Narrative Debt

The invisible mechanic between storyteller and audience

You owe your Reader.

On January 9, 2007, Steve Jobs walked onto a dim stage and said, “This is a day I’ve been looking forward to for two and a half years.”

For the next three minutes, Jobs reflected on the history of Apple, the evolution of phones, and the limitations of current smartphones. He dropped hint after hint about a “revolutionary product.” The audience leaned forward, waiting for the reveal.

Meanwhile, the Hunger Games begins with, “When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold.”

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From a technical perspective, these openings do drastically different things. Jobs uses costly signaling to tell you — hey, I’ve invested so much time into this, it must be valuable!

While Suzanne Collins gives you a small mystery — who, or what, typically warms that side of the bed?

But to focus on the surface-level mechanics misses the crucial point. There’s a deeper narrative principle at work, what I call Narrative Debt, and both Jobs and Collins are masters.

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In previous newsletters, we’ve talked about promises, curiosity gaps, and open loops as storytelling tools. They’re useful, yes, but I think they’re incomplete.

Let’s step back for a moment. What’s really happening in a story?

Every story is a subtle negotiation between you — the storyteller — and your Reader. You raise questions and make promises. Then, in return, your Reader invests their attention, trust, and, most importantly, time.

But here’s the catch. Those promises aren't free. Each one creates an obligation, an invisible expectation in your Reader that you’ll deliver a satisfying payoff.

This obligation is what I call Narrative Debt.

And it leads directly to the first principle of managing Narrative Debt: Always Be Owing.

Principle 1: Always be Owing

When I graduated with student loans, the loan provider sent emails every month. But now that I paid it off, I get zero emails.

Readers behave similarly. If you owe them nothing, they have very little reason to stick around.

In story, you always want to owe the Reader.

• Every desire creates a debt. Will they get it?

• Every investment creates a debt. Will it pay off?

• Every fear creates a debt. Will they overcome it?

Always. Be. Owing.

Both Jobs and Collins knew this. Notice how they deliberately withhold information to create Narrative Debt:

• Hunger Games: “When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold.”

  • Small debt → Who usually keeps the bed warm?

• Jobs: “This is a day I've been looking forward to for two and a half years.”

  • Big debt → What's he been secretly working on?

Readers won't wait forever for you to pay off your debt. Narrative Debt decays over time, and the size of the debt dictates how long they'll stay patient.

Principle 2: Debt Sizing & Time Decay