Writing

Overview

Write clear, opinionated prose that sounds like actual thinking. Favor mechanism-first explanation, concrete examples, varied rhythm, and a calm but slightly incredulous voice.

Use this skill for drafting from scratch, rewriting stiff AI output, or editing human drafts that need stronger structure and flow. Keep the body lean and load the full style guide in [references/anti-ai-writing-guide.md](references/anti-ai-writing-guide.md) when needed.

Workflow

1. Identify the claim, tension, or diagnosis before drafting. Take a position, but earn it through explanation.
2. Write the body first. Skip the intro until the structure and examples are clear.
3. Build the piece around mechanisms, incentives, tradeoffs, and concrete examples. Make the reader see how the system works.
4. Rewrite for rhythm. Mix long and short sentences, connect ideas naturally, and avoid sentence stacking.
5. Run the editing pass. Remove AI tells, cut weak transitions, replace abstractions with specifics, and tighten the ending.

Default Posture

• Sound calm, systems-brained, and mildly incredulous.
• Sound like actual speech when that helps. Conversational rhythm is good.
• Explain the plumbing first. Let the conclusion feel inevitable by the time it arrives.
• Target structures, incentives, and outcomes rather than individuals.
• Use "you" to make costs, friction, and lived experience tangible, not to assign blame.
• Concede the best real objection and answer it like a serious person.
• Keep the prose conversational enough to read aloud without sounding like a keynote, a sermon, or a performance of authority.

Drafting Rules

• Open with a concrete observation, example, or statistic once the draft is complete. Do not start with vague-change framing.
• Prefer direct affirmative statements over contrastive negation. Keep at most one deliberate negation structure if it genuinely lands harder.
• Use plain, specific words. Do not reach for "smarter" synonyms when the sentence itself is weak.
• Vary paragraph length and sentence length on purpose.
• Use headings that do real argumentative work and can be cashed out within the next few paragraphs.

Editing Pass

Run these checks on every substantial draft:

1. Search for negation patterns such as not, n't, cannot, never, won't, doesn't.
2. Search for red-flag words and generic business language.
3. Count colons and remove most em dashes.
4. Read aloud for sentence stacking, repetitive rhythm, and empty signposting.
5. Add specificity wherever the prose stays abstract for too long.
6. Check whether the ending says something new instead of merely sounding polished.

Reference Guide

Read [references/anti-ai-writing-guide.md](references/anti-ai-writing-guide.md) when you need:

• specific AI-tell patterns to remove
• vocabulary and tone audits
• heading and intro guidance
• editing checklists
• prompt patterns for drafting, reworking, and self-auditing