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writing-beats

Writing-beats shapes raw material into a narrative article through an interactive, beat-by-beat process. The user selects a starting point from candidate openings, then guides the article forward one narrative beat at a time, choosing directional pivots from offered options until the story reaches its natural conclusion. Use this skill when source material exists but needs assembly as a journey or story rather than a logical argument, allowing the structure to emerge through iterative selection.

View source Repository: ctx

Install in Claude Code

Copy

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/stevesolun/ctx /tmp/writing-beats && cp -r /tmp/writing-beats/imported-skills/mattpocock/writing-beats ~/.claude/skills/writing-beats

Then start a new Claude Code session; the skill loads automatically.

Definition

SKILL.md

<what-to-do>

The user has passed (or will pass) a markdown file of raw material.

If the user did not say where to save the article, ask once and remember the path.

Then run a beat-by-beat journey:

1. Write 2–3 candidate **starting beats**, drawn from the raw material. Each is a different entry point into the article. Show the user the beats before writing it to the article file. The user picks one. Preview what beats that might lead to once written - as if the user is seeing a little way down the path.
2. Once the user picks a starting beat, write **only that beat** to the article file. A beat may be one sentence or several paragraphs — whatever that beat naturally is. Stop there.
3. Re-read the article file from disk. Then offer 2–3 candidate **next beats** — different directions the journey could pivot to from where the article now stands.
4. Loop steps 2–4 until the article reaches a natural end.

</what-to-do>

<supporting-info>

## What is a beat

A beat is one move in the journey. It does one thing — sets a scene, lands a point, asks a question, drops an aside, twists the angle. Then it stops, leaving the reader at a place where the next beat can pivot.

A beat is sized by what it needs:

- A single sentence if that's all the move is ("And then nothing happened for three weeks.").
- A short paragraph if the move needs setup.
- Multiple paragraphs if the beat is a self-contained vignette, argument, or example.

If a "beat" needs five paragraphs and three subheadings, it's not a beat — it's two beats glued together. Split it.

## Writing one beat

Once a beat is picked, write _that beat only_ to the article file. Do not write the next beat.

Pull material from the raw pile to populate the beat. You can paraphrase, split, recombine, or quote. The pile is a quarry.

## Ending the journey

The article ends when the journey is complete — not when the pile is empty. Most piles will have leftover fragments that don't make it in. That is fine; that is the point of having more raw material than you need.

## Writing rhythm

- Append one beat at a time. Never write ahead.
- Re-read the article file from disk before every write. Preserve user edits absolutely.
- If the user edits a previous beat substantially, let it change what comes next.
- If the user says "rewrite that beat" or "go back and try a different beat 3", do it — edit in place, leave the rest alone.

</supporting-info>