Capture what the room actually revealed: scene-level friction, lines worth protecting, recurring questions, revision decisions, and owners for the next pass.
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# Table read notes ## Session - Project: - Draft / save point: - Date: - Readers: - Listener taking notes: ## What to listen for - Moments where the room leans in, laughs, goes quiet, or gets confused - Lines readers consistently stumble over - Exposition that sounds natural on the page but heavy out loud - Character voices that blur together - Scene transitions where energy drops or the next objective is unclear ## Scene notes ### Scene: [slugline or scene number] - What changed in the scene: - What landed in the room: - Friction / confusion: - Performance discovery: - Question to test in the next draft: ## Lines to protect - [line] — Why it worked: ## Recurring signals ### Story / structure - ### Character / objective - ### Dialogue / voice - ### Pace / clarity - ## Do not solve by vote Record repeated signals separately from proposed fixes. Three people naming the same confusion is evidence of a problem; three different suggested rewrites are still three hypotheses. ## Revision decisions | Signal | Diagnosis | Decision | Scenes affected | Owner / next step | |---|---|---|---|---| | | | | | | ## Questions still open - ## Next read - What must the next draft prove? - Which scenes should be read again? - Which change should *not* be evaluated until a later pass?
Capture observable signals first: stumbles, confusion, laughs, silence, pacing drops, and questions that recur. Record proposed fixes separately so the room's reaction is not mistaken for a mandate to use one person's solution.
Not necessarily. A table read is especially useful for hearing performance, clarity, rhythm, and character voice. This template emphasizes evidence and revision decisions rather than forcing the room into one numerical verdict.
Yes. The download is a Markdown file and works in any text or Markdown editor. Canvas is an optional place to keep the notes beside other development documents.
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