---
name: review-scene
description: "Performs a deep analysis of a single scene against scene card criteria, engagement principles, and prose craft standards. Use this skill whenever the user asks to analyze a scene, check if a scene works, give scene-level feedback, review a scene, assess a scene's effectiveness, or says 'does this scene work'. Also use when a writer submits a discrete scene and wants to understand whether it earns its place in the story."
---

# Review Scene

A scene is the fundamental unit of story. Every scene must justify its existence by advancing the protagonist's internal struggle while moving the external plot forward. This skill provides a deep analysis of a single scene against the criteria that determine whether it earns its place.

## Scene Analysis Framework

### Step 1: Read and React
Read the scene completely. Note first impressions: where are you engaged, confused, bored, moved? These instinctive responses are the most honest data available.

### Step 2: Fill the Scene Card

For the scene being analyzed, determine:

| Element | Assessment |
|---------|-----------|
| **External event** | What happens? State it in one sentence. |
| **Internal meaning** | How does this force the protagonist's internal struggle forward? |
| **Urgency hook** | What question does this scene raise that pulls the reader into the next scene? |
| **Cause** | What prior event made this scene necessary? |
| **Effect** | What must happen next because of this scene? |

**Critical test**: If the "internal meaning" row is empty — if the scene has no connection to the protagonist's internal struggle — the scene has no business being in the story, regardless of how dramatic or well-written it is.

### Step 3: Check Engagement Mechanics

**Opening of the scene:**
- Does the scene enter late? (Not the preamble — the thing itself)
- Is there an immediate sense of what's at stake?

**Cause and effect within the scene:**
- Does every beat follow the action → reaction → decision → action pattern?
- Is the protagonist making decisions whose reasoning is visible to the reader?
- Does each beat escalate — raising stakes or deepening the dilemma?

**Conflict:**
- Is there a specific "versus" — a rock and hard place?
- Does the conflict arise from character (the protagonist's own fears and misbeliefs creating the trap) rather than being arbitrarily imposed?
- Is the opposition specific and active?

**Emotional resonance:**
- Does the protagonist react emotionally to events?
- Is the reaction specific and embodied (physical, cognitive, behavioural), not generic?
- Can the reader mirror this emotion through their own empathic response?

**Closing of the scene:**
- Does the scene end with an unanswered question or unresolved tension that propels the reader forward?
- Does it leave out at the right moment (leaping), not linger past its usefulness?

### Step 4: Check Prose Craft

- Read the scene with the mind's ear. Does it sound right?
- Is there sentence variety suited to the scene's emotional register?
- Is the POV consistent throughout? Any accidental slips?
- Is exposition integrated into the scene's action, or dumped as a separate layer?
- Are sensory details earning their place — each one revealing character, advancing story, or illuminating theme?
- Is the scene crowded enough to be vivid but leaped enough to move?

### Step 5: Check Continuity

- Does the scene connect causally to what precedes it?
- Does it set up what follows?
- Are there setups planted in this scene? Are they clear enough to register subconsciously but not so heavy-handed that the reader sees the machinery?
- Is information from earlier scenes used correctly (character names, physical details, timeline)?

## Scene Report Structure

```
## Scene Analysis: [Scene Description]

### Scene Card
[The filled-in scene card from Step 2]

### What Works
[Specific strengths — what the writer should keep]

### Internal Story Connection
[How well the scene connects to the protagonist's internal struggle]

### Engagement
[Hooks, cause-and-effect, conflict, emotional resonance]

### Prose Craft
[Sound, rhythm, POV, word economy, sensory detail]

### Continuity
[Causal connections to surrounding scenes, setups, consistency]

### Recommendations
[Specific, prioritized suggestions for revision]
```

## When to Read Reference Files

- **For the complete scene analysis framework with detailed criteria** — read `references/scene-analysis-framework.md`
