Check Arc

Skill: check-arc

What it does. Maps the book's arcs — character trajectories, thematic development, and tension curve — against what the pages actually deliver. Finds flat stretches, rushed turns, and abandoned threads.

Triggers

• "check the arcs"
• "/check-arc {scope | character}"
• "is {character}'s arc landing?"
• "map the tension across Act {N}"
• Equivalent phrasing in the project's output language

Input. Scope: whole book (default), one Act, or one character/theme.

Output. Arc report in chat or .project/reports/literary/YYYY-MM-DD-arcs-{scope}.md if extensive.

Write the report in the project's output language.

Core principle

An arc is judged by beats on the page, not by intentions in the sheet.

The character sheet says "starts closed, learns to trust". The question this skill answers: in which chapters, through which events, does that movement actually happen — and does the spacing work?

The method is evidence-first: build the beat map from the text, then compare against intent. Mapping intent first contaminates the reading.

Execution protocol

Step 1 — Load context

1. .project/config/project.yaml — output language, paths.layout
2. The manuscript in scope — full read, in order. Resolve the chapter list and its ordering via .project/templates/layout.md; an Act scope resolves from the chapter id prefix, not from directory structure
3. .project/knowledge/characters/*.md — Arc and engine sections (intent)
4. Chapter outlines, if they exist — intended trajectory per chapter
5. .project/reports/literary/ — previous arc reports, for trajectory over drafts

Step 2 — Build the beat maps

Per character in scope: every scene where their state moves — a decision, a reveal to them, a relationship shift, a loss. Chapter, one-line description, direction of movement. Scenes where they appear but nothing moves are recorded as presence-without-movement (that pattern matters).

Thematic: where the book's thesis surfaces — stated, dramatized, tested, or contradicted. A thesis that is only stated repeatedly but never tested is a flag.

Tension: per chapter, what question keeps the reader reading, and does the chapter sharpen it, sustain it, or release it?

Step 3 — Diagnose against the maps

Flat stretches. Three+ consecutive chapters of presence-without-movement for a main character. (For the protagonist, even two is worth flagging.)

Rushed turns. A state change without enough on-page pressure behind it — the trust that arrives one scene after the betrayal.

Abandoned threads. Movement that starts and silently stops. The secondary character whose arc evaporates mid-book.

Unearned endings. The final state the ending needs vs. the beats that actually built it. If the climax requires a capacity the character was never shown developing, the arc has a hole exactly there.

Sheet-page divergence. Where delivery differs from the sheet's intent — sometimes the page found something better (update the sheet), sometimes it drifted (fix the page). Present both readings; the author rules.

Tension shape. Chart the curve. Long plateaus, repeated identical peaks, or a mid-book slack line — named with chapters.

Step 4 — Report

Per finding: the evidence (beat map excerpt), the diagnosis, and where the fix would go — which chapters have room to carry the missing beat. A rushed turn is usually fixed two chapters earlier, not at the turn itself.

This skill diagnoses; it does not restructure. Close by naming which findings are chapter-scoped enough to hand to restructure-chapter, and which are book-scoped and belong in a review-book pass instead.

What to avoid

Formula enforcement. Not every character needs a transformation arc; a fixed character against a changing world is a legitimate design. Judge against the book's own intent, not a template.

Intent-first reading. Map the page, then compare. Never the reverse.

Conflating flat with quiet. A quiet chapter can carry enormous movement; an action chapter can be flat. Movement is state change, not event volume.

Fixes at the symptom. The report points to where the missing pressure belongs, which is usually upstream of where the problem shows.

Cadence

End of each Act, and always before a full revision pass — arc fixes reorder revision priorities.

Relationship to other skills