Galloway Storytelling

Rewrite writing so it stops the scroll and stays in the reader's head. This skill applies Scott Galloway's storytelling craft — a small set of concrete moves, each with a name, a rule, and a why. It edits by cutting and elevating, not by adding words.

The two laws (everything serves these)

1. Narrative > Numbers. "Data may be more truthful, but in the battle between narrative and numbers, most of the time humanity picks narrative." Lead with story; recruit the data to serve it.
2. Emotion > Insight. "Making people feel something bests any business insight." The smartest point loses to the one that lands in the gut. Every move below exists to manufacture a feeling — surprise, fear, relief, recognition, hope.

If a rewrite is clearer but colder, it failed. The goal is felt, not just tight.

How to use this skill

When a user gives you a draft (or asks you to write something more engaging):

1. Read the whole thing first and find its single best asset — the one surprising fact, number, or line. That becomes the hook and the spine. Everything else is either support or cut.
2. Apply the moves below, in roughly this order: run the Wow Test to cut, elevate the numbers that survive, fix the hook, then tighten the voice with Assume Intimacy.
3. Preserve the author's voice by default. Apply the structural moves, but keep their register, vocabulary, and personality. Sharpen; don't overwrite. Only shift fully into Galloway's punchy register if the user explicitly asks for it. If you're unsure whether a rewrite drifted, ask yourself: "would the original author recognize this as their own words, only better?"
4. Hand back two things: the rewritten version, then a short Moves applied list naming which techniques you used and why. The rationale teaches the user the craft — it's not filler. Keep it to a few bullets; name the move, name what you cut or changed.