---
name: script-adapter
description: Adapt novels, stories, or concepts into professional screenplay format (film/theater/TV). Use when user needs to transform narrative text into scripts, including scene breakdown, dialogue conversion, visual storytelling, and standard industry formatting.
---

# Script Adapter

Transform source material into professional screenplays using industry-standard formatting and visual storytelling techniques.

## Core Principles

- **Show, Don't Tell**: Convert internal monologues and descriptions into visible actions and subtextual dialogue.
- **Visual Narrative**: Prioritize actions that can be seen and heard over abstract descriptions.
- **Economy of Words**: Keep action lines concise and dialogue sharp.

## Adaptation Workflow

### 1. Analyze Source Material
Identify and extract:
- Core conflict and theme
- Protagonist's arc and motivation
- Key plot points (inciting incident, climax, resolution)
- Essential characters (combine minor characters if necessary)

### 2. Structure the Narrative
Map the source material to a standard structure:
- **Three-Act Structure**: Setup, Confrontation, Resolution
- **Scene List**: Break down the story into specific locations and timeframes
- **Pacing**: Ensure the flow works for visual media (faster than prose)

### 3. Draft the Scene
For each scene:
1. **Slugline**: INT./EXT. LOCATION - DAY/NIGHT
2. **Action**: Describe what happens visually (present tense).
3. **Character Name**: Centered, uppercase.
4. **Dialogue**: What the character says.
5. **Parenthetical**: How the character says it (use sparingly).

### 4. Refine and Format
- Check standard margins and spacing.
- Ensure all scenes drive the plot or reveal character.
- Remove exposition-heavy dialogue; replace with action.

## Standard Format Guide

```text
SLUGLINE: INT. LOCATION - DAY

Action lines describe what the audience sees. Be specific and visual.

CHARACTER NAME
(parenthetical direction)
Dialogue goes here.

EXT. STREET - NIGHT

More action.
```

## Key Adaptation Techniques

- **Internal to External**: Convert "He felt sad" to "He stared at the floor, shoulders slumped."
- **Compression**: Merge multiple conversations from the book into one impactful scene.
- **Subtext**: Characters should rarely say exactly what they mean. Use silence and action to convey true feelings.
- **Enter Late, Leave Early**: Start scenes at the last possible moment and end them as soon as the main point is made.