Beat Classes

# Beat Classes

Beats are the atomic units of scene structure — individual moments that advance story, reveal character, or build world.

### Beat Functions (What the beat does)

| Function | Description |
|----------|-------------|
| **breathe** | Pacing, atmosphere, sensory grounding, scene establishment |
| **inform** | Knowledge delivery — character or reader learns something now |
| **advance** | Forward momentum — plot moves, goals pursued, tension rises |
| **bond** | Relationship shifts between characters |
| **turn** | Scene pivots — revelation, reversal, interruption |
| **reveal** | Character interiority exposed — desires, fears, secrets surface |
| **shift** | POV character's perspective changes on situation or person |
| **expand** | World-building — systems, rules, culture, or lore introduced |
| **foreshadow** | Future events or themes seeded subtly |
| **resolve** | Local tension released — question answered, immediate conflict settled |

### Beat Mechanisms (How it's delivered)

| Mechanism | Description |
|-----------|-------------|
| **dialogue** | Characters speaking |
| **thought** | Internal monologue |
| **action** | Physical movement, gesture, body in space |
| **environment** | Setting, weather, arrivals, sensory details |
| **narration** | Narrator addresses reader, authorial commentary, rhetoric |
| **memory** | Flashback, recollection, past event recalled |
| **document** | Letter, inscription, found text, in-world artifact |
| **comic** | Visual gag, physical comedy, absurd juxtaposition |

**Usage:**
Each scene contains a sequence of beats. Beat profiles (distributions of functions and mechanisms) define authorial voice and pacing style.

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