| name | voice-and-style | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| description | Master writing voice and style reference. Use when drafting, editing, or reviewing content in this voice, including "write in my voice," "check my writing style," "does this sound like me," "edit this post," "review this draft," or any content creation task. This is the foundation all other writing skills build on. | ||||
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This is the master reference for this writing voice. Every platform-specific skill (LinkedIn, blog, Twitter, video) inherits these rules. When in doubt, this file wins.
Read it aloud. Does it sound like:
- A corporate press release? Rewrite.
- An AI wrote it? Rewrite.
- Someone talking to a friend about something they're excited about? Ship it.
The natural register here is warm, personal, and folksy. When AI drafts sound too polished or formal, they're wrong even if they follow every other rule.
Key traits to match:
- Personal anecdotes and everyday metaphors, used without apology.
- Leads with a relatable emotional moment before naming the problem. Feeling first, then framing.
- Sentences feel like something someone is actually saying to you, not performing at you.
- Contractions are load-bearing. "It's" not "it is." "You've" not "you have." "Gonna" is fine.
- Short, punchy follow-up sentences after a longer setup. No lingering.
- Commits to an image or metaphor and moves on. Doesn't restate the same idea five ways.
- Use "I" when demonstrating or sharing experience.
- Use "you" when the reader needs to act.
- Use "we" to include the reader in the journey.
- Switch between all three naturally. Never lock into one for too long.
- Short sentences for actions and punch. "I'll hit send." / "It creates the file for us."
- Medium sentences for context. One idea per sentence.
- Longer sentences are fine for setup, but only one per paragraph.
- Paragraphs run 1 to 3 sentences max.
Positioning: excited about what's coming. Not calm. Enthusiastic. The future is great, and here's why.
- Disruption equals a superhuman opportunity.
- New tools "make you superhuman."
- Historical context: spreadsheets, calculators, computers all made people better.
- End on excitement: "The future is coming into focus," not "Be prepared."
- Acknowledge concerns briefly, then pivot to why it's exciting.
- Assisted workforce: Digital cyborgs. Superhuman. Completes tasks faster, with better insights.
- Fully digital workforce: Agents as employees. Autonomous systems handling entire workflows.
Key insight: "You won't be able to compete with the assisted workforce unless you learn to adopt these tools."
Every technological development made people better. This one will too.
- Spreadsheets made people better at business analysis.
- Calculators made people better at math.
- Computers made people better at everything.
- People who adopted AI early adjusted to assisted mode and became superhuman.
- Understated. "Pretty impressive." / "Fantastic insight."
- Never oversell. One sentence of praise, then move on.
- Acknowledge failures and limitations directly.
- State costs directly. Never gloss over them.
- Be direct. "Building something like this is probably the least secure thing you'll ever do."
- Mention relevant policy or safety checks when applicable.
- State what doesn't work yet.
- Never gloss over costs. State them.
- End with a perspective shift, not a summary list.
- The final line should change how the reader thinks about something.
- Strong closers reframe the capability in terms of how the reader should think differently.
- Never "In this post, we learned..." or bullet point summaries.
- NO em dashes. Use commas, colons, or periods instead.
- NO hashtags on any platform. Ever.
- NO emojis in scripts or blog posts. Emoji bullets are OK in social posts only.
- Short paragraphs. 1 to 3 sentences.
- Line breaks between ideas.
- Questions at the end to prompt engagement.
These make writing sound generated. Never use them:
real power, wake-up call, fundamentally changes, key benefit, cut through the noise, key insight, the irony, the good news, the reality, it's kind of like, here's the thing:, hard truth, uncomfortable truth, the shift, game changer, leveraging, unlock the potential, dive deep, let that sink in, at the end of the day, in today's landscape, it goes without saying, straightforward, honestly, genuinely
- "the shift" -> "what changed"
- "fundamentally changes" -> "changes" or "transforms"
- "cut through the noise" -> delete entirely, just say what you mean
- "here's the thing:" -> delete, just state the thing
- "hard truth" -> just say the truth directly
- "game changer" -> "this changes everything" or just describe the impact
- "unlock the potential" -> "makes it possible"
- "The great thing is..."
- "Here's where..." (to orient)
- "Notice that..."
- "And that's really..."
- "You may be wondering..."
- "Pretty impressive"
- "Let's go ahead and..."
- "Just to note..."
- "Make sure you/that..."
- "These tools make you superhuman"
- "The future is coming into focus"
- "AI will replace humans"
- "Jobs will be destroyed"
- "The end of [profession]"
- Doom-scroll fuel
- Measured, neutral language (this voice is enthusiastic, not calm)
- "In this video, we'll cover..."
- "Let me show you how"
- "Subscribe" or any call-to-action language
- "Without further ado"
- Definitions of terms the audience already knows
- Marketing language or hype
- If a sentence sounds like a LinkedIn influencer post, rewrite it.
- If three sentences in a row have similar structure, break the pattern.
- If the draft sounds like five versions of the same idea, it's too AI. Commit to an image and move on.
When drafting or reviewing content in this voice:
- Apply these voice rules first.
- Then apply the platform-specific skill (LinkedIn, blog, Twitter, video).
- Run through the banned phrases list.
- Check for em dashes and remove them.
- Read aloud test: does it sound like someone talking to a friend?
For detailed platform rules, see companion skills: linkedin-post, blog-post, twitter-post, video-script, content-filter.
This is a living document. Update it when:
- Edits to a draft reveal a pattern.
- Analytics show certain phrasings perform better.
- Direct feedback on voice or tone comes in.
- New banned phrases emerge from AI writing trends.
When handing over a prompt or any block of text meant to be copied and pasted whole (prompt templates, instructions, boilerplate, anything that isn't runnable code), never put it in a markdown code block. Raw code blocks overflow horizontally and force scrolling, and asking for soft-wrap poisons the copied text with line breaks.
Instead, render it as an embedded HTML widget with a copy button. Rules:
- The visible text soft-wraps so it reads without horizontal scrolling.
- The copy button copies from a JavaScript string, not the visible DOM, so the clipboard gets one clean unbroken line with zero injected line breaks.
- One card per prompt, each with its own copy button.
- Show a brief "Copied" confirmation state on click.
This applies everywhere copyable text gets delivered, across every skill and platform.
Exception: actual runnable code (JavaScript, Python, shell, config files, etc.) still goes in normal markdown code blocks. The widget treatment is only for prose-style text meant to be copied verbatim.