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Use before offering story directions or "what comes next" options, so possibilities grow from character logic rather than plot convenience.
Install with Codex or Claude Copy this prompt, paste it into Codex, Claude, or another assistant, and let it review the skill page and install it for you.
Based on SOC occupation classification
Use this skill for requests related to web research; it provides a structured approach to conducting comprehensive web research
Load when the MainAgent is assembling a comparison report across multiple narrative-direction explorations (results from parallel/sequential task(explorer) calls). Use to compare directions along narrative, character, cost, and reader-promise dimensions. "Branches" here means narrative branches — this is NOT a git branch tool.
Plan and track a character's long-term transformation arc, ensuring each action reflects their current stage of change.
Check physical, social, and psychological plausibility in fiction scenes.
Load when WriterAgent finishes a chapter draft or is planning a chapter that should set up later payoffs. Use to embed plant-able details (objects, gestures, line drops) for ch+2 or later, and to verify earlier plants get acknowledged. Skip for the very first chapter (no prior plants exist) and for pure dialogue scenes with no narrative scaffolding.
Plan or draft scenes where rhythm, tension, and momentum matter by balancing escalation and release.
| name | plot-extrapolation |
| description | Use before offering story directions or "what comes next" options, so possibilities grow from character logic rather than plot convenience. |
Read this skill before offering story directions or "what comes next" options.
A direction is weak if it could fit any story with different character names. "They reconcile" or "the threat escalates" are not directions—they are genre positions. A strong direction grows from the specific psychology of these characters in this situation, at this moment in their arcs.
Ask: what does this character most need to avoid right now—and what happens if the next scene forces them directly toward it?
For each direction you consider:
Directions that only have layer 1 are plot moves. Directions with layers 2 and 3 are character moves. Prefer character moves.
Directions differ in kind when they produce different emotional shapes, not just different events. Two directions that both end with "they understand each other better" are the same direction at different angles. Look for directions that end in different states: one in which someone is more alone, one in which someone has given up something they cannot recover, one in which the relationship has fundamentally changed shape.
The useful test: could both directions plausibly fit the same story? If yes, they are not different enough.
Before generating directions, scan for:
Strong directions use what is already there. Weak directions introduce new material to solve problems.
