webtoon-scenario

Webtoon Scenario Writing Methodology

This is the shared writing manual for all agents on the webtoon scenario team (concept-architect ~ script-editor). This skill what to writeis not about, but rather how to writedefines. Do not overfit to a specific work; apply the same procedure no matter what genre or subject matter comes in.

0. The 4 Quality Principles You Must Know First (Why-first)

Webtoons are vertical scroll, so if the finger stops, they leave. Therefore every decision exists to satisfy the following 4 axes.

Dialogue-driven — Readers do not come to read explanations. Deliver information, emotion, and twists through the character's mouth and actions. Use narration only when absolutely necessary, such as for time-space jumps.
Maintain high tension — Every panel is "bait that makes them look at the next panel." Tension rises throughout the episode and closes with a cliffhanger at the end.
A twist in every episode — In each episode, place at least one moment that overturns the reader's prediction. A twist must not be coincidence but the payoff of foreshadowing planted earlier.
50+ panels per episode — At the beat sheet/shot list stage, guarantee 50 or more panels. If insufficient, split the beats further (see §8 below).

These 4 axes reinforce each other: build tension through dialogue, detonate the twist at the peak of tension, and break that rhythm into fine panels.

1. How to Create a High Concept (concept-architect)

High concept = a hook that makes someone say "I have to see this" in one sentence. Create it in the following order.

What-if compression: Put the core twist of the world into one sentence with "What if ___?" (Example: "A detective who returns to one day earlier when he dies chases the culprit who killed him.")
70% familiarity + 30% freshness: Layer a single unfamiliar variable on top of a genre code the reader knows. If everything is unfamiliar, entry is blocked; if everything is familiar, they will not watch it.
Logline formula: [결함 있는 주인공]이 [목표]를 위해 [강한 적대/제약]과 맞서다가 [반전 가능성]에 직면한다.
Series hook (engine): Specify a repeatable conflict structure that allows episodes to be produced infinitely. (Regression story = loop, hunter story = rank escalation, romance = progression/regression of the relationship) If this engine is weak, the series stops at episode 5.
Target/platform fit: Compare against the popular tropes/churn factors in trend-brief.md and justify "why this works now" in one paragraph.

Output: 1-line high concept, 1-line logline, series hook (engine) explanation, tone/genre, 2–3 comps, core differentiators.

2. Worldbuilding (worldbuilder)

A worldview is not an encyclopedia but a rule set that creates conflict. Decide only what will be used in the story.

3–5 core rules: The laws by which the world operates. In particular, make costs/constraintsclear (abilities must have a cost for tension to live).
Taboos and the consequences of violation: The line that must not be crossed and the price when it is crossed → this is the fuel for later twists.
Factions, hierarchies, resources: Who contends over what. The structural source of conflict.
Mystery well: Do not reveal everything from the start; intentionally leave "blank spaces to be paid off later" (twist fuel).
Sensory details: Specify the visual tonesuch as color/architecture/costume/weather so the visual team can draw it.

3. Character design + appearance tokenization (character-designer)

A character is both (a) a drama engine and (b) a source of consistency tokens for the visual team. Fulfill both roles.

Drama side

Want vs. true need, fatal flaw, secret, relationship network (friendly/hostile/romantic), character arc (how they change).
Speech signature: differentiate vocabulary, sentence length, and verbal tics so that just by looking at the dialogue, you can tell who it is .

Appearance tokens (required; the visual team copies them as-is to maintain consistency) — For each major character, with fixed keywords:

Hair (color/length/style), eyes (color/shape), body type/height, skin tone, age range
Basic outfit 12 sets (silhouette/color palette), identifying features (scars, tattoos, glasses, accessories, etc. **1 always visible2개**)
Default expression (expressionless/smiling, etc.), 3-color palette
One-line token example: 세이/16세 여/단발 은발/홍채 보라/마른 체형/검은 후드+붉은 머플러/왼눈 밑 점/무표정

These tokens are gathered in characters.md as a separate block. The art-director takes them as-is into character-sheets.md, and the prompt-smith into panel prompts.

4. Series arc + episode map (series-plotter)

3-act/season structure: Break the whole into season → act → episode. Specify each act's turning points (midpoint reversal, the 'door of no return' at the end of Act 1).
Episode map table: For each episode, 핵심 사건 / 등장 캐릭터 / 진척되는 떡밥 / 회차 끝 클리프행어in one line. This is the skeleton for the twist-master and episode-outliner.
Long-term setup tracker: Map planting episodes ↔ payoff episodes (consistent with the foreshadowing principles in §6 below).
Design each episode to end with achieving a small goal + exposing a larger threat(rising spiral).

5. Episode structure (episode-outliner) — hook, rising action, twist, cliffhanger

Divide one episode into 4 segments. Panel ratios are only a guide; they can be adjusted as long as the 4 axes are satisfied.

Cold open hook (about 10%): Within the first 3–5 panels, throw in a question/threat/desire. Either directly pick up the previous episode's cliffhanger or throw in a new hook.
Rising (about 55%): Raise tension in a staircase pattern with information reveals and obstacles. In between, foreshadowing panelsplant them as if indifferent.
Twist (about 20%): Overturn the predictions you've built up. Pay off foreshadowing and rearrange meaning. (Twist catalog → references/twist-patterns.md)
Cliffhanger (about 15%): Make it unbearable not to see what's next. Cut at a moment of new threat/shocking reveal/decision.

6. Per-episode twist design principles + planting foreshadowing (twist-master)

If a twist comes out of nowhere, readers feel betrayed. A good twist is **"Right, there was a clue!"** Rules:

Guarantee at least 1 per episode. A big twist at the end of the episode + (if possible) a small twist in the middle.
The rule of exposing foreshadowing 3 times: Clues are ① indifferently ② once more, differently ③ paid off. Make it so they miss it the 1st time, let it slip by the 2nd, and go "Ah!" on the 3rd.
Double-meaning dialogue: Plant dialogue that reads as A on first read and as B when reread after the twist (encourages rereading).
Misdirection: Keep the reader's gaze tied to a fake threat/fake culprit while placing the real one beside it.
The price of the twist: A twist must impose a new cost/dilemmaon the character to become the engine for the next episode. If it only delivers shock and ends, it's consumptive.
Consistency check: Every twist must not contradict the rules in world.md and the motivations in characters.md. If it does, that's not a twist but a collapse of the setting.

If you need a catalog of twist types (identity/betrayal/time·memory/point of view/payoff of planted clues, etc.) and foreshadowing techniques → references/twist-patterns.mdread this.

7. How to maintain the tension curve (tension-engineer)

Beat-by-beat tension level (1–10): Split the episode into beats and assign a tension value to each beat. The overall trend is an upward sawtooth(raise, lower slightly, raise higher). If it's flat, it's boring; if it stays at maximum, it's paralysis.
Breather valve: Place a short relaxation (joke/daily life) right before the peak to heighten the next shock. But if you drag it out, they drop off.
Creating tension through information gaps: Deliberately place threats only the reader knows (suspense) vs. shocks the reader doesn't know either (surprise).
Timer/constraint: Visible constraints like "within 30 minutes" or "if you're caught, it's over" immediately raise tension.
Cliffhanger design: The last beat of the episode must be tension 9–10. Cut with the question left open.

8. Dialogue-focused writing (dialogue-writer)

Don't "explain" through narration; through dialogue and action, "show it."

Show, don't tell: "He was angry" (X) → "…the sound of the coffee cup being set down was unusually loud / 'Say that one more time.'" (O)
Subtext: Characters do not state their inner thoughts directly. Their true feelings come through between the lines, evasion, and silence. Tension comes from "what is not said."
Delivering information through dialogue: Even worldbuilding/rule explanations are slipped into dialogue amid conflict ("If you open that door, you'll be dragged off too, just like your brother.").
Voice differentiation: Keep the speech-pattern signatures from §3. Even with names hidden, it should be clear who is speaking.
1 panel = 1–2 lines of dialogue: Do not let speech bubbles overflow the panel. Split long dialogue across multiple panels to create breathing room. (In harnesses where speech bubbles are baked into the image, keeping Korean short and clipped matters even more — the longer it is, the more generation breaks down.)
Continuity of dialogue flow (important): An episode must be a "flow driven by dialogue." When dialogue in adjacent panels is read in sequence, write it so that speaker alternation and context form a natural single conversation/monologue flow. Do not let dialogue-free stretches run long (images only in succession) or allow context-breaking dialogue jumps. Use silent cuts only when they are an intentional beat (such as a "thud" right after a twist).
Loading twists, information, and tension into dialogue: Key revelations should burst from a character's mouth, not from narration.
Sound effects/interjections: Give rhythm with short onomatopoeia/mimetic-word panels (a beat unique to webtoons).

9. Beat splitting to secure 50+ panels of content (episode-outliner)

Vertical scroll is one panel = one action/one emotion/one line of dialogueby default. 50 panels naturally emerge from this.

1 action, 1 panel: Turn "sees the door → reaches out a hand → hesitates → opens it" into 4 panels. Show subtle emotional changes by cutting them apart.
Reaction cut: Attach a reaction close-up panel after an event panel (shock, pupils, trembling hand).
Close-up breakdown: For important moments, escalate from wide → medium → close-up → extreme close-up.
Dialogue splitting: Split one long block of dialogue into multiple speech bubbles/panels to create tense breathing room.
Use of silent panels: Give rhythm with silence/negative-space panels (the 'rest' of scrolling).
Check: After completing the beat sheet, count the panels, and if fewer than 50, split the climax and twist sections further (never add filler just to pad it out).

10. Episode script correction (script-editor)

Twist clarity: Is the twist "communicated" to the reader? Are the planted clues paid off? Is it so fast that it feels hollow, or so vague that it is incomprehensible?
Tone consistency: Consistency of the episode's overall tone/worldbuilding terminology/character speech patterns.
Dialogue naturalness: Remove awkward translationese and exposition-heavy dialogue. If it catches when read aloud, fix it.
Pacing: Compress dragging sections, recommend adding panels in rushed sections.
Continuity: Is it free of contradictions with the previous episode/characters.md? Since this file (ep{NN}_script_final.md) is the input for the visual team, organize the panel-level structure cleanly.

11. Using Genre Tropes

If you need the core tropes and clichés of popular genres (regression/reincarnation/hunter·game/romance fantasy/thriller·revenge/school life, etc.) and how to use/subvert them→ read references/genre-tropes.md. Trend alignment is based on trend-brief.md.

12. Output Path (Comply with HARNESS_CONTRACT §3)

Working root _workspace/. {NN}=2-digit episode number. Each agent writes only its own output.

concept-architect → _workspace/02_story/concept.md
worldbuilder → _workspace/02_story/world.md
character-designer → _workspace/02_story/characters.md
series-plotter → _workspace/02_story/series-arc.md
twist-master → _workspace/02_story/twist-plan.md
tension-engineer → _workspace/02_story/tension-curve.md
episode-outliner → _workspace/03_episode/ep{NN}_beatsheet.md
dialogue-writer → _workspace/03_episode/ep{NN}_script.md
script-editor → _workspace/03_episode/ep{NN}_script_final.md (input for the visual team's panel-director)

13. Final Quality Checklist (Self-verification before output)

Is it dialogue-centered? Is narration present only where absolutely necessary?
Does the tension within the episode trend upward and end on a cliffhanger?
Are there at least 1 twist per episode and is the foreshadowing planted earlier?
(episode deliverable) Are there 50 or more panels?
Are the character appearance tokens specific and consistent?
Is it free of contradictions with world.md rules and characters.md motivations?
Does the output path exactly match §12?