---
name: Narrative
desc: The storytelling layer that gives concepts a motivated route a reader can follow.
category:
  - category
  - meta
  - concept
belongs:
  - category
prerequisite:
  - category
---

A narrative is the storytelling layer over the *lake*.

*Entries* are addressable but unordered.
A reader who meets them in arbitrary order gets facts without understanding.
A narrative supplies the missing thing:
an intentional route that makes one concept lead to the next.

A narrative does three jobs at once.
It sequences, so accurate concepts arrive when the reader can use them.
It motivates, so the reader wants the next concept before it is explained.
It glues, so a set of separate *entries* reads as one deliberate movement.

The motivating job is a pitch.
Before a concept is made complete, the route makes it worth moving toward.
The pull may be practical, aesthetic, playful, urgent, or clarifying.
A narrative that only orders concepts is a table of contents;
a narrative that also creates pull is a reason to keep reading.

The *lake* is the canonical narrative form.
Materialized narratives live in the *lake* as guides.
They state useful prerequisites,
choose a base language,
and move a reader through *entries* in an intentional order.
This *lake*'s `introduction` is the first route through the model.
The `methodology` is the working route for acting inside the *lake*.
The `bootstrap-resolution` route walks the self-application problem to its answer.

Long-form documents outside the *lake* are repo material.
They may introduce terms once and trust them afterward,
but their durable claims belong in *entries*.

Interactive narratives may be generated ephemerally by skills.
They adapt the route to one reader or task,
but canonical knowledge still lives in *entries* and metadata.

A narrative is judged by reader understanding, not by coverage.
It should explain why the route matters,
state the prerequisites that unlock it,
keep the sequence tight,
and point to the *entries* that carry durable detail
instead of restating them.
A good narrative leaves an aftertaste:
a phrase or handle the reader keeps after the prose is gone.

---

> **Sirno generated links begin. Do not edit this section.**

- belongs (to):
  - [category](category.md)
- belongs (from):
  - [bootstrap-resolution](bootstrap-resolution.md)
  - [methodology](methodology.md)
  - [perspective-and-terms](perspective-and-terms.md)
  - [readme](readme.md)

> **Sirno generated links end.**
