Guyisheng/ai-novel-skills

Core Web Novel Chapter Writing Rules

0. Priority

1. Facts confirmed by the author: character settings, published chapters, current chapter outline (including what must happen, what is forbidden, and the stopping point).
2. The target emotion and chapter function.
3. These rules.

When there is conflict among these three, the first two take precedence. These rules only address "how to write," not "what to write."

1. Define the Chapter in One Sentence Before Writing

Describe this chapter in one sentence:

Who wants what → Who or what stands in the way → What choice they make → What cost they pay → How the situation changes → Where it stops.

If you can't write this sentence, the chapter is not ready. First, fill in the outline; do not improvise on the page.

2. Every Scene Must Advance the Story

Each scene should accomplish at least two of the following: advance a goal, change a relationship, reveal information, create a new problem, or incur a cost.

• Scene beginning: The character is doing a specific thing, not being introduced.
• Scene middle: An obstacle appears; the character must adjust his/her strategy.
• Scene end: The situation is different from the beginning. If there is no change, delete or merge the scene.
• Transitional scenes: Convey only essential information, one or two lines at most; do not elaborate.

3. Characters and Emotion

• Characters have a goal first, then a reaction. Before writing about a character, answer: What is he protecting, calculating, or fearing at this moment? If you can't answer, don't give them a scene.
• Emotional expression: Follow this order of judgment:
  1. The context already makes the reader understand; do nothing.
  2. The emotion changes the next step: write the choice, dialogue, strategy, or cost.
  3. The emotion can be carried by an object in the scene: write how the thing they are using has changed.
  4. The emotion physically affects them: write about failed actions, pain, imbalance, visible consequences.
  5. Direct writing is more accurate and efficient: write "He got tired of listening."
• For the same emotion, keep only the most informative expression; do not stack "action + physical description + metaphor + psychological explanation."
• The deletion test: If you delete this detail, does the information, choice, relationship, or consequence suffer a loss? If not, delete it.
• A reaction that remains valid when you change the character's name or put them in a different room is a generic performance, not a character detail.

4. Dialogue

• Dialogue is a power struggle. Who holds information, who needs something from another, who is probing – this determines sentence length and the number of exchanges.
• The more powerful person uses shorter sentences and less explanation; the weaker person talks more, beats around the bush, and repeats.
• Dialogue should carry the tone of the character's status, age, background, and situation: for example, use modal particles like "吧, 呢, 啊, 嘛, 哎" to show natural speech, rather than writing everyone in formal, written language.
• Key confrontations should not be summarized; write them exchange by exchange. Transitional conversations can be summarized.
• Subtext: Characters do not state their true intentions directly. Use evasion, rhetorical questions, changing the subject, or silence.
• Each line of dialogue must accomplish at least one of the following: advance the plot, reveal information, probe, refuse, apply pressure, or change a relationship.

5. Description and Point of View

• Limited Deep POV: Only write what the viewpoint character can perceive, would notice, and can understand.
• Occurrence, perception, and reaction should be written in the same shot; do not break them into three separate status reports.
• When describing a sequence of actions, distinguish between primary and secondary actions. Use connecting words like "就, 才, 又, 便, 却, 倒, 还, 再, 先……才" to show sequence and causality; do not write a comma-separated list.
• Pacing: Write climaxes, reversals, and emotional peaks in detail, beat by beat. For transitional scenes, travel, and exposition, cover them in a line or two. For foreshadowing, pick one or two details that are easy to empathize with.
• At dense moments, avoid collapsing actions into numbers or summaries, such as "he struck seven or eight times in a row," "they fought for a while," or "everyone nodded."
• Use metaphors that are familiar and immediate to the character; avoid clichés like "like a tidal wave" or "the gears of fate."
• Punctuation should follow the tone. Short, standalone sentences should only be used at chapter endings, reversals, and emotional peaks.

6. Chapter Beginnings and Endings

Chapter Beginning:

• Introduce recognizable action, an anomaly, or an unresolved expectation as early as possible. Do not start with weather, scenery, worldbuilding, or backstory.
• For Chapter 1, have the protagonist appear early and under pressure. Begin the first scene with what he/she is doing.
• The first three chapters have specific roles: Chapter 1 shows the selling point, Chapter 2 deepens the conflict, and Chapter 3 gives the reader a reason to continue.

Chapter Ending (choose one; do not use the same type for two consecutive chapters):

1. Sudden Revelation: Information that changes the entire situation.
2. Urgent Crisis: A threat that the next chapter must address.
3. Unfinished Action: An action interrupted by a new variable.
4. Identity Reversal: Truth that deviates from the reader's expectations.
5. Dilemma: Two bad options, with no result given.
6. Mysterious Object: An important item whose meaning is unknown.
7. Countdown: Time is running out.
8. Promise or Threat: A character announces a course of action.
9. Vanishing: An impossible disappearance.
10. Hidden Meaning: Something surface-level normal that actually contains hidden information.
11. Image Change: A recurring image changes.
12. Echo: A callback to the beginning, with only one key detail changed.
13. White Space: Only the reaction is shown; what happened is not revealed.

The strength of the hook should match the chapter's stage. A daily-life chapter doesn't need a strong hook, but one before a climax should be strong. Only write the hook to the point where the expectation is established; do not explain, summarize, or foreshadow "what will happen next."

7. Satisfying Payoffs and Face-slapping

• Satisfying payoff = The gap between the logic of the masses and the logic of the protagonist. The higher the opponent is elevated, and the more casually the protagonist deals with them, the more satisfying the release.
• Three elements: Bystanders raise the opponent's status through discussion and then change their tune; the opponent is so arrogant that the reader hates them; the protagonist is low-key during the setup and decisive during the release.
• Setup is more important than the payoff. Prepare the props, characters, and strength before the payoff; otherwise, the reader will worry, and the taunts will become frustrating for the protagonist.
• The level of the person being slapped determines the level of satisfaction. Shock from a random passerby isn't satisfying; it's when a significant person changes their tune.
• Curiosities raise expectations; payoffs deliver on them. If you promise something earlier, deliver it later.

8. Foreshadowing and Continuity

• The first appearance of a foreshadowing establishes its meaning; the second appearance changes its meaning; the third appearance pays off the emotion or causality.
• Every time a recurring item reappears, it must either add new information or change its meaning; do not use it in the same way repeatedly.
• Before writing each chapter, verify: time, location, character injuries, equipment, abilities, known information, and unresolved foreshadowing.
• A character can only know what they have experienced, been told, or can deduce. Do not let the character know something just because the author knows it.
• When introducing an important new character, setting, or item in this chapter, list it separately for easy tracking later.

9. Hard Rules for De-AI-ing

The following stylistic crutches must be corrected upon appearance:

1. Telegraphic and staccato sentences: Normal narrative broken into fragments like "Pushed open the door. The room was dark. She felt her way to the desk." Turn them into coherent sentences with main and subordinate clauses and causality.
2. Negative setup then positive reversal: Structures like "It wasn't A, but B" or "There was no X, no Y, only Z." Unless the character is correcting, defending, or dismissing a guess, just write B directly.
3. Universal adverbials and formulaic voice: Phrases like "with a trace of..." or "The voice was soft, yet unquestionable" or "calmly, as if reciting..." Delete everything except the distinctive tone or essential information.
4. Template metaphors and abstract nouns: Clichés like "like a tidal wave," "the gears of fate," or "the depths of the soul." Replace with something the character can actually touch at that moment.
5. End-of-sentence physical micro-actions to flag emotion: Gestures like "fingertips paused," "knuckles turning white," "eyes darting away," "lips pursed," or "breath caught." If there are no consequences, delete them; don't just change the body part.
6. The narrator stepping in to summarize: Phrases like "The truly important thing was...," "This meant...," or "She finally understood." Delete the conclusion; let the actions and dialogue speak for themselves.
7. Strict parallel constructions and gilded summary sentences: When several sentences with the same structure and length repeat a single conclusion, merge them.
8. Chapter-ending insight, elevation, or preview: Sentences like "She knew everything was about to change." Replace with a specific action, object, or unfinished event.
9. Dialogue that sounds like written, formal speech: When all characters use complete, elegant, explanatory sentences. Restore the natural tone, omissions, and pauses appropriate to each character's identity.
10. Triple annotation with emotion word + explanation + metaphor: At the same narrative point, keep only the most powerful one.

10. Pre-delivery Checklist

• The chapter's intention can be stated in one sentence.
• Every scene has resulted in a change in the situation.
• The protagonist has made at least one choice that reveals character.
• Dialogue has exchanges, subtext, and differences in tone.
• Detailed writing is concentrated on emotional peaks and satisfying payoffs; transitional scenes have been compressed.
• The chapter ends at a moment of tension, with no summary or preview.
• The hook types of two consecutive chapters are different.
• There are no conflicts in time, location, character status, or known information.
• No AI-typical phrasing listed in Section 9 is present.
• New characters, settings, and items have been listed.