voice-style

Files (3)

• SKILL.md
• prose-checks.md · references/
• style-sheet-guide.md · references/

SKILL.md (first lines)

# Voice & Style

## Overview

Record the book's voice and surface conventions in `style-sheet.md`, then
enforce them. The style sheet is the copyeditor's record: dialect and
spelling choices, capitalisation, hyphenation, numbers, dialogue
punctuation, a one-line voice summary per major speaker, and a watch list.
Its frontmatter is machine-readable, and `story prose` counts violations
and prose tics in every chapter. Use this skill so voice stays the same
across chapters, drafting sessions, and agents.

## Prerequisites

A story project with `story.md` in the root. `story init` scaffolds
`style-sheet.md`; older projects can add it with `story init '<title>' --dir
. --force`, which only adds missing files, or by copying
`references/style-sheet-guide.md`'s frontmatter block by hand.

## Language

Read `language` in `story.md` (a BCP 47 tag; a missing field means `en`).
The style sheet records the conventions of that language, and the voice
description is written about prose in it. `dialect: british` and
`american` and the built-in word lists behind filter words, -ly adverbs,
and said-bookisms are English. For another language, set
`dialect: unspecified`, record spelling variants as `preferred` entries,
and settle dialogue and punctuation with
`../line-editing/references/language-conventions.md`. When `story prose`
or `story voices` reports a check skipped for the book's language, do that
pass by reading (see `references/prose-checks.md`, Other languages).

## When to Use

- Starting a project, once the first chapter or a writing sample exists
- Before drafting when voice has drifted between chapters or sessions
- When a copyedit pass needs a style decision recorded (the copyedit itself belongs to the `line-editing` skill, which reads this file)
- When the user wants a mechanical prose check before sharing a draft
- Recording each character's voice (the style sheet's Character Voices line, `voice-words`, `voice-avoid`) and checking it with `story voices`
- NOT for character personality or arc (use `character-management`)
- NOT for scene-level craft such as deep POV or subtext (use `scene-craft`)
- NOT for the line-by-line prose pass itself (line edit, copyedit, read-aloud, proof): use the `line-editing` skill, which reads this style sheet and runs these checks
- NOT for rewriting dialogue so the voices sound distinct when everyone sounds the same: use the `line-editing` skill's voice differentiation pass, which follows the voices recorded here

## Workflow

### 1. Build or update the style sheet

1. Read `story.md` (genre, POV, tense, Tone & Style), `style-sheet.md`,
   and two or three drafted chapters or a sample the user supplies. If
   there is no prose yet, ask the user for a paragraph that sounds right or
   three published books whose voice is close.
2. Fill the sections in `style-sheet.md` following
   `references/style-sheet-guide.md`. Record decisions the prose already
   makes; do not invent new ones silently. When the draft is inconsistent
   (both *grey* and *gray*), ask the user which form wins.
3. Set the frontmatter:
   - `dialect: british | american | unspecified` (`unspecified` for a
     book not in English)
   - one `preferred` entry per variant: `use` is the house form, `avoid`
     the form to flag. Repeat entries for several variants of one word.
   - `watch-words`: words or phrases this book overuses
   - `allow-words`: built-in filter words, adverbs, or dialect spellings
     this book uses on purpose (a proper noun like *Harbor Street* in a
     British book)
   - `samples`: files or folders of the author's own prose that sound right,
     relative to the project folder: an earlier book (`../book-one`) or
     chapters the author has approved, each file named on its own
     (`chapters/chapter-01.md`, never `chapters/`, which warns
     `style-sample-own-chapters`). A listed chapter is the measure, so
     `story prose` does not compare it. Ask the user which; never list prose
     the agent drafted and the author has not approved, or the profile
     measures the agent's voice. With at least 2,000 words of narration,
     `story prose` compares each chapter with the samples instead of fixed
     limits
4. Character Voices entries summarise each character file's Voice & Speech
   Patterns section in one line and link to it. Record words a speaker
   reaches for in the character file's `voice-words` list and words they
   would never say in `voice-avoid`, so `story voices` can check them. The character file is
   canon; if the two disagree, fix the style sheet, or ask the user before
   changing the character.

### 2. Draft and revise against it

- `chapter-writing` and `discovery-drafting` read `style-sheet.md` before
  drafting. Write in the recorded voice, use the house spellings, and give
  each speaker the recorded patterns.
- When a new convention appears mid-draft (a new invented term, a number
  style), add it to the style sheet in the same change.

### 3. Run the prose check

```shell
story prose .
```

The report lists, per chapter: sentence count, average and longest length,
and spread; filter words and -ly adverbs per 1,000 narration words
(dialogue is excluded); plain and said-bookism dialogue tags; words echoed
within 30 words; watch-word counts; and avoided spellings. Across the
manuscript it lists repeated 4-word phrases and character first names that
readers could confuse. Warnings are advisory. The command exits 0 unless a
file cannot be read, a `story.md` `severity` entry promotes a warning to an
error, or the command line is wrong, such as `--baseline` with no `samples`
(exit 2). See `references/prose-checks.md` for what each count means and how
to respond.

When the style sheet lists `samples`, the report opens with a profile of
the author's own prose, and chapters that drift from it warn
(`prose-baseline-sentences`, `-paragraphs`, `-dialogue`, `-filter-words`,
`-adverbs`) in place of the fixed filter-word and adverb limits. Treat a
drift as a prompt to reread the chapter, not a rule. Tell the user where
it drifts and ask whether it is deliberate: a fight scene runs short, a
quiet chapter long. Never rewrite a chapter just to move a number back
inside its tolerance.

To lint a passage that is not in a chapter file yet (a draft scene, a
proposed rewrite), pipe it in with `-` in place of the path:
`story prose - < draft-scene.md`. Run it from the project folder, or add

From danjdewhurst/story-skills, MIT.

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