name: concepts-index description: Index of the transversal concepts that make up the storymaking vocabulary — the meta-canon that organises arcs, loops, beats, slides, and components.
Storymaking concepts
The transversal vocabulary of storymaking. These are not items in any specific catalogue — not arcs, not loops, not tools. They are the concepts that organise the canon and make the rest of it usable.
Every concept here applies across multiple levels of the storymaking hierarchy. They are the language we use to talk about decks at all.
The hierarchy primitives
The five levels every deck operates on, from coarsest to finest.
- Arc — the full-story shape.
- Block — a major act of the deck (pillar).
- Loop — a mini-argument inside a beat.
- Beat — a major narrative moment within an arc.
- Slide — the smallest autonomous unit of communication.
- Component — a concrete piece inside a slide.
The narrative axes
Three transversal forces that cut across every level.
- Narrative axes — the parent: levels × forces matrix.
- Sense — direction, tension, cohesion.
- Claim — the thesis being advanced.
- Proof — the evidence that makes Claims survive scrutiny.
- Plausibility loop — the linter: every Claim resolves to Proof, every Proof serves a Claim.
Framing and audience
What you settle before slide one.
- Audience — the four questions that come before structure.
- SCQA — Situation, Complication, Question, Answer.
- Big Idea — the single sentence the deck exists to deliver.
- Narrative temperature — Inform / Align / Recommend / Persuade / Inspire.
- Opener — the first 30 seconds.
- Closing ask — the specific decision requested at the end.
Argument and rhetoric
How the case actually gets built.
- Action title — slide title that asserts the insight.
- So what? — the shortest editorial test.
- MECE — Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive.
- Reasoning approach — deductive vs inductive.
- Reveal strategy — headline-first / progressive / dramatic.
- Tension and release — the pacing engine.
- Aha moment — the earned reveal.
Quality bars and lenses
Tests and perspectives that catch what would otherwise ship.
- Creative Trio — Architect, Storyteller, Designer.
- Headline test — does the deck survive a skim of action titles?
- Forward test — does the deck survive being forwarded?
- Eight-second test — does the slide survive a glance?
- Vanity quote — antipattern: self-citation as proof.
How to use this index
When coaching a user through the 10-step process or the Storymakers SKILL, the concepts here are the vocabulary that makes the steps usable. Link to them when introducing a new term; use them as the diagnostic vocabulary when reviewing an existing deck.