01
Capture the chapter's engine
You gather the chapter material and state its immediate desire, pressure, resistance, and intended change without trying to fix anything yet.
Made for Authors
Diagnose Why the Chapter Feels Flat
Also useful for: people in Creative
25 min
Intermediate
Writing
Finish What You Started
Need Ideas Quickly
You examine what your viewpoint character wants, what pushes back, and what changes so you can find the exact source of a chapter's lost energy.
We'll use them to write your prompt.
Completed ✓
Make Your Play
Give us the situation. We’ll build the prompt.
Stop guessing at broad fixes like adding action or rewriting everything.
Your answers save as you type.
What you'll do
This is the plan inside your prompt. Add your details first. Then follow these steps with ChatGPT or Claude.
02
Run the four-part diagnosis
You use the primary prompt to score desire, pressure, conflict, and change against evidence from your chapter.
03
Test the diagnosis
You check whether a small story change would improve the chapter for the reason the diagnosis predicts.
04
Lock today's revision target
You turn the confirmed diagnosis into one limited writing target while protecting the parts that already work.
Make Your Play
Diagnose Why the Chapter Feels Flat
Tell us what the prompt needs to know
Start with the questions below. Each answer personalizes the playbook and builds the prompt you’ll use at the end.
Your situation
Briefly explain what happened before this chapter and what this chapter needs to set up.
0/10000
Paste the chapter, selected scenes, or a detailed summary of what happens.
0/10000
State what your viewpoint character wants during this chapter.
Describe what can worsen, expire, or become costly if your viewpoint character does nothing.
0/10000
Identify what blocks the desire or forces your viewpoint character to adjust.
0/10000
Name what should be different by the end of the chapter.
Describe where your attention drops or what feels wrong when you reread the chapter.
0/10000
This playbook was updated. Review your inputs before copying.
What you'll do
Check a step when you finish it.
01
Capture the chapter's engine
You gather the chapter material and state its immediate desire, pressure, resistance, and intended change without trying to fix anything yet.
02
Run the four-part diagnosis
You use the primary prompt to score desire, pressure, conflict, and change against evidence from your chapter.
03
Test the diagnosis
You check whether a small story change would improve the chapter for the reason the diagnosis predicts.
04
Lock today's revision target
You turn the confirmed diagnosis into one limited writing target while protecting the parts that already work.
Fill in the fields above to generate your prompt preview.
Assembled prompt
Beginner instructions
You can use a chapter summary if sharing the full text feels like too much. Answer each question in plain language, even if your answer is “not clear yet.” That uncertainty is useful evidence.
Advanced instructions
You can include scene breaks, point-of-view shifts, and the chapter’s intended role in the larger arc. Challenge the diagnosis by checking whether the same problem appears in every scene or only at a transition.
Use this when
Use this when your chapter is readable but feels slow, repetitive, passive, predictable, or disconnected from the rest of your manuscript.
You'll need
- Chapter context
- Chapter material
- Current desire
- Pressure or consequence
- Main resistance
- Expected change
- Current concern
You'll get
- Four evidence-based scores, one primary diagnosis, one quick test of that diagnosis, and one revision target narrow enough to start today.
By the end of this playbook
You will have:
- Four evidence-based scores, one primary diagnosis, one quick test of that diagnosis, and one revision target narrow enough to start today.
Examples
Progress 1 of 4