

sparkline_position

carefully to maintain the rhythm.

On SUCCESS elements: The middle section of a story must cover all 7 elements of the Canvas (Simplicity, Unexpectedness, Concreteness, Credibility, Emotions, Storylines, S.T.A.R. moment). Tagging each beat keeps you honest — if you look at your

success_element

tags and see only "data/credibility" beats, the story is too dry. Balance information with emotion.

Reference Files

Read these when you need deeper knowledge:

File	When to read
`references/storytelling-canvas.md`	Step 3 (blueprint) — story roles, audience types, sparkline pattern; Step 4 (beats) — SUCCESS formula, script guidance

storytelling

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content