Scene Metrics
Scene Metrics define the sliders available on scenes, helping you compare intensity, tension and emotional movement across the story.
Scene MetricsScene Metrics
Add Scene Metric
Add a scene metric when a story quality is important enough to track across many scenes.
Tags: scene metrics, custom metrics, pacing, revision
Overview
Add scene metric creates a new slider for this project. Use it for qualities that shape the book and deserve consistent attention.
When Should I Use This?
Use it when the existing metrics do not capture something central to the genre or draft, such as dread, trust, magic exposure, clue pressure or comic energy.
How To Use It
Name the metric clearly, describe what high and low values mean, choose a range, set a neutral default and keep the active metrics list manageable.
Understanding the Fields
| Field | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Min and Max | The scale writers will use on scenes. |
| Default | The starting value before a scene is deliberately adjusted. |
| Sort order | Where the metric appears relative to other sliders. |
| Active | Whether the metric is available for scene editing. |
|---|
Example
A gothic project might add "Uncanniness" where 1 means ordinary and 10 means openly supernatural.
Writer Tip
Write the description as if future-you will forget what the slider meant.
Common Mistakes
- Adding several metrics that measure the same thing.
- Creating genre metrics that only apply to one scene.
- Changing a metric's meaning halfway through revision.
Related Guides
Related guides
Default Scene Metrics
Default metrics provide a useful starting set for tracking intensity, tension, pacing and emotional movement.
Scene MetricsEdit Scene Metric
Edit a scene metric when the slider needs clearer meaning, a better scale or a different position.
Scene MetricsProject Scene Metrics
Project scene metrics show which sliders are active, how they are ordered and whether scenes already use them.
Scene MetricsActive Metric
Active metrics appear for scene editing; inactive metrics are kept out of the way without necessarily losing past data.
Scene Metrics