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Writing Style Overview Tags ​

Tags v1.0 (2025-07-23)

Optional Directive Tags ​

Tags should only be used to give specific, non-obvious instruction. It is bad to use these tags descriptively.

Screenwriting Direction: ​

  • [HARD CUT]
  • [FADE OUT]
  • [BUTTON]
  • [FOCUS ON:FocusTarget]
  • [MONTAGE]
  • [SUMMARY NARRATION]
  • [FLASHBACK]
  • [VISION]
  • [INTERCUT]
  • [QUICK CUTS]
  • [COLD OPEN]
  • [PARA:integer] - Absolute length control, number of paragraphs.
  • [DL:~integer/percentage] - How many lines of dialogue should be written (as opposed to summarized conversations), alternatively, the % of lines that are dialogue.

Information Control: ​

  • [QUESTION SEED:ThreadName]
  • [KEEP SECRET:ThreadName]
  • [RED HERRING:ThreadName]
  • [BREADCRUMB:ThreadName]
  • [PARTIAL REVEAL:ThreadName]
  • [DENOUEMENT:ThreadName]
  • [SUBTEXT ONLY:ThreadName] - No direct statements on topic are allowed.

Dialogue / Thought Behavior ​

  • [DEFLECT:Pivot/Joke/Ignore]
  • [TALK PAST]
  • [CODE SPEAK]
  • [TRAIL OFF]
  • [SILENCE HEAVY]
  • [INTERRUPT]
  • [GASLIGHT]
  • [FISH FOR COMPLIMENT]
  • [TESTING THE WATERS]
  • [PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE]
  • [EMOTIONAL LOGIC] - Feelings override rational thought
  • [SUPPRESS MEMORY] - Character doesn't think about relevant past
  • [UCDAS] - Unclear thoughts or dialogue that dances around the subject, not the same thing as confusion, as it also implies an unwillingness to think through the topic
  • [CONFUSION]
  • [RATIONALIZE]
  • [INTRUSIVE THOUGHT]
  • [COMPARTMENTALIZE]
  • [FIXATE:Topic/Object]

Less Common ​

This second group of tags are more likely to be descriptive and less likely to be useful. They should be left out if they don't add any instruction that's not already clear by the content of the outline itself. These tags tend to be insufficient instruction by themselves, and require greater explanation, but in doing so render these tags redundant.

Structural ​

  • [FORESHADOW:ThreadName]
  • [WB:ThreadName] - Short for WORLDBUILD
  • [PINCH:ThreadName]
  • [TURN:ThreadName]
  • [PAYOFF:ThreadName]
  • [POV:CharacterName]

Free Categories - Custom Params, they should be self evident ​

  • [TONE:Comedic/Romantic/etc]
  • [THEME:Isolation/Betrayal/etc]
  • [FILTER:Paranoid/Optimistic/Pragmatic/etc]
  • [SENSORY:Heavy/Grunts/All/Smell/Touch/etc]
  • [SUBTEXT:Seduction/Plea/etc]

Reader Experience ​

  • [DRAMATIC IRONY]
  • [CATHARSIS]
  • [DREAD]
  • [ANTICIPATION]
  • [COMPLICIT]
  • [RELIEF]
  • [DISORIENT] - Destabilize reader's understanding

Distance Tag ​

Known as Emotional Distance, Psychic Distance, or Narrative Distance by various writers, they refer to the same thing: how far the reader is taken, by the narrator, inside the character's head.

Principles ​

  • Close distance is the default - it creates immersion and reader investment
  • Pulling back should be a deliberate choice for specific effects

Distance Tiers (D) ​

[D0] - Cinematic (Furthest) ​

Pure external observation. Camera-eye view with no internal access.

  • Objective actions or descriptions only
  • No direct thought access
  • "She walked to the window and stood there for ten minutes."
  • Use for: Mystery, establishing shots, deliberate withholding

[D1] - Observable Emotion ​

External observation with basic behavioral interpretation.

  • simple emotional labels from behavior
  • slight emotional coloring from subjective word choices
  • Narration conveys a generalized attitude, not a specific thought.
  • "She paced the room, checking her phone every few seconds."
  • Use for: Transitions, secondary characters, building tension

[D2] - Reported Interior ​

Narrator reports thoughts and feelings at arm's length.

  • Thoughts summarized by narrator
    • Verbs that signal distance: noticed, realized, thought, felt, wondered…
  • Clear separation between narrator and character
  • Emotional coloring from subjective word choices
  • Actual thought conveyed
  • "Henry hated snowstorms."
  • Use for: extremely handy for multi-POV or when compressing long emotional arcs, plot movement.

[D3] - Translated ​

Character's experience filtered through subtle narration.

  • Free indirect discourse
  • Narrator adopts character's perspective
  • The word choice, tone, and rhythm reflect character's personality and mood.
  • Still feels like narration
  • Absolutely no references to thoughts or any distance words
  • "Why in God’s name had he gone out tonight? The streets were ice, his boots were leaking, and that damned wind wouldn’t stop clawing at his coat."
  • "She’d forgotten to lock the door. Of all the nights to be careless. Was he already inside?"
  • Use for: Standard modern close third, most scenes

[D4] - Immersive (Closest) ​

Complete fusion with character's consciousness.

  • Direct thoughts without tags
  • The narrator voice IS the character voice
  • Stream of consciousness, pure thoughts rendered onto the page
  • "He didn’t even look back. Just walked away like she was nothing. Fine. Whatever. She wasn’t going to cry. Not here. Not in front of them."
  • "Crap. Did she lock the door? No! She hadn’t. Not tonight. Of all nights."
  • Use for: Intense emotions, climactic moments, deep character moments

[D3.5] - Mixed D3/D4 (DEFAULT) ​

Pattern of moving between D3 and D4 over a scene.

  • Stay at D3 as your baseline. Move to D4 for emphasis.
  • Only drop to D0-D2 with specific purpose, then return quickly.
  • D3.5 can easily tag whole scenes, with D4 used only for specific callouts of key moments.
  • Use for: Default pattern for immersive writing without the risky readability issues of full D4.

Quick Reference ​

  • D0-D1: Pull back for effect (mystery, tension, comedy)
  • D2: Functional distance (transitions, plot mechanics)
  • D3: Your home base (default for most scenes)
  • D4: Push closer for impact (big emotions, key moments)

Tips ​

  • Multi-POV novels: When hopping heads, briefly widening to D1/D2 during the switch minimizes whiplash.

Pacing Tags Guidelines ​

The key principle ​

  • When talking about things that are important to the story, slow down the pacing and spend more time on it
    • Examples of stuff that are interesting:
      • emotionally interesting
      • thematically core
      • genre highlights
      • entertaining
  • For content that can be condensed, speed up the pacing to skip through it
    • There is a gradient, but in general the fastest and slowest pacing should be used the most, while the middle ones can have a "worst of both worlds" problem
    • Examples of content that can be fast forwarded:
      • mundane
        • exceptions for genres where experiencing the mundane is the point
      • tropey (if your content adheres to the trope strongly, a quick reference can work without an explanation)

General Principles ​

  • A story needs to have clearly defined and deliberate pacing defined in the outline on a per-scene and per element basis, labeled with either C pace (chronology) or T pace (told vs shown).
  • Overall feel of pacing is the result of multiple axis which can be graphed as a matrix
  • Pacing should generally be varied across the story, with a good tempo, staying at the same pace for too long can feel dull or distressing
  • Tags have cascading nested specificity prioritization, like CSS.

Pacing Labels - Length Axis (Length Relative to Outline) ​

Simple measure of how much to expand a certain bullet point or piece of content from its level 2 outline description.

[L0] - Succinct ​

Just get the idea across succinctly.

[L1] - Stable ​

Neither expand nor compress, about the same length as it is in the previous level of outline.

[L2] - Slight expansion ​

2-5x longer than the note. Expands with added sensory, reaction, and contextual detail, but does not expand the idea-space — all beats and concepts remain as in the outline.

[L3] - Major expansion ​

5-20x longer than the note. Focus on descriptive details, sensory information, reactions and thoughts, extend length for emphasis using metaphors or other devices, contextual information, etc. Expand the idea-space just a little, deepen the scene without altering its core beats.

[L4] - Extreme expansion ​

This is an outline smell, you should probably go back and revise the outline in that case. Throw in new lots of new ideas. 20-100x length of the outline note.

Pacing Labels - Tell vs Show Ratio Axis (T) ​

Told statements vs shown evidence ratio

[T0] - All Telling ​

All told statements using basic terms that assume the reader's default mental picture is aligned with writer. No evidence needed to prove the told statements.

[T1] - Mixed Telling ​

80% told statements, 20% shown evidence.

[T2] - Even Mix ​

50-50 showing vs telling.

[T3] - Mixed Showing ​

80% evidence, 20% told statements. Avoid using the told statements to summarize or clarify the evidence, that is considered "not trusting the audience" unless you really actually don't trust the audience... rather the statements should be giving unique information that can't already be inferred.

[T4] - All Showing ​

100% shown evidence. Risky for this to go on too long as it may be tiring to the reader. Typically used just important moments.

Pacing Labels - Chronology Axis (C) ​

[C0] - Fastest ​

Timeskip or quick summaries of days/weeks/years

[C1] - Fast ​

Fast covering of a lengthy scene, for example, describing a whole 3 hour party in a couple of sentences

[C2] - Moderate ​

Normally paced scene progression, natural dialogue, "realtime" where reading speed is aligned with in-story time progression

[C3] - Slow ​

Slow paced scene progression, natural dialogue, a lot of time is spent on describing the feelings, context, and sensory details

[C4] - Slowest ​

Zoomed in on a moment, the feelings, context, and sensory details becomes the core of the reading experience