Summary: When marketers, writers, or strategists attempt to unearth a story from a block of technical data, especially one like a JSON error message, they often bump into a hard wall. This isn't failure—it’s a misjudgment of medium. Trying to force a narrative where there's none is like digging for gold in plastic. In this post, we'll dismantle the mistaken urge to force storytelling onto raw technical feedback, using the insufficient balance JSON as our example. There’s a lesson here not just about content types, but about respecting the form and purpose of language structures in both tech and marketing.
What Was the Text, Really?
The text people were trying to interpret or use creatively was straightforward: a JSON error response. Something like:
{
"error": "Insufficient funds",
"code": 402,
"message": "Your account balance is too low to complete this request."
}
It’s dry. It's precise. It’s doing its job. That job is not to entertain, inspire, or sell—it's to notify. It’s a machine-to-human signal with one goal: STOP and FIX this. It carries no plot, characters, turning point, or resolution. There’s no tension arc or transformation. So why would we try to twist meaning from it beyond what it gives?
Why the Temptation to "Extract a Story" Happens
We live in a world addicted to storytelling. Simon Sinek screams "Start With Why." Content marketers shout about narratives being king. It isn’t wrong—most human communication leans on stories. But this doesn’t mean every data input, line of code, or automated message contains or should contain a story. Trying to force one is like rewriting a boarding pass into a love letter. It changes nothing—and confuses everything.
Instead, what’s happening here is a mismatch of audience and context. Story works wonders when you’re persuading people. JSON works wonders when you're controlling machines or troubleshooting an API call. Different contexts, different rules.
Acknowledging the Frustration and Creativity Behind This
Let’s pause. What’s actually going on when someone tries to find a story in a message like “Your account balance is too low”? It’s worth reflecting on the human impulse underneath. That person may be a marketer pushing out content with a deadline. Or an AI prompting specialist being told to “make everything a story.” Or a developer overexposed to internal tools who’s now looking for relevance and engagement. We reach for stories because they soften our reality and attempt to make logic feel more human. It’s earnest. It’s understandable. But even a valid impulse can run off the tracks.
Stories Have Structure. JSON Has Schema.
Let’s be blunt: a story requires escalation, conflict, and transformation. JSON has schema, objects, and key-value pairs. Even if you squint hard, there’s no protagonist in a server response trying to clear his financial obstacles to fulfill a dream. There’s only structure built for validation, not imagination.
These formats exist for efficiency. In a RESTful web service, error messages are not meant to be marketing copy. They're signals to developers, alerts to apps. Someone trying to pull a narrative from that is committing a category error. It’s the same mistake as trying to measure temperature with a stopwatch. Context matters—and matching the tool to the task matters more.
Misusing Story Can Weaken Trust
Good marketing doesn’t explain everything. It guides. And guiding starts by not insulting the intelligence of your audience. When people smell spin—when they sense someone polishing technical failure into emotional fluff—they don’t get moved, they get suspicious. “Why are you selling me feelings when I asked for facts?” comes next. When there’s no story, say there’s no story. That honesty builds more respect than fiction masquerading as value.
So Where Does This Leave You?
You were handed a statement from a machine warning about low funds. That’s not a character flaw, not a poetic tragedy, not symbolic of your life. It’s data. You fix it, you move on. Trying to dress it up won't make it more informative—it’ll only make the communicator look like they’re trying too hard.
Now, could you tell a story around the *context* of receiving that message? Sure. You can wrap marketing content around a user’s bad experience or a financial services breakdown. But let’s be clear: that’s not making a story “from” the JSON. That's making a story around the event. Big difference. Do you see the distinction?
Technical Data Isn’t the Enemy—Misplaced Creativity Is
Rather than forcing story into structure, why not learn to interpret each communication format on its own terms? When a customer sees "insufficient balance," it isn't a literary device—it's a denial of a request. Give them next steps. Solutions. Clarity. That’s how you serve their goal.
Ask yourself: What’s the job of this message? What will the user do with that info? What’s at stake if they misunderstand it? Start from there. Marketers win when we communicate clearly first—and creatively second. Not the other way around.
Conclusion: Know When Not to Tell a Story
Every professional communicator must learn this discipline: not everything is a metaphor. Not everything becomes a fable. Knowing when to shut up and just deliver the truth is a skill worth defending. Let JSON be JSON. Let stories breathe where they belong.
Respect the silence in the data.
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Featured Image courtesy of Unsplash and Patrick Martin (UMlT0bviaek)