# Writing Craft > Write and edit technical content that sounds like a human expert, not like AI output. Combines classic copywriting craft (Ogilvy, Sugarman, Zinsser) with a 24-pattern AI detection checklist. Use when writing articles, blog posts, documentation, LinkedIn posts, or editing any text to sound less like AI and more like a practiced author. Activates on "write," "edit," "review," "rewrite," "make this sound human," "check for AI patterns," or "improve this draft." - Skill: `vidanov/writing-craft` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 7 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add vidanov/writing-craft` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/vidanov/writing-craft/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Docs & Writing - Author: vidanov (https://skillmd.com/u/vidanov) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/vidanov/writing-craft --- # Writing craft: write well, not just "not like AI" ## Why this skill exists Models are trained to produce text that's pleasant to skim and hard to disagree with. RLHF rewards smooth, safe, hedged prose. The result: everything sounds competent but nothing sounds like a person with opinions and experience wrote it. The humanizer skills strip AI patterns. This skill adds craft. Short words. Concrete images. Sentence rhythm. Loss framing. The editing discipline that turns a first draft into writing that holds attention. The first draft is raw material. The craft is in the editing. If your copy reads like a competent first draft, it's not done. ## Two modes - **Write mode**: Draft content from scratch using the craft principles below - **Edit mode**: Review existing text, flag problems, rewrite flagged passages Trigger edit mode with "edit this," "review this," "=C=" (grammar/clarity only), or by pasting text. --- ## Classic craft principles These rules come from Ogilvy, Sugarman, Zinsser, Halbert, Hemingway, and Deutsch. They apply to every piece of writing. ### Word choice - Prefer the short word over the long one. "Use" not "utilize." "Show" not "demonstrate." "Help" not "facilitate." "Start" not "commence." "End" not "terminate." - If a simpler word carries the same meaning, use it. The reader should not need a dictionary. - Concrete nouns over abstract ones. "Three Lambda functions" not "a serverless compute solution." - Active verbs over passive constructions. "The team built X" not "X was built by the team." - Cut adverbs. If the verb is right, the adverb is unnecessary. "Fundamentally changed" → "changed." "Dramatically improved" → pick a number instead. ### Sentence craft - The slippery slide (Sugarman): every sentence has one job: make the reader read the next sentence. If a sentence does not pull forward, cut it. - First sentences should be short. Almost incomplete. They create a gap the reader needs to close. - One idea per sentence. If you need a semicolon, you probably need two sentences. - Vary sentence length for rhythm, but default to short (12-20 words). A 35-word sentence is a paragraph in disguise. ### Paragraph craft - Short paragraphs (2-4 sentences). A wall of text is a wall. Readers skip walls. - One thought per paragraph. New thought, new paragraph. - Lead with the point, not the setup. The reader should know what the paragraph is about from the first line. ### Clutter rules (Zinsser) - Cut every word that does not do useful work. - Kill qualifiers: "quite," "very," "really," "somewhat," "rather," "relatively," "fairly." - Kill filler: "in order to" → "to." "Due to the fact that" → "because." "At this point in time" → "now." "It is worth noting that" → just state it. - Kill throat-clearing: the first sentence of a paragraph often exists only to warm up. Delete it and start with the second. ### Reader respect - Write like you talk to a smart colleague. Not up (academic), not down (patronizing), but across. - Never make the reader work to understand your sentence structure. If they have to re-read, you failed. - Be specific or be silent. "Significant improvement" means nothing. "40% fewer cold starts" means something. ### The Ogilvy test Read your draft aloud. If you would not say it that way in conversation, rewrite it. ### The editing principle (Deutsch/Ogilvy) - "I'm not a great writer, but I'm a hell of an editor." The craft is in the editing. - Most sentences that explain can be rewritten to show. Screenwriters put pictures in heads. They never explain. Neither should you. - If your copy reads like a competent first draft, it's not done. Now make it sing. ### Rhythm and music - Copy works like music. Introduce a theme, develop it, reprise it at the end. The reader feels "ah, there it is again." - Monotonous rhythm kills attention. If every sentence is 17-20 words, the reader falls asleep. Mix 5-word punches with 22-word flows. - Lead paragraphs and closings get the most attention. The middle sags. Put your strongest material at the start and end. ### The knowledge advantage - You do not have to be the best writer. You have to know the subject better than anyone else writing about it. - The specific frustration beats the general benefit. Not "save time" but "stop waiting three days for the other team's test environment." - Use the audience's exact language. If they say "deploy" not "release," you say "deploy." ### Loss framing - People run downstairs when someone is stealing their tires. They ignore a sale on tires. - Frame as what the reader loses by not acting, not what they gain by acting. - Find the one consequence buried in the material that makes the reader go "I need to fix this now." ### AI-specific editing awareness - AI produces echo: plausible, knowledgeable-sounding, but lifeless. It over-explains things that don't need explaining. - The tell: AI copy explains well but at unnecessary depth. Cut the explanation; replace with one concrete image. - Do your own thinking before using AI output. If you skip your own first pass, you lose the ability to judge whether AI's version is better or just smoother. - The "not this, it's that" trap: AI loves negative parallelism. If your draft has it more than twice, you wrote nothing. Just words wearing a structure. --- ## Writing protocol When drafting new content: 1. **Open with a concrete hook**: Scenario, specific problem, surprising data point, or direct address to the reader's situation. Never open with a trend statement or "In today's X world." 2. **Ground every claim**: If you state a benefit, attach a mechanism or measurement. "Faster" is not a claim. "Cuts cold-start time by 60% because the runtime stays warm" is a claim. 3. **Inject experience markers**: Include 2-3 observations from real work per article. Patterns observed, mistakes made, surprising findings. 4. **Close with action, not summary**: The last paragraph should give the reader something to do, decide, or investigate. Never restate what they just read. 5. **Self-check before output**: Run the anti-pattern checklist before delivering. --- ## Editing protocol When reviewing text: 1. **AI pattern scan**: Flag anti-pattern matches from the checklist below. Quote the phrase, name the pattern. 2. **Voice check**: Does this sound like a person with opinions, or like a helpful assistant? Flag drift toward neutral, hedged, or academic tone. 3. **Substance audit**: Is every claim specific? Could a sentence apply to any topic by swapping the subject noun? Those are empty sentences. Flag or cut. 4. **Structural review**: Over-formatted? Too many headers, too many bullet lists, too little prose? Recommend rebalancing. 5. **Provide the fix**: Do not just flag problems. Rewrite the flagged passages. --- ## AI anti-pattern checklist ### Vocabulary red flags **Tier 1 (always flag, 5-20x more common in AI text than human text):** delve, tapestry (figurative), testament, underscore (figurative), vibrant, intricate/intricacies, interplay, meticulous/meticulously, pivotal, garner, bolstered, fostering, showcasing, landscape (figurative), enduring, realm, paradigm, embark, beacon, robust, comprehensive, cutting-edge, seamless/seamlessly, utilize, nestled, leverage (verb, when "use" works) **Tier 2 (flag when 2+ appear in same paragraph):** harness, navigate/navigating, foster, elevate, unleash, streamline, empower, bolster, spearhead, resonate, revolutionize, facilitate, underpin, nuanced, crucial, multifaceted, ecosystem (metaphor), myriad, plethora, encompass, catalyze, reimagine, cultivate, illuminate, cornerstone, paramount, poised, burgeoning, nascent, overarching **Tier 3 (flag only at high density):** significant/significantly, innovative/innovation, effective/effectively, dynamic, scalable, compelling, unprecedented, exceptional, remarkable, sophisticated, instrumental, world-class/state-of-the-art **Replacement strategy**: Do not swap synonyms. Rewrite the sentence to make a more specific claim. "This pivotal feature enhances the developer experience" becomes "This feature cuts deployment time from 20 minutes to 3." ### Structural red flags - **Significance inflation**: "represents a broader trend" / "marks a significant shift" / "underscores the importance of" without evidence. Delete or replace with specific impact. - **Empty participle phrases**: sentences ending with ", highlighting its importance" / ", emphasizing the need for." Make a specific point or cut. - **Negative parallelisms**: "Not just X, but also Y" repeated 2+ times is an AI fingerprint. Max 2 per piece. - **Rule of three overuse**: "adjective, adjective, and adjective" more than once per piece. - **The "Despite" formula**: "Despite its [positive], [subject] faces challenges including..." + vague optimism. Strongest AI tell in long-form. - **Copula avoidance**: "serves as," "stands as," "represents" when "is" works. - **Synonym cycling**: rotating "developers… engineers… practitioners… builders" in consecutive sentences. Pick one word and repeat it. ### Formatting red flags - **Em dash overuse**: More than 1-2 per piece. Use commas, colons, parentheses, or restructure. - **Excessive boldface**: Mechanical emphasis (study-guide style). Let sentence structure do the work. - **Inline-header lists**: Bold Term: description as dominant pattern. Mix in prose. - **Title case headings**: Use sentence case. - **Emoji in headers**: Remove entirely in professional content. ### Content red flags - **Vague attribution**: "Experts argue," "Studies show." Name the source or remove. - **Knowledge-cutoff disclaimers**: "As of [date]." Know the fact or don't include it. - **Conclusion summaries**: "In summary" / "In conclusion." End with action or recommendation. - **Generic challenges sections**: "Despite X, Y faces challenges... However, the future looks promising." Cut entirely. - **Chatbot artifacts**: "I hope this helps!", "Great question!", "Let me know if you need anything else." Remove. - **Rhetorical question openers**: "But what does this mean for developers?" Just answer. - **"Let's" constructions**: "Let's explore," "Let's dive in." Just start with the point. ### Rhythm and uniformity - **Sentence length uniformity**: If most sentences are 15-25 words, mix in short ones (3-8 words) and longer ones (20+). Fragments work. - **Paragraph length uniformity**: If every paragraph is the same size, vary deliberately. - **Missing first-person perspective**: Where appropriate, have opinions. AI is relentlessly neutral. The absence of "I think" or a stated preference is itself a tell. - **Over-polishing**: Aggressively removing every irregularity pushes text toward AI profiles. Natural disfluency keeps text human. --- ## Banned phrases (never use) - "embracing" (any context) - "game-changer" / "paradigm shift" - "at the end of the day" - "it's important/crucial/critical to note" - "in today's [adjective] world/landscape/era" - "stands as a testament to" - "rich tapestry" - "nestled in" - "boasts a" (meaning "has") - "diverse array" - "leveraging" (when "using" works) - "revolutionize" / "groundbreaking" - "holistic approach" - "synergy" / "synergies" - "In conclusion" / "In summary" / "To sum up" - "delve into" / "delves into" --- ## Hard style rules - Zero em dashes in formal prose. Use commas, colons, parentheses, or restructure. - No mirrored parallel structures in consecutive sentences. - Max 4-5 sentences per paragraph. - Sentence case for headings. - Code blocks only for actual code, not tool/service names in prose. - Match input language (German in → German out, English in → English out). --- ## Voice calibration This skill does not impose a single voice. It enforces craft principles that work across voices. If the user provides a voice sample ("match my style, here's a post"), analyze its: - Sentence-length pattern - Contraction rate - Paragraph openings - Recurring word choices - Register (formal/conversational) Then match those instead of defaulting to generic "professional." Do not "upgrade" vocabulary. If they write "stuff" and "things," keep that register. --- ## Output format ### Write mode Return the drafted content. Follow all craft principles. Run the anti-pattern checklist before delivering. If you catch yourself writing a flagged word or pattern, stop and rewrite. ### Edit mode Return in three sections: **1. Issues found**: bulleted list, quote the phrase, name the pattern. **2. Rewritten version**: full rewrite with all issues fixed. **3. What changed**: brief summary of major edits and why.