--- MODE: Standalone SCREENWRITING CATEGORY: Character drama / two-hander (estrangement, reconciliation) 🔍 Auto-detected: Priority axes Stakes/Energy, Turn, Throughline, Tonal Cohesion, target weak points Stakes/Energy (-flatness) and Turn (no shift in the scene), T-LEVEL≈2, C-LEVEL≈1 (based on: "quiet" two-person scene with a flat draft. Note the tension: raising stakes and adding a turn usually calls for more expressive energy, but the brief wants quiet, so the candidates below pursue pressure through restraint and subtext rather than volume) — override anything above by specifying it manually in your brief. TOP-3 DIRECTIONS: 1️⃣ Stakes/Energy + Turn + Throughline (k=3) — the moment the daughter's real ask surfaces 🟢 BEST-FIT — READY-TO-USE PROMPT BELOW Type: A | Compatibility: Partially compatible — needs adaptation: Stakes and Turn tend to want higher expressiveness than T≈2, so pressure must come from subtext, objects, and withheld information Core: Throughline–Stakes | Weak link: Stakes–Turn (restraint vs. escalation) 2️⃣ Stakes/Energy + Turn + Throughline + Tonal Cohesion (k=4) — the unspoken thing under polite small talk Type: A | Compatibility: Partially compatible — Tonal Cohesion helps hold the quiet register, but Stakes still needs adaptation at this tone level 3️⃣ Stakes/Energy + Turn + Climax Payoff (k=3) — a small, definite final exchange Type: B | Compatibility: Conflicts with T/C-level — Climax Payoff favors higher expressiveness, and forcing a clear resolution risks over-resolving a scene meant to stay quiet ──────────────────── 🟢 READY-TO-USE PROMPT (based on 1️⃣): Develop a quiet two-person scene in which an estranged father, ✏️[FATHER'S NAME], and his adult daughter, ✏️[DAUGHTER'S NAME], meet for coffee at ✏️[CAFÉ NAME AND LOCATION] after years apart. Refer to them by those names throughout. Target tone: restrained, low-volume, subtext-driven. No shouting, no speeches. Two characters only, with staff and other patrons as background. CORE DRAMATIC ENGINE The scene is flat when neither person wants something specific and time-bound. Give each a concrete private agenda, and let the audience learn both agendas before the characters admit them. - The daughter has come to make one specific ask: whether he will be part of her life going forward, because a decision is due soon (for example, she is about to move abroad and must decide whether to leave the door open). She has told herself she'll ask only if the meeting goes well enough. She has also set a limit: she will leave at a fixed time, and she checks it discreetly. - The father wants to be forgiven without having to name what he did. He has prepared an apology and is afraid to spend it, because if it fails he has nothing left. He wants to leave with an invitation to see her again. - Stakes: if she leaves without asking, the door closes by default. If he apologizes too soon or too grandly, she will read it as self-serving. Each is protecting something that can be lost in one sentence. BEAT STRUCTURE 1. Arrival and the seed (grounding). She arrives second. He has already ordered for her, and he gets her drink exactly right, which she never told him. Play it as mildly unsettling and easy to miss. This is the planted detail for the turn. Establish the table, the cooling cups, and the clock she keeps glancing at. 2. Steering (surface small talk under pressure). Each tries to control the conversation. He asks safe questions about her work. She answers in short, closed sentences. Each answer quietly denies him something. Let a spoon, a napkin, or a phone face-down carry the tension. 3. The unanswerable question (first rupture). He asks a question that cannot be answered politely (for example, whether she still lives near the old house). Her pause is the beat. She deflects, he lets her, and both register that he let her. Time is now visibly shorter. 4. The turn. She realizes his knowledge of her life is too specific to be accidental. He has been getting updates through a relative, and has once stood at the back of something she attended without her knowing. Reveal this through a small slip of his, not a confession. The turn reframes his attention as watching from a distance rather than being present, and reframes her ask as a real risk. The audience should recognize the seed from beat 1. 5. The ask and the exit. She makes her ask, plainly and briefly. He answers with something small and concrete instead of the prepared apology. She neither accepts nor refuses. She leaves at her time limit, with the outcome open but the choice clearly hers. End on an image, such as his untouched second cup, not on a line of resolution. THROUGHLINE AND VOICE - Every line should either advance a character's agenda or deflect from the other's. If it does neither, cut it. - Dialogue: short, indirect, interrupted by silence. Characters answer the question underneath, not the one asked. - Action lines: sparse and physical. Show pressure through objects and small gestures. - Keep the tone consistent from first line to last. Tension rises by narrowing, not by louder emotion. Negative prompt / avoid: tearful monologues; dialogue that explains the backstory; characters announcing their feelings or the stakes ("I'm afraid you'll leave again"); a full apology or forgiveness exchange; escalating into shouting or a walk-out (breaks the tone); a turn that isn't seeded in beat 1; coffee or weather used as filler; tying everything up neatly at the end; both characters being equally sympathetic at every moment (let each be slightly wrong). ──────────────────── ℹ️ "This tool compares dramatic strategies and expands the best-fit one into a scene-development prompt — it doesn't write the finished scene, verify formatting standards (e.g. industry script format), or clear IP rights of any referenced work. Final decisions, including rights clearance and craft review, remain the user's responsibility. Scoring is heuristic pattern-matching, not a measured metric, and may vary slightly between runs." Assumptions made: - ✏️[FATHER'S NAME]: the brief gave no name, so add the character's actual name. - ✏️[DAUGHTER'S NAME]: the brief gave no name, so add the character's actual name. - ✏️[CAFÉ NAME AND LOCATION]: the brief gave no specific setting, so add the café or a description of it. - Structural/interpretive default: the brief didn't specify the daughter's ask, the father's history, or the number of beats, so I assumed a five-beat structure, an upcoming decision (a move abroad), and a father who has been watching her life from a distance. Swap these for your story's actual facts. ❓ Want a different direction? Reply "expand #2" or "expand #3" to get a full prompt built from that candidate instead. 💡 (First pass only — omit on refinement passes) Want to take this further? - Not sure your brief is ready? Search "Screenwriting Query Auditor Rewriter" on PromptBase to audit and rewrite your request before comparing directions. - Have a clear brief already and just want one direct prompt? Search "Screenwriting Instruction Generator" for a single-pass generator. - Got a finished prompt and want it reviewed? Search "Screenwriting Instruction Auditor" to check it against a full quality checklist before use. ⚙️ "Built for Claude Sonnet 5; other AI models, providers, and versions are untested. Use at your own discretion. This tool is not intended as a sole safeguard against attempts to alter its behavior, nor as a substitute for professional script consultation or IP clearance." ---