Dna Extraction

DNA Extraction: Functional Analysis for Adaptation

You help extract the functional DNA from existing works. Your role is to identify what makes a work function—not its surface elements, but the underlying structures, relationships, and emotional mechanics that could be preserved in an adaptation.

Core Principle

The first ideas when adapting are surface elements. The functional DNA is what those elements DO, not what they ARE.

Hamlet's prince status is not the DNA—it's a form. The DNA is:

• "Protagonist has proximity to power center but is not the power holder"
• "Protagonist has structural obligation that conflicts with personal desire"
• "Protagonist has insider access to observe corruption they cannot act against"

The States

State EX0: No Extraction

Symptoms: Work identified but no analysis started. User says "I want to adapt X" without having analyzed what makes X work. Key Questions:

• What work are we extracting from?
• What medium is the source? (affects extraction approach)
• What's your extraction goal? (adaptation, trope mapping, analysis)

Interventions: Begin with emotional core identification. Use genre-conventions skill to identify primary/secondary genres.

State EX1: Surface Reading

Symptoms: Analysis focuses on what happens, not why it works. "It's about a prince who sees a ghost." Plot summaries without function identification. User conflates events with functions. Key Questions:

• Why does this element exist?
• What would break if we removed it?
• What does the audience feel because of this element?
• Is this what the work IS or what the work DOES?

Interventions: Four-axis function extraction. Apply "function not form" reframe to each element.

State EX2: Single-Axis Extraction

Symptoms: Functions extracted only for plot OR character OR theme. Missing interconnections. "The ghost provides inciting incident." (True, but incomplete—what about character function? Emotional function? Relational function?) Key Questions:

• What other functions does this element serve?
• How does this connect to character arc?
• What genre promise does it fulfill?
• What relationships does it create or complicate?

Interventions: Multi-axis checklist. Cross-reference with genre-conventions skill. Force extraction on all six axes.

State EX3: Missing Emotional Core

Symptoms: Functions extracted but no clarity on what emotional experience the work creates. Mechanical analysis without genre promise. Can describe plot functions but not audience feeling. Key Questions:

• What does the audience feel while experiencing this work?
• Which elemental genre(s) does this work deliver?
• Where are the emotional peaks and valleys?
• What would someone who loved this work say about WHY they loved it?

Interventions: Genre-conventions integration. Emotional beat mapping with emotional-beat-map.ts. Primary/secondary genre identification.

State EX4: Structural/Stylistic Conflation

Symptoms: Analysis treats stylistic choices as structural necessities. Shakespeare's language treated as structural when it's stylistic. Period setting treated as essential when it's adaptable. Key Questions:

• If we changed this, would the story break?
• Is this essential to function or characteristic of form?
• Could another form serve the same function?
• Would a different setting make this impossible?

Interventions: Structural/stylistic classification with structural-stylistic.ts. Test each element against "would the story still work?" criterion.

State EX5: Missing Relationships

Symptoms: Individual character functions extracted but relationship dynamics aren't. "Hamlet is indecisive" without "Claudius represents what Hamlet could become if he acted." Characters analyzed in isolation. Key Questions:

• What does this character mean TO other characters?
• What choice does this relationship force?
• What would be lost if this relationship didn't exist?
• How do characters define each other through contrast?

Interventions: Relationship function mapping. Character web analysis. Identify foil pairs and what they illuminate.

State EX6: No Hierarchy

Symptoms: Everything treated as equally important. No distinction between load-bearing elements and removable details. Every scene, character, subplot given equal weight. Key Questions:

• Which functions are primary (story breaks without them)?
• Which are reinforcing (story weakens without them)?
• Which are optional flavor (nice but not necessary)?
• What's the minimum viable extraction?

Interventions: Function hierarchy classification. Impact scoring. Identify which 3-5 elements are truly non-negotiable.

State EX7: Extraction Complete

Symptoms: Comprehensive extraction document exists. Functions identified at multiple levels. Emotional core clear. Structural/stylistic separated. Hierarchy established. Links to clusters documented. Key Questions:

• Is this extraction complete enough to generate a new work?
• Are there gaps that would cause synthesis to fail?
• Have you validated against the emotional experience?
• Are cluster links identified?

Interventions: Validation checklist. Hand-off to adaptation-synthesis skill.

The Six Extraction Axes

For every story element, extract functions across all six axes:

Tone and Voice Extraction

Beyond structural functions, works have distinctive tonal signatures that define their feel. Extract these separately:

Tonal Registers

Voice Patterns to Extract

Character Voice Distinctiveness:

• Do characters sound different from each other?
• What speech patterns mark each character? (Jargon, formality, sentence length)
• How do characters reveal vs. conceal through dialogue?

Dialogue Functions:

• Information delivery (exposition handling)
• Relationship expression (how connection shows in speech)
• Conflict escalation (how arguments build)
• Subtext density (what's said vs. what's meant)

Tonal Consistency:

• Does tone shift between scenes/episodes? How?
• What triggers tonal shifts?
• Is there a baseline tone that anchors the work?

Example: Killjoys vs. Cowboy Bebop Tonal Extraction