Narrative Arc Builder

Turn chronology into causal structure. Keep the user or operator as protagonist and the product, designer, and AI agent as supporting forces. This is a five-stage compression of Donna Lichaw's seven-part narrative arc (The User's Journey, Rosenfeld Media, 2016) — Exposition, Inciting Incident, Rising Action, Crisis, Climax/Resolution, Falling Action, End. Read references/five-stage-arc.md for the exact stage mapping.

Workflow

1. Extract the protagonist, baseline, goal, inciting friction, constraints, evidence, alternatives, pivotal decision, changed state, and measured result.
2. Map only supported material into:
   1. Context and baseline
   2. Friction or inciting incident
   3. Rising complexity and trade-offs
   4. Systemic breakthrough or pivotal learning
   5. Quantifiable aftermath and remaining limits
3. Identify the climax as the moment value, risk reduction, or decisive learning became visible—not automatically the launch.
4. Place research and process steps where they changed a decision.
5. Preserve branches, failures, reversals, and unresolved evidence.
6. Draft section headings that reveal the argument when read alone.

Do not manufacture conflict, call a shipped feature a breakthrough without evidence, or force a positive ending. When impact is unknown, end with the strongest verified learning and the measurement plan.