scene-construction
How to build scenes: entry, dialogue, pacing, transitions. Use when writing or evaluating how scenes work on the page.
What this skill does
# Scene Construction
How scenes work on the page: how to enter, how dialogue works, how to pace
beats within and across scenes, how to transition. `/prose-writing` covers
sentence-level immersion; `/story-architecture` covers what scenes do in the
story.
## Scene Entry
Open in the middle of something happening. A character mid-task,
mid-conversation, or mid-thought gives the reader something to track
immediately. Let them orient through action and context.
When the setting itself is the story beat, such as a character seeing a
destroyed city for the first time or arriving somewhere that changes
everything, the description carries narrative weight and earns the opening.
## Dialogue
Dialogue does at least two things at once: advance the plot AND reveal
character, or reveal character AND build tension, or build tension AND seed
information. Single-purpose dialogue ("As you know, the reactor is on the
third floor") feels flat because real conversation is never purely
transactional.
**Subtext.** Characters rarely say exactly what they mean. They deflect,
understate, change the subject, answer a different question than the one asked.
The gap between what's said and what's meant is where characterization lives.
**Voice differentiation.** Each character should sound distinct enough that you
could identify the speaker without dialogue tags. Vocabulary, sentence
structure, speech patterns, what they choose to talk about.
**Action beats over dialogue tags.** "Said" is invisible; use it freely. Use
action beats to show how something is said: "She set the cup down carefully.
'That's not what I meant.'"
## Pacing
Alternate between high-tension and lower-tension beats within a scene.
Sustained intensity becomes numbing. The quiet moment after the crisis is what
gives the crisis weight.
Chapter-level: end on forward momentum: an unanswered question, a new
complication, an emotional shift. Give the reader a reason to continue.
Sentence-level rhythm (length, structure, speed control) lives in
`/prose-writing`.
## Transitions
Move between scenes and time periods without losing the reader. A hard scene
break (whitespace or divider) resets time and place cleanly. A soft transition
within a scene compresses time: "The next three weeks passed in a blur of
training."
Match transition weight to what's being skipped. If nothing important happens
between scenes, a hard break is enough. If the skipped time matters
emotionally, a brief transitional passage acknowledges it.
Related in Writing & Docs
jax-development
IncludedUse this skill when the user is writing, debugging, profiling, refactoring, reviewing, benchmarking, parallelising, exporting, or explaining JAX code, or when they mention JAX, jax.numpy, jit, grad, value_and_grad, vmap, scan, lax, random keys, pytrees, jax.Array, sharding, Mesh, PartitionSpec, NamedSharding, pmap, shard_map, Pallas, XLA, StableHLO, checkify, profiler, or the JAX repo. It helps turn NumPy or PyTorch-style code into pure functional JAX, fix tracer/control-flow/shape/PRNG bugs, remove recompiles and host-device syncs, choose transforms and sharding strategies, inspect jaxpr/lowering/IR, and benchmark compiled code correctly.
nature-article-writer
IncludedDrafts, rewrites, diagnostically critiques, and style-calibrates primary research manuscripts for Nature and Nature Portfolio journals. Use when the user wants a Nature-style title, summary paragraph or abstract, introduction, results, discussion, methods, figure legends, presubmission enquiry, cover letter, reviewer response, or when a scientific draft sounds generic, jargon-heavy, structurally weak, or AI-ish and needs precise, broad-reader-friendly prose without inventing data, analyses, or references. Best for primary research articles and letters rather than reviews or press releases unless explicitly adapting one.
deckrd
IncludedDocument-driven framework that derives requirements, specifications, implementation plans, and executable tasks from goals through structured AI dialogue. Use when user says "write requirements", "create spec", "plan implementation", "derive tasks", "structure this feature", "break down into tasks", or "document this module". Also use for reverse engineering existing code into docs (/deckrd rev). Do NOT use for direct code writing — use /deckrd-coder after tasks are generated. Do NOT use when the user only wants to run or fix existing code without planning.
clinical-decision-support
IncludedGenerate professional clinical decision support (CDS) documents for pharmaceutical and clinical research settings, including patient cohort analyses (biomarker-stratified with outcomes) and treatment recommendation reports (evidence-based guidelines with decision algorithms). Supports GRADE evidence grading, statistical analysis (hazard ratios, survival curves, waterfall plots), biomarker integration, and regulatory compliance. Outputs publication-ready LaTeX/PDF format optimized for drug development, clinical research, and evidence synthesis.
handling-sf-data
IncludedSalesforce data operations with 130-point scoring. Use this skill to create, update, delete, bulk import/export, generate test data, and clean up org records using sf CLI and anonymous Apex. TRIGGER when: user creates test data, performs bulk import/export, uses sf data CLI commands, needs data factory patterns for Apex tests, or needs to seed/clean records in a Salesforce org. DO NOT TRIGGER when: SOQL query writing only (use querying-soql), Apex test execution (use running-apex-tests), or metadata deployment (use deploying-metadata).
accelint-ac-to-playwright
IncludedConvert and validate acceptance criteria for Playwright test automation. Use when user asks to (1) review/evaluate/check if AC are ready for automation, (2) assess if AC can be converted as-is, (3) validate AC quality for Playwright, (4) turn AC into tests, (5) generate tests from acceptance criteria, (6) convert .md bullets or .feature Gherkin files to Playwright specs, (7) create test automation from requirements. Handles both bullet-style markdown and Gherkin syntax with JSON test plan generation and validation.