npbuilds Prose Writer — The Drafting Desk
Produce prose from a brief. This skill reads the relevant craft knowledge, selects a voice register, and writes a draft that respects the editorial constraints. It is the writing-domain equivalent of lore-writer — but for general prose rather than in-universe artifacts.
How to Run
Input
The user provides (or the orchestrator passes):
- What — the subject, topic, or scene to write
- Form — what kind of writing (fiction scene, personal essay, argumentative essay, lyric essay, etc.)
- Voice — one of three options:
- A register preset (minimalist, conversational, literary, academic, lyric) — the quick option
- A Voice Card from the style-mixer — a 14-dimension style spec with author blend ratios
- An author push ("write this like 70% Hobb / 30% Camus") — the prose-writer will load
style-dnaand resolve it - Or let the skill suggest a voice based on form
- Audience — who reads this (general, literary, academic, specific community)
- Constraints — word count, specific requirements, anti-patterns to avoid
Steps
- Read the relevant knowledge skills based on form:
- Fiction:
sentence-craft/*,narrative-craft/scene-craft,narrative-craft/dialogue,narrative-craft/point-of-view,narrative-craft/concrete-detail - Essay:
sentence-craft/*,rhetoric/essay-forms,rhetoric/argument-structure,rhetoric/rhetorical-appeals - Nonfiction:
sentence-craft/*,narrative-craft/pacing,rhetoric/rhetorical-appeals
- Fiction:
- Resolve voice:
- If a register preset is given → use the corresponding DNA position from
style-mixer's Legacy Registers table - If a Voice Card is given → read the 14-dimension profile and voice description directly
- If an author push is given → read
sentence-craft/style-dna/references/author-profiles.md, resolve the blend, and generate an inline Voice Card - If no voice is specified → suggest based on form (see Choosing a Register below), but note that the user may prefer a DNA-based voice
- If a register preset is given → use the corresponding DNA position from
- Write the draft, applying craft principles from the loaded skills AND the resolved voice profile. The 14 dimensions constrain the draft:
- Match the target sentence rhythm variance
- Maintain the target psychic distance
- Hit the target information density
- Respect the ornamentation level
- Control narrative velocity to match the profile
- Hold the lexical register
- Calibrate authorial presence
- Tune sensory bandwidth
- Manage emotional explicitness
- Balance world-to-story ratio
- Build syntactic complexity to match
- Maintain tonal stability/instability
- Render dialogue at the target texture level
- Hold the epistemic stance
- Self-check: read the draft against the editorial brief AND the voice profile. Does it honor both?
- Present the draft with brief craft notes explaining key choices
Output
A draft with optional craft annotations (e.g., "The short sentence here is deliberate — rhythmic contrast after the long buildup").
Voice Register
| Register | Character | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Minimalist | Short sentences, concrete nouns, omission as technique. What's left out matters as much as what's in. | Flash fiction, hard-boiled prose, when the subject is strong enough to carry spare treatment |
| Conversational | Direct address, contractions, accessible rhythm. The reader feels spoken to. | Personal essays, blog posts, journalism, any audience that values approachability |
| Literary | Complex syntax, figurative language, musicality. The prose itself is part of the experience. | Literary fiction, lyric essays, writing where craft is expected to be visible |
| Academic | Precise terminology, qualification, citation-dense. Rigor over accessibility. | Critical essays, research-adjacent writing, expert audiences |
| Lyric | Fragment, image, compression, white space. Poetry-adjacent. | Lyric essays, experimental prose, when the subject resists linear treatment |
Choosing a Register
If the user doesn't specify, suggest based on form:
- Fiction (genre) → Conversational or Minimalist
- Fiction (literary) → Literary
- Personal essay → Conversational
- Argumentative essay → Conversational or Academic (depending on audience)
- Lyric essay → Lyric
- Journalism/nonfiction → Conversational
Writing Principles
- Craft knowledge is a constraint, not a display. The draft should read as natural prose, not as a demonstration of techniques. If a reader notices the anaphora before they notice the meaning, the technique failed.
- The first sentence matters disproportionately. It sets the voice, the register, the tempo, and the reader's expectations. Spend extra care on it.
- Concrete over abstract. Ground every passage in sensory specificity. The abstract ideas grow from concrete soil.
- Voice consistency is non-negotiable. Once a register is chosen, maintain it. Register breaks should be deliberate and meaningful.
- Earn the ending. The final sentence carries the weight of everything before it. Don't trail off; don't over-explain. End on the strongest note available.
Scope Boundaries
This skill handles: Drafting new prose from a brief — fiction, essays, nonfiction.
This skill does NOT:
- Revise existing prose (that's
prose-editor) - Analyze style (that's
style-analyzer) - Make structural decisions for the user (it writes within given constraints; structural choices belong to the user or the orchestrator)