Style Writer
Write content in any stored writing style. Discovers available styles from the writing-styles/ collection, loads the appropriate guide into context, applies it during writing, and optionally self-evaluates the result against the style's rubric.
When to Use
- User wants to write content in a specific stored style
- User asks to "list available styles" or "what voices do we have?"
- User wants to edit or rewrite existing text to match a style
- User asks to evaluate or score text against a style rubric
Style Discovery & Selection
List directories in writing-styles/ (exclude _template/). Each directory is an available style.
Selection logic:
| Scenario | Action |
|----------|--------|
| User names a style exactly | Look it up directly in writing-styles/<name>/ |
| User describes a style vaguely | List available styles, show each voice-card summary, let user choose |
| Only one style exists | Use it by default, confirm with user |
| No styles found | Tell user to create one with the style-extractor skill |
Context Loading
Load compact files first — voice card + do/don't list give enough context for most tasks.
| Order | File | When to load | Purpose |
|-------|------|-------------|---------|
| 1 | style/voice-card.md | Always | Compact essential reference (~300 words) |
| 2 | style/do-dont.md | Always | Actionable guardrails for writing |
| 3 | style/full-style-guide.md | Long/complex pieces, or if voice card isn't enough | Deep reference with examples |
| 4 | evals/style-rubric.md | Only when evaluating | Scoring dimensions |
Read files using the Read tool.
Writing
Apply the loaded style to the user's content request:
- Use the voice card as the primary compass
- Cross-check against the do/don't list while writing
- For long pieces: write in chunks, periodically re-read the voice card to prevent drift
- Incorporate style-appropriate transitions, sentence patterns, and rhetorical moves
Fiction: Narrative Authenticity
When writing fiction or creative writing, also load references/narrative-authenticity.md and:
- Pre-write: Review the pre-writing checklist. Plan structural choices (timeline, subplots, character moral complexity) before drafting.
- During writing: Vary scene types and emotional intensity. Resist the pull toward clean single-track plots, explicit thematic statements, and embodied-metaphor-only emotion.
- Post-write: Run the post-writing checklist. Audit for AI narrative defaults — especially Claude-specific fingerprints (flat event escalation, epilogue endings, low event diversity).
If the style guide includes narrative construction notes (from fiction extraction), those override the general guidance in narrative-authenticity.md. The style guide captures THIS author's narrative choices; the authenticity guide captures general AI defaults to avoid.
Task-Specific Approach
| Task | Approach | |------|----------| | Short piece (email, paragraph) | Load voice card + do/don't. Write in one pass. | | Long piece (essay, chapter) | Load full style guide. Write in sections, re-checking voice card between sections. | | Fiction piece | Load full style guide + narrative-authenticity.md. Plan structure before drafting. Post-audit for AI tells. | | Editing existing text | Load voice card + do/don't. Identify violations, rewrite to match. | | Style comparison | Load rubric. Score original text, identify gaps, suggest rewrites. |
Self-Evaluation
Triggered when user asks "evaluate", "score", or "how well does this match?"
- Load
evals/style-rubric.md - Score the output on each of the 5 rubric dimensions (1–5)
- Report total score with per-dimension breakdown
- For fiction: Also score on 5 narrative construction dimensions (structural diversity, thematic subtlety, emotional range, character agency, event/temporal complexity). See the Narrative Construction Evaluation section in references/evaluation-guide.md.
- Suggest 2–3 specific improvements
See references/evaluation-guide.md for detailed scoring guidance and common pitfalls.
Anti-Patterns
- Don't over-load context. Start with voice card + do/don't, escalate to full guide only if needed.
- Don't apply style mechanically. The voice card captures the spirit, not a formula.
- Don't ignore the do/don't list. It catches the most common style violations.
- Don't mix styles. Apply one style consistently per piece.
- Don't skip evaluation. If the user cares about accuracy, score the result.
References
- references/evaluation-guide.md — Detailed self-scoring guide with common pitfalls and improvement strategies
- references/narrative-authenticity.md — AI narrative debiasing guide with Claude-specific fingerprints (fiction only)