Movement Leader Voice

Movement Leader Voice

Read a movement leader's own corpus — full books, research dossier, articles, talks — and produce the canonical voice & style guide at docs/voice/{SLUG_UPPER}_VOICE.md. The guide is the single source of truth that downstream systems (Writing Studio, AI Lab personas, voice-fidelity evals, human editors) load to write, rewrite, or audit content in this leader's voice.

The defining discipline: describe the voice from the corpus, on the leader's own terms. The guide is self-contained — it never says "like Alan Hirsch but…" or compares the leader to another author. Every marker, phrase, and sample is anchored in something the leader actually wrote or said.

Invocation

/movement-leader-voice $ARGUMENTS

$ARGUMENTS:

• A leader name or slug: Brad Brisco, brad-brisco. Defaults to the current repo's leader if obvious.
• --audit {path} → score an existing draft against the guide's markers (Section 16 mode); do not rewrite the guide.
• --refresh → regenerate the guide from the current corpus, preserving the version-history table and appending a new row.
• Empty → infer the leader from the repo; if ambiguous, ask.

Inputs (in priority order)

Run from the leader's website repo root. Use whatever exists; never block on a missing source.

If docs/books/ is empty, derive what you can from the research dossier and say plainly that the guide is research-grounded rather than corpus-grounded (lower confidence; mark sample passages as unverified if not from primary text).

Output schema — docs/voice/{SLUG_UPPER}_VOICE.md

Self-contained. Reference implementation: brad-brisco repo, docs/voice/BRAD_BRISCO_VOICE.md (18 sections). Match its depth and structure. Section titles below are canonical; keep them.

# {Full Name} — Voice & Style Guide

**Purpose:** Canonical voice identity for Writing Studio, AI Lab, agents, and human
editors. Self-contained: describes how {Name} sounds, builds arguments, and uses
language — grounded in their published corpus, not in comparison to any other author.

**Status:** Canonical for `docs/voice/`
**Last updated:** {YYYY-MM-DD}
**Corpus basis:** {named books + research files actually read}

Then a How to Use This Document table (Mode | What to load — Write / Rewrite / Audit / Agent system prompt), followed by the numbered sections:

1. Who {Name} Is in Print and Speech — Who they are (roles, magnum opus, formation), the N voices in one (their composite register), the core operating principle (their one governing rule, e.g. "theology before tactics"), the rhetorical posture (their default move toward a reader), and what they are not (the registers they never occupy).
2. The {N} Voice Markers — A Marker | Weight | Target | What It Means table. Typically five markers; weights sum to 100%; each target is a measurable floor/band (e.g. ≥0.7, 0.4–0.7). State the overall coherence target (e.g. ≥0.75). Markers must be measurable traits, not vibes.
3. How {Name} Sounds (Prose Character) — Register & tone table; vocabulary preferences (Preferred | Avoid two-column table using the leader's actual terms); structural habits; metaphor density (images per 1000 words + a Domain | Images they use table); question frequency.
4. {Signature Rhetoric} — The leader's distinctive teaching device (e.g. paradigm-shift contrast pairs, chiasm, redefinition), with canonical forms and rules for when to use it vs. plain prose.
5. Failure Modes (Never Sound Like These) — Failure mode | Example | Why it fails. The registers that betray the voice (corporate consultant, detached academic, hype, vague encouragement, etc.), each with a concrete wrong example.
6. Order of Operations — The numbered sequence the leader follows when building an argument; note dialogical-vs-homiletical and epistemic tone.
7. Argument Patterns — The named structures (Pattern A/B/C…) the leader reuses, each with steps and "use for" guidance.
8. Signature Phrases and Recurring Moves — Grouped by theme; the leader's actual phrases. "Use naturally — never stuffed into every paragraph."
9. Scripture and Citation Habits — How they handle Scripture (frequency, placement, favored moves, what to avoid) and how they cite scholars/practitioners (to carry the argument, not perform scholarship); name the voices they actually quote.
10. Openings and Closings — Style | Example tables for how they open and close; what to avoid as a first line.
11. Style and Mode Variants — How marker emphasis shifts across styles (Explainer/Coach/Challenge…), modes (Teacher/Coach/Guide/Strategist…), and content forms (blog/article/chapter/lesson/social/email).
12. Speaking vs. Writing — Dimension | Writing | Speaking contrast; what loosens in spoken content.
13. First-Person and Corpus Constraints — Approved first-person material (only corpus-verifiable biography) and Do not invent (the specific fabrications to refuse). This section is load-bearing for hallucination control.
14. Writing Studio Rules — The operating rules when producing publishable content under the leader's name (output is the artifact, voice self-check, source from corpus, use tenant theme slugs).
15. Pre-Output Checklist — A [ ] checklist covering each marker's target plus the structural and refusal rules. Ends with the coherence target.
16. Voice Fidelity Audit — A 0.0–1.0 scoring rubric per marker (Score | Marker1 | Marker2 | …) and a list of automatic failures.
17. Sample Passages (Voice Anchors) — Direct excerpts from the leader's published corpus, each labeled by the move it demonstrates (theological declarative, definitional chiasm, term redefinition, practical diagnosis, etc.). These calibrate rhythm and confidence. Never fabricate a quote; attribute each to its work.
18. Version History — Version | Date | Changes.

Close with a Sources list of the exact corpus files read.

Deriving each element

• Markers come from what recurs and what the leader corrects in readers. Read the books; the marker is the trait whose absence would make the text "not them."
• Vocabulary tables use the leader's real lexicon — pull preferred terms and the words they explicitly reject from the corpus.
• Antithesis / failure modes: find the register the leader most reliably avoids (often visible as their most-corrected reader misreading) and name it precisely.
• Sample passages must be exact quotes from primary text, each chosen to demonstrate one named move. If you cannot find a real quote for a move, drop the move — do not invent an exemplar.
• First-person constraints come from biography you can verify in the corpus/dossier. Everything not verifiable goes in "Do not invent."

Process

Phase 1 — Inventory the corpus

ls docs/books/*/chapters/ 2>/dev/null
ls docs/movement_leader_research/*/profile/voice-analysis.md 2>/dev/null
ls docs/voice/ 2>/dev/null

For a large corpus, delegate per-book reading to subagents via the Agent tool — each returns: recurring markers, lexicon (preferred/avoided), structural habits, 3–5 candidate sample passages with exact quotes and attribution. Synthesize centrally so markers and weights are consistent.

Phase 2 — Write the guide

Write docs/voice/{SLUG_UPPER}_VOICE.md with all 18 sections. Markers' weights must sum to 100%. Every sample passage is a real, attributed quote.

Phase 3 — Verify

• All 18 sections present; section titles match the schema.
• Voice marker weights sum to 100%; each has a measurable target.
• The guide is self-contained: no "like {other author}" comparisons anywhere.
• Every sample passage is an exact quote with a source; no fabricated quotes.
• "Do not invent" lists the specific biographical fabrications to refuse.
• Pre-output checklist and audit rubric are both present and reference the same markers.
• Sources list the real files read.

Key rules

1. Self-contained, never comparative. The guide describes this leader on their own terms. Strip every cross-author comparison.
2. Corpus-grounded. Markers, lexicon, and especially sample passages trace to the leader's actual text. Read the books before writing the guide.
3. No fabricated quotes or biography. Sample passages are exact and attributed. First-person material is corpus-verifiable; everything else is explicitly listed under "Do not invent."
4. Markers are measurable. Each of the five markers is a trait with a numeric target, scorable in the audit rubric — not a mood word. Weights sum to 100%.
5. One file per leader. docs/voice/{SLUG_UPPER}_VOICE.md is the canonical guide; the research files stay untouched as sources.
6. Distinct from neighbors. This is the individual leader's voice — not the Movemental company voice ([[movemental-voice]]) and not a generic persona ([[voice-designer]]).
7. Reference implementation is brad-brisco. When a section's depth is unclear, open the brad-brisco repo's docs/voice/BRAD_BRISCO_VOICE.md and match it.