Story Structure
Scene Grounding
Detects "White Room Syndrome" — scenes where dialogue or action happens with no spatial or temporal context.
What It Does
Checks each scene for three types of grounding failure:
- Ungrounded scenes — no spatial markers (location nouns, spatial prepositions) and no temporal markers (time-of-day, temporal adverbs) in the opening paragraphs
- Long dialogue runs — 5+ consecutive dialogue paragraphs with zero narration or setting
- Fully ungrounded scenes — entire scene lacks any spatial or temporal context
Why It Matters
"White Room Syndrome" is when characters talk and act in a featureless void. Critics flag grounding issues in 21.9% of DestructiveReaders critiques. Grounding co-occurs strongly with tension problems (Lift 2.02) — unanchored scenes feel aimless.
What Gets Flagged
| Severity | Example | Why | Suggested Revision |
|---|---|---|---|
| Information | (scene opens with pure dialogue, no setting) | No spatial/temporal markers | Add a line of setting before or between dialogue |
| Hint | 5+ dialogue lines with no narration | Long ungrounded dialogue run | Break up with action beats or setting details |
| Hint | (entire scene with no location or time) | Fully ungrounded scene | Ground the reader: where are we? When? |
Configuration
No configuration options. Operates at scene level.
Technical Details
- Source:
prose-craft - Scope: Scene-level
- Method: Spatial/temporal keyword detection, dialogue-run counting, per-scene grounding score