# Phase 02: Screenplay, Dialogue & Narration Engine

This module governs the drafting of line-by-line screenplays, character dialogue, voiceover narration, action lines, and scene construction.

## Contents

**22 files · 585 craft cards.** Every file is linked directly, so nothing here is more than one hop from you.

| File | What it covers | Cards |
| :--- | :--- | ---: |
| [`cat-dial.md`](cat-dial.md) | **Dialogue Technique** — Dialogue basics: subtext vs text, dialogue compression, character idiom, and banter <br>*Cards scoped to: any format* | 31 |
| [`cat-dial-2.md`](cat-dial-2.md) | **Dialogue Technique — Part 2** — Advanced dialogue: deflection, weaponized subtext, interrogation, and strategic silence <br>*Cards scoped to: any format* | 40 |
| [`cat-scene.md`](cat-scene.md) | **Scene Construction and the Value Turn** — Core scene construction: scene question, arrival on defense, departure on change <br>*Cards scoped to: any format* | 31 |
| [`cat-scene-2.md`](cat-scene-2.md) | **Scene Construction — Part 2** — Scene escalation: micro-turns, shifting power leverage, and reverse scene climaxes <br>*Cards scoped to: any format* | 40 |
| [`cat-scene-3.md`](cat-scene-3.md) | **Scene Construction — Part 3** — Contributor and real-speech scenes: renewed consent, approval conversations, failed interviews, reenactment, negotiation, apology, and responsibility handoff <br>*Cards scoped to: mostly Documentary, One-Hour Drama, Stage Play, Feature Film, among 24 formats* | 14 |
| [`script-craft/narration-craft.md`](script-craft/narration-craft.md) | **Narration and Voiceover** — Voiceover and narration craft: documentary VO, ironic counterpoint, and memory echo <br>*Cards scoped to: mostly Documentary Feature, Drama Series, Feature Film, Heritage / Historical Documentary, among 5 formats* | 9 |
| [`script-craft/action-lines-craft.md`](script-craft/action-lines-craft.md) | **Action Lines** — Screenplay action lines: lean descriptions, visual active verbs, and whitespace control <br>*Cards scoped to: mostly Documentary Feature, Drama Series, Feature Film, Heritage / Historical Documentary, among 5 formats* | 4 |
| [`cat-comedy.md`](cat-comedy.md) | **Comedy, Gag Architecture and Escalation** — Comic fundamentals: joke units, status drop, incongruity, exaggeration, and comic timing <br>*Cards scoped to: mostly sitcom, sketch, short-form video, prose, among 38 formats* | 32 |
| [`cat-comedy-2.md`](cat-comedy-2.md) | **Comedy — Part 2** — Comedy escalation: comic engines, the rule of three, callback architecture, and farce <br>*Cards scoped to: any format* | 39 |
| [`cat-emo.md`](cat-emo.md) | **Emotion, Grief, Love and Catharsis** — Emotional expression: visceral sensations, vulnerability, emotional truth, and release <br>*Cards scoped to: any format* | 27 |
| [`cat-emo-2.md`](cat-emo-2.md) | **Emotion — Part 2** — Complex emotion: conflicting feelings, delayed grief, survivor guilt, and quiet devastation <br>*Cards scoped to: any format* | 34 |
| [`cat-emo-3.md`](cat-emo-3.md) | **Emotion — Part 3** — Euphoria, bittersweet joy, transcendent awe, and quiet resolution emotions <br>*Cards scoped to: mostly Essay, Memoir, Feature Film, Monologue, among 36 formats* | 12 |
| [`cat-pov.md`](cat-pov.md) | **Point of View and Narrative Distance** — Point of view craft: first/third person distance, psychic proximity, and narrator reliability <br>*Cards scoped to: any format* | 33 |
| [`cat-pov-2.md`](cat-pov-2.md) | **Point of View and Narrative Distance — Part 2** — Complex POV: shifting perspectives, cinematic free indirect discourse, and objective camera <br>*Cards scoped to: mostly Novel, Short Story, Feature Film, Audio Drama, among 50 formats* | 23 |
| [`cat-rhythm.md`](cat-rhythm.md) | **Sentence Rhythm, Prose Line and Pace** — Prose rhythm: Motivation-Reaction Units (MRU), sentence beats, and paragraph flow <br>*Cards scoped to: any format* | 32 |
| [`cat-rhythm-2.md`](cat-rhythm-2.md) | **Prose Rhythm — Part 2** — Advanced rhythmic pacing: pause punctuation, sentence acceleration, and staccato cadence <br>*Cards scoped to: any format* | 41 |
| [`cat-rhythm-3.md`](cat-rhythm-3.md) | **Prose Rhythm — Part 3** — Lyrical prose, poetic cadence, rhythm under extreme panic, and hypnotic lullabies <br>*Cards scoped to: mostly Advertising, Explainer, Brand Film, Motion Graphics, among 33 formats* | 10 |
| [`cat-sub.md`](cat-sub.md) | **Subtext, Silence and the Unsaid** — Subtext craft: iceberg principle, physical action masking speech, and deliberate omission <br>*Cards scoped to: mostly screenplay, stage play, novel, series drama, among 21 formats* | 32 |
| [`cat-sub-2.md`](cat-sub-2.md) | **Subtext — Part 2** — Societal and polite subtext: dinner party hostility, institutional coded language <br>*Cards scoped to: any format* | 24 |
| [`cat-voice.md`](cat-voice.md) | **Voice, Register and Narrative Authority** — Narrative persona, vocal authority, speaker-audience relationship, and register choices <br>*Cards scoped to: any format* | 32 |
| [`cat-voice-2.md`](cat-voice-2.md) | **Voice and Register — Part 2** — Register families: essayistic voice, borrowed authority, comic delivery, and direct address <br>*Cards scoped to: any format* | 41 |
| [`script-craft/short-form-lines.md`](script-craft/short-form-lines.md) | **Short-Form Scripting Lines** — Short-form scriptwriting: compressed hooks, fast dialogue snaps, and caption economy <br>*Cards scoped to: mostly Documentary Feature, Drama Series, Feature Film, Heritage / Historical Documentary, among 5 formats* | 4 |

---

## The cards, by file

### [cat-dial.md](cat-dial.md) — 31 cards

**Dialogue Technique** — Dialogue basics: subtext vs text, dialogue compression, character idiom, and banter

- `dial.strategic_withholding` — **Strategic Withholding**
- `dial.trivial_surface` — **The Trivial Surface**
- `dial.deflection` — **Deflection**
- `dial.half_truth` — **The Half-Truth**
- `dial.silence_as_reply` — **Silence as Reply**
- `dial.on_the_nose` — **On-the-Nose Dialogue**
- `dial.talking_past` — **Talking Past Each Other**
- `dial.interruption` — **Interruption**
- `dial.overlap` — **Overlapping Dialogue**
- `dial.dropped_first_words` — **Dropped First Words**
- `dial.rapid_fire` — **Rapid-Fire Exchange**
- `dial.clipped_line` — **The Clipped Line**
- `dial.action_beat` — **The Action Beat**
- `dial.repetition_variation` — **Repetition with Variation**
- `dial.unanswered_line` — **The Unanswered Line**
- `dial.question_control` — **Who Asks the Questions**
- `dial.name_weapon` — **The Name Weapon**
- `dial.polite_aggression` — **Politeness as Aggression**
- `dial.refusing_the_frame` — **Refusing the Frame**
- `dial.talking_to_the_room` — **Talking to the Room**
- `dial.concession_that_wins` — **The Concession That Wins**
- `dial.exposition_accusation` — **Exposition as Accusation**
- `dial.exposition_correction` — **Exposition as Correction**
- `dial.expert_explains_badly` — **The Expert Who Explains Badly**
- `dial.known_information` — **Information the Listener Already Has**
- `dial.misheard_line` — **The Misheard Line**
- `dial.enter_late_leave_early` — **Enter Late, Leave Early**
- `dial.topic_change` — **The Topic Change**
- `dial.callback_line` — **The Callback Line**
- `dial.last_word` — **The Last Word**
- `dial.adjacency_break` — **Adjacency Pair Break**

### [cat-dial-2.md](cat-dial-2.md) — 40 cards

**Dialogue Technique — Part 2** — Advanced dialogue: deflection, weaponized subtext, interrogation, and strategic silence

- `dial.level_before_the_line` — **Name the Level Before the Line**
- `dial.signature_vocabulary` — **Signature Vocabulary**
- `dial.conditional_tic` — **The Conditional Verbal Tic**
- `dial.register_shift` — **Register Shift**
- `dial.job_syntax` — **Syntax Carries the Job**
- `dial.argot_dose` — **Professional Argot Dosing**
- `dial.second_language_rhythm` — **Second-Language Rhythm**
- `dial.generational_speech` — **Generational Speech Markers**
- `dial.phonetic_accent_spelling` — **Phonetic Accent Spelling**
- `dial.writer_voice_uniformity` — **Everybody Talks Like the Writer**
- `dial.literal_answer` — **The Literal Answer**
- `dial.escalating_agreement` — **Escalating Agreement**
- `dial.non_sequitur_reply` — **The Non Sequitur Reply**
- `dial.undercut` — **The Undercut**
- `dial.comic_triple` — **The Comic Triple in Speech**
- `dial.deflating_reply` — **The Deflating Reply**
- `dial.talking_past_the_laugh` — **Talking Past the Laugh**
- `dial.earned_speech` — **The Earned Speech**
- `dial.interrupted_monologue` — **The Interrupted Monologue**
- `dial.confession_speech` — **The Confession Speech**
- `dial.the_toast` — **The Toast**
- `dial.the_pitch` — **The Pitch**
- `dial.the_eulogy` — **The Eulogy**
- `dial.rant_shape` — **The Shape of a Rant**
- `dial.three_hander` — **The Three-Hander**
- `dial.table_scene` — **The Table Scene**
- `dial.who_is_silent` — **Who Is Silent**
- `dial.spoken_about_present` — **Spoken About While Present**
- `dial.everyone_gets_a_line` — **Everyone Gets a Line**
- `dial.one_sided_call` — **The One-Sided Call**
- `dial.intercut_call` — **The Intercut Call**
- `dial.text_on_screen` — **Text on Screen**
- `dial.voice_note` — **The Voice Note**
- `dial.video_call` — **The Video Call**
- `dial.lag_as_drama` — **Lag as Drama**
- `dial.code_switch_midline` — **Code-Switch Mid-Line**
- `dial.untranslated_line` — **The Untranslated Line**
- `dial.fluency_under_stress` — **Fluency That Moves with Stress**
- `dial.subtitle_constraint` — **Writing for the Subtitle**
- `dial.interpreter_scene` — **The Interpreter in the Scene**

### [cat-scene.md](cat-scene.md) — 31 cards

**Scene Construction and the Value Turn** — Core scene construction: scene question, arrival on defense, departure on change

- `scene.value_turn` — **The Value Turn**
- `scene.scene_and_sequel` — **Scene and Sequel**
- `scene.goal_conflict_disaster` — **Goal, Conflict, Disaster**
- `scene.reaction_dilemma_decision` — **Reaction, Dilemma, Decision**
- `scene.mru` — **The Motivation-Reaction Unit**
- `scene.reversal_of_power` — **Reversal of Power**
- `scene.reversal_of_expectation` — **Reversal of Expectation**
- `scene.scene_question` — **The Scene Question**
- `scene.late_entry` — **Late Entry**
- `scene.early_exit` — **Early Exit**
- `scene.entering_on_the_answer` — **Entering on the Answer**
- `scene.held_exit` — **The Held Exit**
- `scene.interrupted_scene` — **The Interrupted Scene**
- `scene.tactic_change` — **Tactic Change**
- `scene.escalating_cost` — **Escalating Cost**
- `scene.barrier_mid_scene` — **The Barrier Introduced Mid-Scene**
- `scene.third_party_arrival` — **The Third Party Arrival**
- `scene.granted_wish` — **The Granted Wish**
- `scene.dead_scene_test` — **The Dead Scene Test**
- `scene.give_a_want` — **Give Someone Something to Want**
- `scene.transplant` — **Transplant the Scene**
- `scene.swap_who_wants` — **Swap Who Wants It**
- `scene.merge_two_scenes` — **Merge Two Scenes**
- `scene.absorb_and_delete` — **Absorb and Delete**
- `scene.trap_scene` — **The Trap Scene**
- `scene.ticking_scene` — **The Ticking Scene**
- `scene.public_scene` — **The Public Scene**
- `scene.transaction_scene` — **The Transaction Scene**
- `scene.threshold_scene` — **The Threshold Scene**
- `scene.interrupted_ritual` — **The Interrupted Ritual**
- `scene.played_twice` — **The Scene Played Twice**

### [cat-scene-2.md](cat-scene-2.md) — 40 cards

**Scene Construction — Part 2** — Scene escalation: micro-turns, shifting power leverage, and reverse scene climaxes

- `scene.orientation_beat` — **The Orientation Beat**
- `scene.opening_on_object` — **Opening on an Object**
- `scene.opening_on_reaction` — **Opening on the Reaction**
- `scene.button` — **The Button**
- `scene.close_on_question` — **Closing on the Question**
- `scene.wind_down_close` — **The Wind-Down Close**
- `scene.montage_value_turn` — **The Montage With a Turn**
- `scene.montage_single_theme` — **One Theme Per Montage**
- `scene.montage_as_avoidance` — **The Montage That Hides a Scene**
- `scene.crosscut_pair` — **The Crosscut Pair**
- `scene.ironic_parallel` — **The Ironic Parallel**
- `scene.crosscut_acceleration` — **Establish, Then Accelerate**
- `scene.silent_scene` — **The Silent Scene**
- `scene.wordless_channel_discipline` — **Channel Discipline in a Wordless Scene**
- `scene.kishotenketsu_scene` — **The Kishōtenketsu Scene**
- `scene.development_scene` — **The Development Scene**
- `scene.meaningful_look` — **The Meaningful Look**
- `scene.two_hander` — **The Two-Hander**
- `scene.ensemble_scene` — **The Ensemble Scene**
- `scene.child_present` — **The Scene With a Child Present**
- `scene.before_a_stranger` — **Played in Front of a Stranger**
- `scene.unaware_participant` — **The Unaware Participant**
- `scene.everyone_speaks` — **Everyone Speaks**
- `scene.phone_call_split` — **The Phone Call Split Across Locations**
- `scene.one_sided_call` — **The One-Sided Call**
- `scene.moving_vehicle` — **The Scene in a Moving Vehicle**
- `scene.second_language_scene` — **The Scene Conducted in a Second Language**
- `scene.untranslated_line` — **The Untranslated Line**
- `scene.length_follows_value` — **Length Follows Value Size**
- `scene.one_line_scene` — **The One-Line Scene**
- `scene.single_action_scene` — **The Scene That Is One Long Action**
- `scene.waiting_room` — **The Waiting Room Scene**
- `scene.arrival_scene` — **The Arrival Scene**
- `scene.departure_scene` — **The Departure Scene**
- `scene.cause_out_question_in` — **Cause Out, Question In**
- `scene.match_join` — **The Match Join**
- `scene.prelap_join` — **The Pre-lap Join**
- `scene.third_attack` — **The Third Attack**
- `scene.change_the_shape` — **Change the Shape, Keep the Content**
- `scene.overworked_scene` — **The Overworked Scene**

### [cat-scene-3.md](cat-scene-3.md) — 14 cards

**Scene Construction — Part 3** — Contributor and real-speech scenes: renewed consent, approval conversations, failed interviews, reenactment, negotiation, apology, and responsibility handoff

- `scene.reconsent_scene` — **Going Back for Consent**
- `scene.approval_conversation` — **The Approval Conversation**
- `scene.interview_breaks` — **The Interview That Goes Wrong**
- `scene.performed_for_camera` — **The Life Performed for the Camera**
- `scene.reconstruction_unmarked` — **The Reconstruction Shot Like Archive**
- `scene.right_of_reply` — **Putting It to Them**
- `scene.no_leverage` — **The Negotiation With No Leverage**
- `scene.apology_that_lands` — **The Apology That Lands**
- `scene.handover` — **The Handover of Responsibility**
- `scene.writer_in_the_scene` — **The Scene the Writer Is In**
- `scene.transcript_built` — **The Scene Built From a Transcript**
- `scene.false_adjacency` — **The Scene Made of Two Moments That Were Not Adjacent**
- `scene.confirmation_scene` — **Told What They Already Suspect**
- `scene.aimed_through_the_room` — **The Speech Aimed Through the Room**

### [script-craft/narration-craft.md](script-craft/narration-craft.md) — 9 cards

**Narration and Voiceover** — Voiceover and narration craft: documentary VO, ironic counterpoint, and memory echo

- `nar.say_cow` — **Say Cow, See Cow**
- `nar.title_first` — **Title Before Name**
- `nar.need_to_know` — **Need to Know**
- `nar.numbers_to_text` — **Numbers to the Screen**
- `nar.bridge` — **The Bridge**
- `nar.pause_written` — **The Written Pause**
- `nar.active_voice` — **Active Voice**
- `nar.conversational` — **Written for the Mouth**
- `nar.no_jargon` — **No Undefined Term**

### [script-craft/action-lines-craft.md](script-craft/action-lines-craft.md) — 4 cards

**Action Lines** — Screenplay action lines: lean descriptions, visual active verbs, and whitespace control

- `act.observable_only` — **Observable Only**
- `act.no_camera_in_script` — **No Camera in the Script**
- `act.one_step` — **One Step Per Line**
- `act.present_active` — **Present Tense, Active**

### [cat-comedy.md](cat-comedy.md) — 32 cards

**Comedy, Gag Architecture and Escalation** — Comic fundamentals: joke units, status drop, incongruity, exaggeration, and comic timing

- `comedy.setup_punchline` — **Setup and Punchline**
- `comedy.rule_of_three` — **The Rule of Three**
- `comedy.topper` — **The Topper**
- `comedy.misdirection` — **Misdirection and the Reveal**
- `comedy.funny_word_last` — **The Funny Word Goes Last**
- `comedy.literal_answer` — **The Literal Answer**
- `comedy.understatement` — **Understatement**
- `comedy.overstatement` — **Overstatement**
- `comedy.non_sequitur` — **The Non Sequitur**
- `comedy.observational_truth` — **Funny Because True**
- `comedy.timing_on_the_page` — **Comic Timing Written, Not Performed**
- `comedy.status_engine` — **Status as the Engine**
- `comedy.straight_man` — **The Straight Man**
- `comedy.wrong_reaction` — **The Wrong-Sized Reaction**
- `comedy.comic_character_engine` — **Comic Character Construction**
- `comedy.escalation_spiral` — **Escalation and the Comic Spiral**
- `comedy.running_gag` — **The Running Gag**
- `comedy.callback_payoff` — **The Callback Payoff**
- `comedy.repetition_turn` — **Repetition and the Point Where It Turns**
- `comedy.farce_engine` — **The Farce Engine**
- `comedy.comedy_of_manners` — **Comedy of Manners**
- `comedy.satire_target` — **Satire With a Target**
- `comedy.cringe` — **Cringe and Social Comedy**
- `comedy.dark_comedy` — **Dark Comedy and Its Rules**
- `comedy.physical_on_page` — **Physical Comedy Written for the Page**
- `comedy.short_form_shape` — **Short-Form Comic Shape**
- `comedy.kids_comedy` — **Comedy in Kids' Content**
- `comedy.translation_resistance` — **Building a Joke That Survives Translation**
- `comedy.joke_that_stops_story` — **The Joke That Stops the Story**
- `comedy.only_funny_character` — **The Character Who Is Only Funny**
- `comedy.audience_gets_there_first` — **The Punchline the Audience Reaches First**
- `comedy.explained_joke` — **The Explained Joke**

### [cat-comedy-2.md](cat-comedy-2.md) — 39 cards

**Comedy — Part 2** — Comedy escalation: comic engines, the rule of three, callback architecture, and farce

- `comedy.engine_before_the_joke` — **Name the Engine Before the Joke**
- `comedy.comic_flaw` — **The Comic Flaw**
- `comedy.airtight_wrong_logic` — **Airtight Logic, Wrong Premise**
- `comedy.maintained_delusion` — **The Maintained Delusion**
- `comedy.useless_expertise` — **The Specialist in Something Useless**
- `comedy.generative_pairing` — **The Pairing That Generates Jokes Structurally**
- `comedy.one_misunderstanding` — **The Scene Built on One Misunderstanding**
- `comedy.escalating_obligation` — **The Escalating Obligation**
- `comedy.wrong_place` — **The Wrong Place**
- `comedy.comic_entrance` — **The Comic Entrance**
- `comedy.exit_joke` — **The Exit Joke**
- `comedy.deliberate_stop` — **The Scene That Stops Being Funny On Purpose**
- `comedy.pun_legitimacy` — **The Pun, and When It Is Legitimate**
- `comedy.malapropism` — **Malapropism**
- `comedy.deliberate_cliche` — **The Deliberate Cliché**
- `comedy.technically_correct` — **The Technically Correct Answer**
- `comedy.register_collision` — **Register Collision**
- `comedy.premise_shelf_life` — **The Comic Premise and How Long It Lasts**
- `comedy.ab_collision` — **The A and B Story Collision**
- `comedy.season_engine` — **Running One Engine for a Season**
- `comedy.comic_ending` — **The Comic Ending and Why It Is the Hardest**
- `comedy.reset_cost` — **The Reset and What It Costs**
- `comedy.turn_serious_and_back` — **Comedy That Turns Serious and Back**
- `comedy.last_joke_before_death` — **The Last Joke Before the Death**
- `comedy.comedy_in_tragedy` — **Comedy Inside Tragedy**
- `comedy.tragedy_in_comedy` — **Tragedy Inside Comedy**
- `comedy.when_to_stop` — **Knowing When to Stop Being Funny**
- `comedy.yes_and_on_page` — **Yes-And on the Page**
- `comedy.game_of_the_scene` — **The Game of the Scene**
- `comedy.heighten_and_explore` — **Heighten and Explore**
- `comedy.first_unusual_thing` — **Finding the First Unusual Thing**
- `comedy.joke_target_audit` — **Who the Joke Is Aimed At**
- `comedy.punch_direction` — **Punching Direction as a Craft Question**
- `comedy.cross_cultural_comedy` — **Comedy Across Cultures**
- `comedy.joke_shelf_life` — **Designing a Joke's Shelf Life**
- `comedy.sympathy_cost_joke` — **The Joke That Costs the Audience's Sympathy**
- `comedy.reference_not_joke` — **The Reference Instead of a Joke**
- `comedy.quirk_as_character` — **The Quirky Character**
- `comedy.requires_agreement` — **Comedy That Requires the Audience to Already Agree**

### [cat-emo.md](cat-emo.md) — 27 cards

**Emotion, Grief, Love and Catharsis** — Emotional expression: visceral sensations, vulnerability, emotional truth, and release

- `emo.earn_the_situation` — **Earn the Situation First**
- `emo.specific_detail` — **The Specific Detail**
- `emo.understate_at_peak` — **Understate at the Peak**
- `emo.delayed_reaction` — **The Delayed Reaction**
- `emo.emotion_through_task` — **Emotion Through Task**
- `emo.withhold_reaction` — **Withhold the Reaction Shot**
- `emo.contrast_sets_level` — **Contrast Sets the Level**
- `emo.physical_register` — **The Physical Register**
- `emo.emotion_against_type` — **Emotion Against Type**
- `emo.object_carrier` — **The Object That Carries It**
- `emo.emotion_in_the_gap` — **Emotion in the Gap**
- `emo.someone_else_feels_it` — **Let Someone Else Feel It**
- `emo.deferred_payoff` — **The Deferred Payoff**
- `emo.emotional_turn` — **Emotional Turn Inside the Scene**
- `emo.grief` — **Grief on the Page**
- `emo.love_without_declaration` — **Love Without Declaration**
- `emo.shame` — **Shame and Humiliation**
- `emo.relief` — **Relief and Its Cost**
- `emo.cold_anger` — **Anger That Is Not Shouting**
- `emo.nostalgia` — **Nostalgia Without Sentimentality**
- `emo.hope` — **Hope as a Structural Instrument**
- `emo.sentimentality` — **Sentimentality**
- `emo.telling_the_emotion` — **Telling the Emotion**
- `emo.manipulated_beat` — **The Manipulated Beat**
- `emo.emotional_monotone` — **Emotional Monotone**
- `emo.grief_that_resolves` — **Grief That Resolves**
- `emo.unearned_attachment` — **The Emotion Nobody Earned**

### [cat-emo-2.md](cat-emo-2.md) — 34 cards

**Emotion — Part 2** — Complex emotion: conflicting feelings, delayed grief, survivor guilt, and quiet devastation

- `emo.what_pays_for_the_feeling` — **What Pays for the Feeling**
- `emo.fear_from_inside` — **Fear Written From Inside**
- `emo.dread_vs_fear` — **Dread, Which Is Not Fear**
- `emo.joy` — **Joy, and Why It Resists the Page**
- `emo.envy` — **Envy**
- `emo.loneliness` — **Loneliness as a Written State**
- `emo.guilt_vs_shame` — **Guilt, Which Is Not Shame**
- `emo.awe` — **Awe and the Sublime**
- `emo.disgust` — **Disgust**
- `emo.pride` — **Pride**
- `emo.hot_rage` — **Rage That Discharges**
- `emo.anticipation` — **Anticipation and the Pleasure of Waiting**
- `emo.numbness` — **Numbness and Dissociation**
- `emo.horror_aftermath` — **What Is Left After the Horror**
- `emo.laugh_then_grief` — **Laughter, Then Grief**
- `emo.humiliation_comedy` — **Humiliation as a Comic Engine**
- `emo.series_arc` — **The Emotional Arc of a Series**
- `emo.episode_emotional_shape` — **The Emotional Shape of One Episode**
- `emo.catharsis_requirements` — **What Catharsis Actually Requires**
- `emo.withheld_catharsis` — **The Withheld Catharsis**
- `emo.leave_it_for_the_performer` — **Leave the Emotion for the Performer**
- `emo.page_only_interiority` — **The Emotion Only Prose Can Deliver**
- `emo.song_emotional_beat` — **The Emotional Beat of a Lyric and Its Picture**
- `emo.brand_emotion` — **Emotion in Advertising and Brand Work**
- `emo.kids_emotion` — **Emotion in Kids' and Preschool Content**
- `emo.interactive_emotion` — **Emotion When the Audience Acts**
- `emo.testimony_emotion` — **Emotion in Documentary and Testimony**
- `emo.cultural_display_register` — **Cultural Registers of Emotional Display**
- `emo.joy_as_montage` — **Joy Delegated to a Montage**
- `emo.cringe_without_exit` — **Humiliation With No Way Out**
- `emo.borrowed_feeling` — **Borrowed Emotion**
- `emo.score_does_the_work` — **Emotion Delegated to the Music**
- `emo.extracted_emotion` — **Emotion Extracted From a Real Person**
- `emo.emotion_written_as_direction` — **The Emotion Written as a Stage Direction**

### [cat-emo-3.md](cat-emo-3.md) — 12 cards

**Emotion — Part 3** — Euphoria, bittersweet joy, transcendent awe, and quiet resolution emotions

- `emo.adult_reassurance` — **Reassurance That Works on Adults**
- `emo.bad_news_delivery` — **Delivering the Bad News**
- `emo.false_reassurance` — **Reassurance You Cannot Keep**
- `emo.permission_piece` — **The Permission Piece**
- `emo.naming_the_feeling` — **Naming the Unnamed Feeling**
- `emo.this_happened_too` — **The Company of the Same Experience**
- `emo.commemorative_register` — **The Commemorative Register**
- `emo.we_that_excludes` — **The Communal Address That Excludes**
- `emo.manufactured_inadequacy` — **Manufactured Inadequacy**
- `emo.tenderness` — **Tenderness**
- `emo.child_performer_emotion` — **Writing Emotion for a Child Performer**
- `emo.procedural_reset` — **The Procedural Emotional Reset**

### [cat-pov.md](cat-pov.md) — 33 cards

**Point of View and Narrative Distance** — Point of view craft: first/third person distance, psychic proximity, and narrator reliability

- `pov.owner_before_distance` — **The Owner Before the Distance**
- `pov.first_person_central` — **First Person Central**
- `pov.peripheral_narrator` — **Peripheral First Person**
- `pov.close_third` — **Close Third Person**
- `pov.distant_third` — **Distant Third Person**
- `pov.omniscient` — **Omniscience**
- `pov.objective_camera` — **Objective Camera-Eye**
- `pov.second_person` — **Second Person**
- `pov.collective_we` — **First Person Plural**
- `pov.psychic_distance_ladder` — **The Psychic Distance Ladder**
- `pov.distance_slide` — **Sliding the Distance Within a Scene**
- `pov.free_indirect_style` — **Free Indirect Style**
- `pov.filter_word_removal` — **Cutting the Filter**
- `pov.retrospective_distance` — **The Retrospective Narrator**
- `pov.contract` — **The POV Contract**
- `pov.licensed_break` — **The Licensed Break**
- `pov.multi_pov_architecture` — **Multi-POV Architecture**
- `pov.scene_ownership` — **Scene Ownership**
- `pov.handoff` — **The POV Handoff**
- `pov.same_event_twice` — **The Same Event Twice**
- `pov.screen_no_interiority` — **POV Without Interiority**
- `pov.comics_caption_panel` — **Caption Against Panel**
- `pov.playable_pov` — **The Playable Viewpoint**
- `pov.reportage_stance` — **The Reporter's Stance**
- `pov.translation_shift` — **POV in Translation**
- `pov.child_pov` — **The Child Viewpoint**
- `pov.nonhuman_pov` — **Non-Human Viewpoint**
- `pov.institutional_pov` — **The Institutional Viewpoint**
- `pov.found_document` — **The Found Document**
- `pov.head_hopping` — **Head-Hopping**
- `pov.impossible_observation` — **The Impossible Observation**
- `pov.mirror_description` — **The Mirror Self-Description**
- `pov.inert_viewpoint` — **The Inert Viewpoint Character**

### [cat-pov-2.md](cat-pov-2.md) — 23 cards

**Point of View and Narrative Distance — Part 2** — Complex POV: shifting perspectives, cinematic free indirect discourse, and objective camera

- `pov.tense_as_distance` — **Tense as a Distance Instrument**
- `pov.nested_tellers` — **Nested Tellers**
- `pov.implied_author` — **The Implied Author**
- `pov.focalisation` — **Focalisation: Who Sees Versus Who Speaks**
- `pov.narratee` — **The Narratee**
- `pov.direct_address` — **Direct Address and the Broken Fourth Wall**
- `pov.reader_surrogate` — **The Reader-Surrogate Viewpoint**
- `pov.posthumous_narrator` — **The Posthumous Narrator**
- `pov.split_narrator` — **The Split Narrator**
- `pov.divergent_cognition` — **Narrating a Radically Different Cognition**
- `pov.positionality` — **Positionality and Writing Across Difference**
- `pov.short_form_pov` — **POV in the Short Story**
- `pov.prologue_pov` — **The Prologue POV Problem**
- `pov.series_pov` — **POV Across a Series**
- `pov.episode_ownership` — **Ensemble Ownership in the Writers' Room**
- `pov.audio_pov` — **POV in Audio Drama and Podcast Fiction**
- `pov.song_pov` — **POV in Lyric and Song**
- `pov.brand_pov` — **POV in Advertising and Brand Voice**
- `pov.oral_narration` — **Oral and Heritage Narration**
- `pov.ai_narration` — **AI-Authored Narration**
- `pov.opening_page_exercise` — **The Shifting-Distance Opening Page**
- `pov.distance_audit` — **The Distance Audit**
- `pov.tour_guide_narrator` — **The Tour-Guide Narrator**

### [cat-rhythm.md](cat-rhythm.md) — 32 cards

**Sentence Rhythm, Prose Line and Pace** — Prose rhythm: Motivation-Reaction Units (MRU), sentence beats, and paragraph flow

- `rhythm.length_as_tempo` — **Sentence Length as Tempo**
- `rhythm.short_after_long` — **The Short Sentence After Long Ones**
- `rhythm.long_breath` — **The Long Breath Sentence**
- `rhythm.fragment` — **The Fragment**
- `rhythm.short_short_long` — **Short, Short, Long**
- `rhythm.last_word_turn` — **The Sentence That Turns on Its Last Word**
- `rhythm.end_weight` — **Word Order and Where the Emphasis Lands**
- `rhythm.white_space` — **Paragraph Shape and White Space**
- `rhythm.one_line_paragraph` — **The One-Line Paragraph**
- `rhythm.paragraph_break_cut` — **The Paragraph Break as a Cut**
- `rhythm.anaphora` — **Anaphora**
- `rhythm.triad` — **The Triad**
- `rhythm.parallel_construction` — **Parallel Construction**
- `rhythm.list_accumulation` — **The List That Accelerates**
- `rhythm.stress_pattern` — **Cadence and Stress**
- `rhythm.consonant_texture` — **Hard and Soft Consonants**
- `rhythm.saxon_vs_latinate` — **Anglo-Saxon Against Latinate**
- `rhythm.concrete_nouns` — **Concrete Nouns Over Abstract**
- `rhythm.verb_load` — **Verb Strength and the Passive**
- `rhythm.adverb_discipline` — **Adverb Discipline**
- `rhythm.full_stop_tempo` — **The Full Stop as Tempo Control**
- `rhythm.dash_interrupt` — **The Dash**
- `rhythm.colon_drop` — **The Colon as a Drop**
- `rhythm.comma_splice_tool` — **The Deliberate Comma Splice**
- `rhythm.read_aloud_test` — **Reading Aloud**
- `rhythm.action_line_rhythm` — **Rhythm in Screenwriting Action Lines**
- `rhythm.vo_breath_line` — **Rhythm in Voice-Over and Audio**
- `rhythm.subtitle_beat` — **Rhythm in Captions and Subtitles**
- `rhythm.translated_rhythm` — **Rhythm in Translation**
- `rhythm.monotone_length` — **Monotone Sentence Length**
- `rhythm.overwritten_sentence` — **The Overwritten Sentence**
- `rhythm.audible_technique` — **Rhythm That Calls Attention to Itself**

### [cat-rhythm-2.md](cat-rhythm-2.md) — 41 cards

**Prose Rhythm — Part 2** — Advanced rhythmic pacing: pause punctuation, sentence acceleration, and staccato cadence

- `rhythm.who_sets_the_pace` — **Ask the Channel Before the Device**
- `rhythm.periodic_sentence` — **The Periodic Sentence**
- `rhythm.loose_sentence` — **The Loose Sentence**
- `rhythm.cumulative_build` — **Building a Cumulative Sentence**
- `rhythm.subordination_delay` — **Subordination as Delay**
- `rhythm.withheld_subject` — **The Sentence That Withholds Its Subject**
- `rhythm.embedding_load` — **Embedding and What a Reader Can Hold**
- `rhythm.semicolon_balance` — **The Semicolon and What It Actually Does**
- `rhythm.ellipsis_trail` — **The Ellipsis**
- `rhythm.parenthesis_aside` — **Parentheses as an Aside Voice**
- `rhythm.question_rhythm` — **The Question Mark's Rhythm**
- `rhythm.quotation_weight` — **Quotation and Its Weight**
- `rhythm.chiasmus` — **Chiasmus**
- `rhythm.conjunction_control` — **Conjunction Control Beyond the List**
- `rhythm.epistrophe` — **Epistrophe**
- `rhythm.antithesis_balance` — **Antithesis and the Balanced Sentence**
- `rhythm.tricolon_crescens` — **Tricolon Crescens and Its Opposite**
- `rhythm.paragraph_breath` — **The Paragraph as a Unit of Breath**
- `rhythm.chapter_as_unit` — **The Chapter as a Rhythm Unit**
- `rhythm.section_break_scale` — **Section Breaks and White Space at Scale**
- `rhythm.book_level_pace` — **Pace Across a Whole Book**
- `rhythm.legal_sentence` — **The Legal or Procedural Sentence**
- `rhythm.instruction_step` — **The Instructional Sentence**
- `rhythm.transcript_clean` — **The Interview Transcript, Cleaned or Not**
- `rhythm.found_document_rhythm` — **The Found Document**
- `rhythm.translation_survivors` — **What Actually Survives Translation**
- `rhythm.arabic_rtl_rhythm` — **Arabic and Other Right-to-Left Rhythm**
- `rhythm.translationese_scan` — **The Translated Sentence That Scans Wrong**
- `rhythm.write_for_translator` — **Writing for a Translator**
- `rhythm.narrator_paragraph` — **Paragraph Shape for a Narrator**
- `rhythm.performed_breath` — **Breath and the Long Sentence in Performance**
- `rhythm.listener_no_rewind` — **What a Listener Cannot Re-Read**
- `rhythm.lyric_adjacent_prose` — **Prose That Borrows Lyric Rhythm**
- `rhythm.length_audit` — **The Length-Variation Audit**
- `rhythm.tic_audit` — **Hearing Your Own Tics**
- `rhythm.first_draft_cadence` — **The First-Draft Cadence Trap**
- `rhythm.same_sentence_opener` — **Every Sentence Starts the Same Way**
- `rhythm.fragment_voice` — **The Relentless Fragment**
- `rhythm.borrowed_rhythm` — **Rhythm Borrowed From a Writer You Admire**
- `rhythm.unintended_splice` — **Comma Splices Used Without Intent**
- `rhythm.empty_music` — **The Sentence That Scans Well and Means Nothing**

### [cat-rhythm-3.md](cat-rhythm-3.md) — 10 cards

**Prose Rhythm — Part 3** — Lyrical prose, poetic cadence, rhythm under extreme panic, and hypnotic lullabies

- `rhythm.duration_locked_line` — **The Line Written for a Fixed Duration**
- `rhythm.lip_sync_adaptation` — **Lip-Sync and Mouth-Flap Adaptation**
- `rhythm.lip_lock` — **Lip Lock**
- `rhythm.locked_picture_narration` — **Writing to a Locked Picture**
- `rhythm.cutdown_ladder` — **The Cutdown Ladder**
- `rhythm.decodable_text` — **Decodability and the Levelled Text**
- `rhythm.read_aloud_line` — **The Read-Aloud Line**
- `rhythm.entryless_loop` — **Writing for a Loop With No Entry Point**
- `rhythm.disclosure_as_content` — **The Disclosure Written as Content**
- `rhythm.call_to_action_line` — **The Call to Action as a Written Line**

### [cat-sub.md](cat-sub.md) — 32 cards

**Subtext, Silence and the Unsaid** — Subtext craft: iceberg principle, physical action masking speech, and deliberate omission

- `sub.pressure_before_technique` — **Name the Pressure Before the Technique**
- `sub.want_statement_gap` — **The Want/Statement Gap**
- `sub.three_conditions` — **The Three Conditions**
- `sub.say_it_then_cut` — **The Say-It-All Draft, Then Cut It**
- `sub.iceberg_omission` — **The Iceberg**
- `sub.second_subject` — **The Second Subject**
- `sub.circled_word` — **The Circled Word**
- `sub.shared_history` — **Shared History as Generator**
- `sub.social_prohibition` — **Social Prohibition as Generator**
- `sub.power_gradient` — **Power as Generator**
- `sub.audience_knows_first` — **Let the Audience In First**
- `sub.behaviour_contradicts` — **Behaviour That Contradicts the Line**
- `sub.hands_business` — **What the Hands Are Doing**
- `sub.object_as_confession` — **The Object as Confession**
- `sub.silence_as_content` — **Silence as Content**
- `sub.graded_pause` — **Grading the Gap**
- `sub.pause_placement` — **Where the Pause Goes**
- `sub.talk_to_avoid` — **Talking to Avoid Talking**
- `sub.prose_vs_screen` — **Prose Subtext vs Screen Subtext**
- `sub.narrator_self_deception` — **The Narrator Who Believes Himself**
- `sub.high_context_indirection` — **High-Context Indirection**
- `sub.across_languages` — **Subtext Across a Language Barrier**
- `sub.no_parentheticals` — **Do Not Write the Performance**
- `sub.comic_politeness` — **The Polite Surface**
- `sub.dual_audience` — **The Two-Audience Layer**
- `sub.kid_readable_subtext` — **Subtext a Child Can Actually Read**
- `sub.draft_subtext_audit` — **The Subtext Audit**
- `sub.subtext_vs_vagueness` — **Subtext vs Vagueness**
- `sub.buried_subtext` — **Subtext Nobody Can Find**
- `sub.mere_withholding` — **Withholding Wearing Subtext's Coat**
- `sub.confusion_as_depth` — **Confusion Mistaken for Depth**
- `sub.subtext_announced` — **Subtext Named Aloud**

### [cat-sub-2.md](cat-sub-2.md) — 24 cards

**Subtext — Part 2** — Societal and polite subtext: dinner party hostility, institutional coded language

- `sub.direct_address` — **Monologue and Direct Address**
- `sub.triangle_scene` — **Playing It at the Third Person**
- `sub.group_comedy` — **Subtext in the Group Comedy**
- `sub.weather_does_the_feeling` — **The Weather That Does the Feeling's Job**
- `sub.voiceover_counterpoint` — **Voiceover Against the Picture**
- `sub.written_document` — **The Written Document Inside the Story**
- `sub.score_counterpoint` — **Score and Song as the Other Voice**
- `sub.fight_as_argument` — **The Fight as the Argument They Couldn't Have**
- `sub.consumption_tell` — **What They Eat, Wear and Buy**
- `sub.address_form` — **What They Call Each Other**
- `sub.erotic_code` — **Sexual Subtext and Its Codes**
- `sub.genre_vehicle` — **The Genre Vehicle**
- `sub.interrogation` — **Subtext Under Interrogation**
- `sub.documentary_subject` — **The Subject Who Will Not Say It**
- `sub.second_reading` — **Subtext That Changes on the Second Pass**
- `sub.theme_rides` — **Theme Rides on the Unsaid**
- `sub.vs_foreshadowing` — **Subtext Is Not Foreshadowing**
- `sub.stretched_unsaid` — **The Unsaid Thing Held Past Its Life**
- `sub.short_form` — **Subtext in Under Sixty Seconds**
- `sub.interiority_spoken` — **The Interiority Said Out Loud**
- `sub.devised_subtext` — **Subtext Built in the Room**
- `sub.actors_room` — **The Room You Leave for the Actor**
- `sub.conversion_beat` — **The Beat That Converts Subtext to Text**
- `sub.retired_subtext` — **The Retired Subtext**

### [cat-voice.md](cat-voice.md) — 32 cards

**Voice, Register and Narrative Authority** — Narrative persona, vocal authority, speaker-audience relationship, and register choices

- `voice.narrating_persona` — **The Narrating Persona**
- `voice.psychic_distance_ladder` — **The Psychic Distance Ladder**
- `voice.free_indirect_style` — **Free Indirect Style**
- `voice.confiding_voice` — **The Confiding Voice**
- `voice.retrospective_narrator` — **The Retrospective Narrator**
- `voice.narrator_vs_character` — **Narrator Voice Against Character Voice**
- `voice.register_setting` — **Setting the Register**
- `voice.diction_shift` — **The Diction Shift**
- `voice.latinate_vs_anglo` — **Latinate Against Anglo-Saxon**
- `voice.lexical_field` — **The Lexical Field**
- `voice.sentence_rhythm` — **Sentence Rhythm as Voice**
- `voice.register_creep` — **Register Creep**
- `voice.unstable_authority` — **Unstable Authority**
- `voice.the_hedge` — **The Hedge**
- `voice.authority_by_specificity` — **Authority by Specificity**
- `voice.self_correcting_narrator` — **The Self-Correcting Narrator**
- `voice.institutional_voice` — **The Institutional Voice**
- `voice.found_document` — **The Found Document**
- `voice.incantatory_register` — **The Incantatory Register**
- `voice.voice_of_a_place` — **The Voice of a Place or an Object**
- `voice.collective_we` — **The Collective We**
- `voice.understating_voice` — **The Understating Voice**
- `voice.mock_formality` — **Mock Formality**
- `voice.tonal_whiplash` — **Tonal Whiplash**
- `voice.dialect_by_syntax` — **Dialect by Syntax**
- `voice.eye_dialect` — **Eye Dialect**
- `voice.code_switching` — **Code-Switching**
- `voice.second_language_voice` — **The Second-Language Voice**
- `voice.write_for_the_ear` — **Writing for the Ear**
- `voice.kids_register` — **The Kids' Register**
- `voice.voice_bible` — **The Voice Bible**
- `voice.tonal_drift` — **Tonal Drift**

### [cat-voice-2.md](cat-voice-2.md) — 41 cards

**Voice and Register — Part 2** — Register families: essayistic voice, borrowed authority, comic delivery, and direct address

- `voice.write_or_cast` — **Are You Writing the Voice or Casting It**
- `voice.essayistic_voice` — **The Essayistic Voice**
- `voice.argumentative_voice` — **The Argumentative Voice**
- `voice.controlled_digression` — **The Controlled Digression**
- `voice.addressing_the_reader` — **Addressing the Reader**
- `voice.second_person_voice` — **Second Person as a Voice Choice**
- `voice.implied_listener` — **The Implied Listener**
- `voice.confessional_to_camera` — **The Confessional to Camera**
- `voice.the_letter_voice` — **The Letter**
- `voice.polemic_register` — **The Polemic**
- `voice.eulogy_register` — **The Eulogy**
- `voice.legal_register` — **The Legal Register**
- `voice.commentary_register` — **The Commentary Register**
- `voice.liturgical_register` — **The Liturgical Register**
- `voice.bureaucratic_register` — **The Bureaucratic Register**
- `voice.advertising_register` — **The Advertising Register**
- `voice.deadpan_register` — **The Deadpan Contract**
- `voice.the_overexplainer` — **The Overexplainer**
- `voice.mock_heroic_apparatus` — **The Mock-Heroic Apparatus**
- `voice.faux_naive` — **The Faux-Naive Voice**
- `voice.unreliable_enthusiast` — **The Unreliable Enthusiast**
- `voice.real_person_register` — **Writing in a Real Person's Register**
- `voice.pastiche_vs_parody` — **Pastiche Against Parody**
- `voice.period_voice` — **The Voice of a Period**
- `voice.document_type_voice` — **The Voice of a Document Type**
- `voice.house_style` — **The House Style**
- `voice.brand_voice_intake` — **Writing to an Existing Brand Voice**
- `voice.series_voice_match` — **Matching an Established Series Voice**
- `voice.inherited_character_voice` — **Taking Over Another Writer's Character**
- `voice.transcript_voice` — **The Voice Note and the Transcript**
- `voice.action_line_voice` — **Voice in Action Lines**
- `voice.caption_voice` — **Voice in Comics Captions**
- `voice.host_voice` — **The Podcast Host Voice**
- `voice.interactive_voice` — **Voice in Interactive Text**
- `voice.finding_your_voice` — **Finding Your Own Voice**
- `voice.voice_vs_style` — **Voice Against Style**
- `voice.suppressing_your_voice` — **Suppressing Your Own Voice**
- `voice.imitation_as_training` — **Imitation as Training and as a Trap**
- `voice.ai_default_register` — **The AI-Default Register**
- `voice.purple_prose` — **Purple Prose and the Thesaurus Voice**
- `voice.narrator_outsmarts_story` — **The Narrator Who Outsmarts the Story**

### [script-craft/short-form-lines.md](script-craft/short-form-lines.md) — 4 cards

**Short-Form Scripting Lines** — Short-form scriptwriting: compressed hooks, fast dialogue snaps, and caption economy

- `sfl.first_line_both_ways` — **The First Line Works Twice**
- `sfl.front_load` — **Front-Load the Payoff**
- `sfl.one_point` — **One Point, Not Three**
- `sfl.every_word_earns` — **Every Word Earns Its Place**

---

## Core Principles

- **The Script Table:** two columns (`Visual` | `Audio`) for drama and documentary; three (`Time` | `Visual` | `Audio`) once the music is locked.
  **Add an `On-screen text` column whenever the piece carries any.** A silent brief - and the package's own default for one is on-screen text plus foley - has words in it that no audio column can hold, and a legal line, a supered claim or a burned caption is written before it is designed, not after. The column carries the words and where they sit; the look of them belongs to Phase 6 and the edit.
- **Observable Actions Only:** Action lines describe only what a camera can see.
- **No Camera in Script:** Intent in visual column; shot plan owns the camera.
- **No Say Cow See Cow:** Picture and narration carry complementary meaning.
- **Music Bypass:** Audio songs bypass Phase 2 straight to Phase 4 & 5.