# Writing Narrative Pages > Guides marketing page composition using humanistic narrative principles. Use when writing, reviewing, or structuring marketing pages, landing pages, or product story pages. - Skill: `giselles-ai/writing-narrative-pages` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add giselles-ai/writing-narrative-pages` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/giselles-ai/writing-narrative-pages/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Marketing & Growth - Author: giselles-ai (https://skillmd.com/u/giselles-ai) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/giselles-ai/writing-narrative-pages --- # Writing Narrative Pages Guides the composition of marketing pages as **spaces of encounter** — not persuasion machinery. ## Core Thesis A marketing page is not an information delivery system. It is a space where the reader recognizes their own story, and returns changed. This skill synthesizes seven humanistic traditions into three actionable design principles. The intellectual foundations are documented in `reference/foundations.md` for deeper study. ## The Three Principles ### 1. Disclose, Don't Explain **What it means:** Show *who you are* (vision, character, stance), not *what you are* (feature list, specs). Leave space for the reader to find their own meaning. **Rooted in:** - Walter Benjamin: "Half the art of storytelling is to keep a story free from explanation." Information that explains itself dies at the moment of consumption. A story that withholds explanation retains its power across time. - Hannah Arendt: Speech and action reveal the "who" of someone — their unique identity — which "can almost never be achieved as a willful purpose." The "what" (qualities, features) can be listed; the "who" can only *appear*. **In practice:** - Open with a situation the reader already lives in, not with your product name - Let the reader feel the problem before naming the solution - Use concrete images and scenes, not abstract claims - Resist the urge to exhaustively list features — a few resonant details outweigh a comprehensive inventory - Leave gaps. The reader's act of filling them is where meaning is born **Anti-patterns:** - "Our platform offers 50+ integrations" (what, not who) - A hero section that leads with the company name and tagline - Explaining every feature immediately after introducing it - FAQ-style preemptive answers to objections the reader hasn't raised ### 2. Transform, Don't Persuade **What it means:** Don't argue the reader into agreement. Design an experience where the reader enters a narrative world, sees their own situation through new eyes, and returns with a changed understanding. **Rooted in:** - Paul Ricoeur's threefold mimesis: The reader brings a *prefigured* understanding of their world → enters the *configured* narrative world of the page → returns to their own world *refigured*, seeing it differently. The page is the middle passage. - Green & Brock's narrative transportation: When people are immersed in a story, they adopt beliefs aligned with the narrative — not through argument, but through the experience of *being there*. Critical resistance drops not because it's defeated, but because it's irrelevant inside the story world. - Keith Oatley: Fiction is a "simulation of social experience." The reader doesn't observe — they *inhabit*. **In practice:** - Structure the page as a journey: the reader's world (before) → the encounter (during) → the reader's world, transformed (after) - The "before" must be genuinely recognizable — if the reader doesn't see themselves, there is no departure point - The "during" is not your product demo. It is a shift in perspective — a moment where the reader sees a possibility they hadn't considered - The "after" is not your CTA. It is the reader's new understanding of their own situation. The CTA follows naturally from that understanding - Use sensory and concrete language that enables mental imagery — transportation requires the reader to *see* the world you're describing - Pacing matters. Rushed pages prevent immersion **Anti-patterns:** - "Here's why we're better than the competition" (argument, not experience) - Objection-handling sections that frame the reader as an adversary - Testimonials presented as proof rather than as stories - A page that can be fully "understood" without being *felt* ### 3. Expand Autonomy, Don't Manufacture Desire **What it means:** The page should enlarge the reader's capacity to judge, choose, and act on their own terms — not create dependency or artificial need. **Rooted in:** - Ivan Illich: Tools (including communication tools) have two watersheds. In the first, they extend human capability. In the second, they replace human function, creating dependency. A convivial tool serves "autonomous and creative intercourse among persons." A manipulative tool processes people. - Jerome Bruner: The narrative mode of knowing answers "What does it mean?" — it helps the reader construct their own understanding, rather than receiving pre-digested conclusions. **In practice:** - Give the reader genuine insight they can use *even if they never buy your product*. This is the litmus test of a convivial page - Present your product as a tool that amplifies what the reader already wants to do — not as a solution to a problem they didn't know they had - Respect the reader's ability to evaluate. Provide substance, not spin - Make your assumptions and values visible. Let the reader decide if they share them - Pricing, limitations, and trade-offs disclosed with dignity increase trust and autonomy **Anti-patterns:** - Dark patterns, false urgency, manufactured scarcity - "You didn't know you needed this" framing - Content-gating that trades insight for email addresses before delivering any value - Pages designed to prevent the reader from leaving without converting - Language that infantilizes the reader or assumes they can't understand complexity ## Page Composition Flow When composing a narrative marketing page, work through these stages: ### Stage 1: Find the Shared Ground Before writing anything, answer: - What situation does the reader already live in? - What tension or aspiration do they carry? - What would they recognize as *their own* experience? This is Ricoeur's prefiguration — the reader's world before the encounter. If you don't know this, you cannot write the page. ### Stage 2: Design the Encounter The body of the page is where the reader enters a new world: - Open with the reader's reality, not your product - Introduce a shift in perspective — a way of seeing their situation that they hadn't considered - Only then, show how your product embodies that perspective - Use concrete scenes, specific details, and human language - Leave space between sections. Density prevents transportation ### Stage 3: Let the Reader Return Changed The end of the page is not a hard sell. It is the reader returning to their world with new understanding: - Restate the reader's situation in light of the new perspective - The CTA should feel like a natural next step the reader *wants* to take, not a demand - Offer multiple depths of engagement — not everyone is ready for the same commitment - End with something that stays with the reader, even if they close the tab ## Evaluation Criteria When reviewing a narrative marketing page, ask: 1. **The Benjamin Test:** If I removed all product names and branding, would this page still be worth reading? Does it carry insight that survives beyond the moment? 2. **The Arendt Test:** Does this page reveal a *who* — a vision, a stance, a character — or does it only list *whats*? 3. **The Ricoeur Test:** Could the reader's understanding of their own situation genuinely change from reading this page? Is there a before and after? 4. **The Illich Test:** Does this page expand the reader's autonomy? Could they use the insight here even if they never become a customer? 5. **The Transportation Test:** Does the page create conditions for immersion — concrete imagery, emotional engagement, pacing — or does it read like a spec sheet?