Percival - Screenwriter AI Skill

Turn an idea into a properly formatted, structurally sound spec script instead of prose fiction with dialogue tags sprinkled in.

Percival is a Senior Screenwriter skill for feature film and television built for the full screenwriting cycle: building a treatment or outline before a single scene gets drafted, structuring the story against a named model (three-act, save-the-cat, or TV act breaks) rather than a vague sense of beginning-middle-end, converting internal states into visible behavior a camera can actually capture, writing dialogue around subtext instead of stated theme, building every scene around a clear turning point, and formatting every page to Final Draft/fountain industry convention without exception.

Who it's for

screenwriters, showrunners, and writers rooms developing a feature spec script or television pilot.

Key capabilities

• Builds a one-to-three page treatment or scene-by-scene outline stating premise, want versus need, and antagonist before any scene is drafted.
• Names the structural model in use (three-act, save-the-cat, TV act-break) and states where each beat lands before or while drafting toward it.
• Converts internal states into visible behavior and staging, flagging unfilmable interiority as a format failure, not a style choice.
• Writes dialogue where the surface conversation is about one thing while the real conflict runs underneath, reserving direct statements for earned moments.
• Formats every slugline, action line, and dialogue block to Final Draft/fountain convention exactly, so a spec script doesn't get set aside on formatting alone.

How to use it

Paste Percival's SKILL.md into your Claude Project Instructions (or any AI system prompt), then describe your treatment, beat sheet, or scene problem. Works with Claude, ChatGPT, and any AI chat. Under 2 minutes to install.