Write a short whose desire, action, consequence and payoff are understandable, then make its opening worth watching. Retention is useful feedback, not a substitute for a story that delivers its promise.
Read the selected identity first
Load the delivery brief, brand profile and voice, plus story system, production defaults and continuity ledger when present. Use brand-profile and voice-builder if that foundation needs work. Respect voice, novelty, cast continuity, route, runtime, assembly, captions, music and consent choices before applying templates. Never carry one identity's rules into another.
Caption text, CTA, loop and sequel hook are optional. A no-caption identity gets no burned captions or on-screen dialogue; plan readable action and native spoken dialogue/SFX as requested. Test what a mute viewer can understand, but do not pretend a dialogue-led joke is fully understood silently or add text against the brief. Post copy is a separate handoff to caption-writer.
Work payoff-first before motion
- State desire → action → consequence → visible payoff in one sentence. The consequence must follow from the action; visual weirdness alone is not a causal story.
- Plan the payoff board first, including every late cast member and the exact payoff speaker. Specify visible evidence of what changed and why the ending answers the opening. A planning sketch can be textual; before animation, the actual matching payoff still and late-cast references need review.
- Run a cold-reader test: show the ordered boards without your explanatory pitch. Ask the reviewer to identify who wants what, what they do, what happens because of it, and what makes the ending land. Record their answer, evidence and uncertainty. Do not substitute the author's intended answer for an actual review. Confusion means revise the package before motion.
- Build backward to the minimum setup and forward through complete actions. Let expressive acting and ambitious physical comedy remain; solve clarity with staging, framing, time and deliberate coverage.
- Review required cast identity, action completion, speaker/source, possession and payoff as critical predicates. Wrong, missing, unknown or unreviewed payoff/late-cast evidence blocks opening-shot spending even if its own board looks good. Budget and review-round ceilings cannot turn failure into acceptance. Bind review to the story revision and asset hashes; changed inputs need fresh review.
Use idea-generation-and-ideation or content-research-and-sourcing when the premise is still weak, then hook-writer to create 3–5 distinct executable openers for the approved premise. This planning stage neither generates images/video nor grants generation consent.
The framework: WATCH
- W — Win the opening: start on an observable situation or action that raises an honest question. For each variant give the first frame, performed action, exact first words if any, sound cue, rough timing, and bridge into the same body. Three slogans over the same shot are not three video hooks.
- A — Advance causally: each beat changes the situation. Assign each shot a local initial state, dominant action and completed end state, with named cast, prop/body invariants, permitted transformations and transition type. “Begins entering” does not prove entry was completed.
- T — Time action and sound: budget anticipation, contact/traversal, completion, reaction and a readable hold. Read exact dialogue naturally with pauses and speaker turns. Overlap only compatible actions; do not count simultaneous action and speech twice or squeeze sequential actions together. Target runtime comes from this beat sheet; clip count follows the story and verified provider limits.
- C — Cash the promise: make the payoff visible and give its speaker room to land the line. An insert, reverse or deliberate location cut can clarify a joke; never hide a missing action with a cut.
- H — Hold the ending: allow the consequence/reaction to read. Use a loop, CTA or continuation hook only when the brief calls for it. Do not amputate a necessary action to meet a generic duration grid.
Depth: references/the-watch-framework.md. Shot template, transition taxonomy and a timed traversal
example: references/script-anatomy-and-templates.md.
Shootable shot package
Deliver a beat sheet with target runtime and one record per shot: shot ID; local initial/action/completed
end; required cast and exact speakers; prop possession and body invariants; allowed transformations;
framing/coverage; timed dialogue/SFX; transition; input roles and required outgoing evidence. Use explicit
continuous, hard_cut, match_cut or transformation labels with a reason.
A character reference controls identity; a storyboard plans composition; selected outgoing footage provides observed continuity. A following storyboard is not automatically the preceding endpoint. Never write “if the doctor is present” for a required payoff actor. Name and stage that actor explicitly. A wrong still cannot be repaired by stronger negative wording in the motion prompt: keep motion blocked and revise/review the still under the applicable image authorization.
Review and handoff
This skill writes scripts and plans. A human shoots/performs/edits, or ai-video routes the approved portable brief to an external renderer. Media generation requires its own concrete approved scope. Follow exact repair-batch consent; an allowance does not authorize corrective rerolls. Render success alone does not establish correct cast, action or dialogue. Full synchronized picture-and-sound review of the selected footage is required for audiovisual claims; unreviewed/failed material remains draft.
Route platform specifics to reels-script, tiktok-script or youtube-shorts; longer boards to
scripting-and-storyboarding; existing footage to captions-and-clipping. Finished approved files go
through scheduling-and-queue → WoopSocial only after explicit publish/schedule confirmation.
WoopSocial does not generate, edit or add native trending audio. Measurement: the platforms' native
analytics, interpreted with analytics-and-reporting. Never fabricate performance metrics or claim
that a hook, caption or cut frequency guarantees distribution. Historic vendor figures in
references/short-form-video-script-2026-reality.md require source/context verification before reuse.
Respect likeness/voice rights, applicable synthetic-media disclosure and qualified evidence for sensitive
claims; a disclaimer cannot make an unsupported health claim true.
Definition of done
A brand-matched causal story; payoff and late cast planned for review before motion; 3–5 actual opening alternatives; complete local shot states, explicit continuity/cuts and natural timing; a cold-reader review recorded honestly (or marked pending); and all unresolved critical predicates clearly blocking production. The handoff includes target runtime, clip count, cast and action plan for ai-video to prepare the authorized route and cost/approval package. No media generation, viral promise or assumed approval is part of this scripting deliverable.
