What it does

writing-beats assembles raw material into a narrative journey of beats, offering choose-your-own-adventure branching choices at each step.

It writes only one beat at a time, calculating which concepts are grounded so far and offering next beats that are strictly reachable from that foundation.

When to reach for it

You invoke this by typing /writing-beats, and the agent won’t reach for it on its own.

Reach for it when you have a pile of raw material and want to craft a narrative, essay, or case study that unfolds as a sequence of storytelling beats.

What you have	What you want to do	Reach for
Raw material pile	Craft a narrative journey with choose-your-own-adventure branches	writing-beats
Raw material pile	Build a structured, argumentative article paragraph by paragraph	writing-shape
Uncaptured ideas	Mine raw fragments into a quarry file first	writing-fragments
Code or system designs	Grill an idea into a specification	grill-me

What makes a beat

A beat is a single move in a narrative journey. It sets a scene, lands a revelation, poses a question, twists the angle, or drops an aside, then stops so the narrative can pivot.

Beats scale to their dramatic purpose:

• A single sharp sentence (“And then nothing happened for three weeks.”).
• A compact paragraph providing setup or context.
• Multiple paragraphs for a self-contained scene, vignette, or example.

If a section tries to introduce three ideas and multiple subheadings, it is multiple beats glued together. The skill keeps each beat focused on one move.

Grounding and reachability

flowchart TD
    RawMaterial(["Raw Quarry Material\n(from /writing-fragments)"]) --> GroundPrereqs["1. Ground Audience Prerequisites\n(Define initial baseline concepts)"]
    
    GroundPrereqs --> CalcReachable["2. Calculate Reachable Candidate Beats\n(Only beats whose concept dependencies are satisfied)"]
    
    CalcReachable --> ChooseBranch["3. Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Prompt via ask_question\n(Branch A vs Branch B vs Branch C)"]
    
    ChooseBranch --> SelectBeat["4. User Selects Narrative Beat"]
    SelectBeat --> CommitBeat["5. Commit Beat to target-story.md\n& Ground Newly Introduced Concepts"]
    
    CommitBeat --> JourneyCheck{"Reached Story Climax or Conclusion?"}
    JourneyCheck -- "No" --> CalcReachable
    JourneyCheck -- "Yes" --> FinishedStory(["Finished Narrative Journey"])

A candidate beat cannot be chosen unless every concept it relies upon is already grounded. Grounding creates the choose-your-own-adventure tree:

• Prerequisites: Grounded before the first beat, establishing what the reader brings to the story.
• Introduced concepts: Grounded when a beat lands, unlocking subsequent candidate beats that depend on them.

Each time a beat is committed, the skill presents 2 to 3 candidate next beats as selectable options using ask_question (with recommendations marked (Recommended) and reachable from the current grounded set), showing what concepts each candidate would unlock down the path.

Common questions

How does writing-beats differ from writing-shape? writing-shape is argumentative and analytical: it asks “what does the reader need to hear next to believe the thesis?” and debates formatting. writing-beats is narrative and dramatic: it asks “which direction should the journey pivot next?” and presents choose-your-own-adventure options based on concept reachability.

Do all raw fragments have to be used? No. The journey ends when the narrative reaches its natural conclusion, not when the pile is empty. Leftover fragments are expected and normal.

Can I change direction mid-journey? Yes. You can edit existing beats directly in the article file or instruct the agent to step back to an earlier beat and explore an alternative fork in the path.

What if a candidate beat requires a concept that isn’t grounded yet? The skill will not offer it until its prerequisite concepts are grounded. You can either introduce an intermediate grounding beat or promote the required concept to an upfront prerequisite.

It’s working if

• You are offered 2 to 3 distinct candidate beats via interactive choice buttons (ask_question), each opening different narrative directions.
• No beat assumes concepts or terminology that have not yet been grounded.
• The article advances one beat at a time with noticeable narrative pacing and momentum.
• You can preview what future beats become unlocked when selecting a candidate path.

Where it fits

writing-beats is the exploit step of the writing trilogy for narrative, journey-style pieces.

It draws from writing-fragments (the upstream explore step) and stands beside writing-shape (the analytical exploit alternative).

When you are unsure which skill fits your current task, ask-fred routes you across the full library.