Summary: Not every piece of content is meant to carry a story. Some messages are purely mechanical, transactional—even sterile. That doesn’t mean they’re meaningless. It means we must stop pretending there’s always narrative gold hidden in routine system messages. This post unpacks a specific type of communication—JSON error responses—and explains why there’s no story to tell, only structure to interpret.
The Nature of a Machine-Generated Message
When you pull data from a system and get something like a JSON error response, what you’re seeing is not a story but a report. It’s the machine saying, “Hey, something didn’t work. Here’s what I can tell you.” For example:
{
"error": "Insufficient Balance",
"code": 402,
"message": "Your account does not have enough funds to proceed with this transaction."
}
There’s no rising action here. No character development. No stakes beyond the technical. This isn’t a scene—it’s a sensor. The system is not interested in drama; it’s trained to inform, not entertain. So asking someone to rewrite this as a story is like asking them to make a bedtime tale out of a tax return. Possible? Maybe. Honest? Not really.
Why ‘No Story’ Is Still a Useful Answer
Trying to force narrative sense into a message like this wastes time and misleads your audience. It suggests depth where there is only function. Sometimes the most helpful answer is “There’s nothing here to analyze.” A JSON error like this was never meant to have a plot—it’s a red light on the dashboard.
Acknowledging there’s no story also prevents unnecessary rationalization. It keeps communication efficient. If you start spinning a tale about how the account got depleted, who might be responsible, or the emotional weight of an error message, you’re distracting from the real work—fixing the root problem. What caused the low balance? Who controls the budget? What’s next?
Storytelling Has Its Place—But Not Everywhere
We use stories to persuade, to empathize, to move people. And they work. But story has edges. Knowing when you’ve stepped outside those edges is part of clear messaging. When a machine says “insufficient balance,” trying to wrap that in metaphor can blur the original message. Sometimes clarity demands restraint.
The real skill is knowing when the audience needs context and when they just need instruction. If someone’s card didn’t work, they don’t care whether the backend server had a tough day—they want to know: Can I fix this? Is there a workaround? Am I stuck? That’s not plot. That’s utility.
Technical Language Isn’t Cold—It’s Precise
Some people say technical language is cold. That misses the point. It’s not cold; it’s clear. When systems talk to each other or to developers, they don’t get poetic. They get exact. A message like "error": "Insufficient Balance" might seem dry, but it’s anything but lazy. That precision cuts through ambiguity. It leaves no room for misinterpretation in high-stakes processes—like money transfers or system checks.
Clarity here is not the enemy of empathy—it’s the method of respect. You don’t confuse someone struggling to pay their bills with metaphors. You show them exactly what’s wrong, why nothing moved, and what they can do now.
So Who Is This For?
If you’re a marketer, ask yourself: who’s the target? Are you writing for the engineer trying to debug a payment system? Or are you helping a client understand how error notifications are handled in their app?
Different audiences, different needs. Coding teams need diagnosis. Product managers need translation. Customers need solutions. Don’t talk to all of them the same way. Don’t fake stories where none exist. A short, accurate message can win more trust than 500 words of fluff.
Next Steps and Smarter Communication
There’s nothing wrong with admitting something has no story. In fact, it’s honest engagement. The smarter move is to ask better questions: Why did this happen? How should we respond? Who else needs to understand this? What options can we offer now?
These kinds of responses invite reflection and action—not distraction. That’s where real improvement lives. Not in storytelling for its own sake, but in thoughtful communication that opens space for clarity, control, and change.
#TechnicalWriting #JSONErrors #ClearMessaging #ProductDesign #UXWriting #SoftwareCommunication #PrecisionMatters #ErrorMessages #MessagingThatWorks #SoftwareDevTools
Featured Image courtesy of Unsplash and Ilya Semenov (6uFROinaC3g)
