Story Structure
Scene Transitions
Detects abrupt scene, time, and location shifts that may disorient the reader.
What It Does
Checks for two types of jarring transitions:
- Time jumps without scene breaks — "The next morning..." appearing mid-scene without a
---or blank-line separator - Location jumps within scenes — adjacent paragraphs referencing different locations (e.g., "kitchen" → "office") without transitional phrases
Why It Matters
Abrupt transitions force the reader to re-orient without any signal. Critics flag transitions in 16.0% of DestructiveReaders critiques. Transition problems co-occur strongly with pacing issues (Lift 1.95) and pronoun ambiguity (Lift 2.96) — jarring shifts break both flow and reference clarity.
What Gets Flagged
| Severity | Example | Why | Suggested Revision |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hint | "She sat in the kitchen. [...] He was at the office." | Location jump with no break | Add --- scene break or transitional phrase |
| Hint | "The next morning she woke up." (mid-scene) | Time jump without scene break | Add a scene break before the time shift |
Configuration
No configuration options. Respects explicit scene breaks (---, ***, * * *, blank lines).
Technical Details
- Source:
prose-craft - Scope: Scene-level and paragraph-level
- Method: Location keyword tracking across adjacent paragraphs, time-shift detection, scene-break recognition