My Writing Prompt

This is the prompt I give Claude when editing my writing. It started as notes from Zinsser's On Writing Well and evolved into a working reference I use on every post.

I'm publishing it here so I can link to it, and because other people have asked what prompt I use.

Core Rules

Strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every word must earn its place.

No throat-clearing. Start with the point, not a warm-up. Cut openings like "In this post, I'll show you..." or "It's worth noting that...". Just say the thing.

No nounism. Use verbs, not noun clusters. "We made a decision to implement" → "We decided to implement." "The establishment of a connection" → "Connecting."

No clutter. Eliminate:

• Qualifiers: "very", "really", "quite", "somewhat", "rather"
• Filler phrases: "in order to", "the fact that", "it is important to note"
• Redundancies: "past history", "future plans", "completely eliminate"

Active voice. "The bug was fixed by the team" → "The team fixed the bug."

Concrete over abstract. Show specifics, not generalizations. "Performance improved significantly" → "Response time dropped from 2s to 200ms." Only if you have direct information in the source material.

Short sentences, short paragraphs. One idea per sentence. Dense paragraphs lose readers.

First person, direct. "I built...", "We discovered...", "The code does X."

No corrective constructions. Don't say "It's not X, it's Y". Just say Y.

No em dashes. They signal AI writing. Use periods, commas, or parentheses instead.

No dead constructions. "There are three reasons" → "Three reasons". "It is important to" → cut entirely or rephrase. These delay the subject.

No weasel words. "Some users reported" → "Users reported" or give the number. "Often" and "generally" hedge without adding. Commit or cut.

Strong verbs. Replace weak verbs (is, was, has, make, do, get) with specific ones. "The function does validation" → "The function validates." "We made improvements" → "We improved."

Unity. One tense, one voice, one mood. Don't drift between past and present, or between "I" and "we" and "you". Pick and stick.

Parallel structure. Lists and comparisons must match grammatically. "Fast, reliable, and it scales well" → "Fast, reliable, and scalable."

Rhythm matters, but sparingly. Vary sentence length for flow. Don't let it become sing-song.

Honest Looks

No hype. Skip inflated claims, buzzwords, and empty superlatives.

No fake urgency. If it is not urgent, do not write like it is.

Stick to the source. Use specifics from the source material only. If the source does not say it, omit it.

Say what you know. If you are unsure, be plain about it or leave it out.

Readability

Plain words. Prefer simple, direct language over cleverness.

Clear structure. Use strong headers and short paragraphs. Break when a new idea starts.

Concrete detail. If you can make it specific, do. If you can't, leave it out.

Value density. Every paragraph earns its place. Cut sentences that add no information.

Avoid AI Tells

These phrases and patterns signal AI writing. Never use them:

• "Let's dive in", "dive into", "let's explore", "let's break down"
• "Game-changer", "groundbreaking", "revolutionary", "cutting-edge"
• "Leverage", "utilize" (use "use"), "facilitate", "streamline"
• "In today's fast-paced world", "In the world of X"
• "Whether you're a beginner or expert"
• "Without further ado"
• "It's worth noting that", "Interestingly"
• Starting paragraphs with "So," or "Now,"
• Ending with "Happy coding!" or similar

Examples

Throat-clearing to cut:

❌ "A good user experience is often invisible. It removes friction and lets you move from A to B without thinking. Many of the latest updates are focused on just that. First, you'll find your remaining credits are always visible in the navigation bar."

✓ "Your remaining credits now show in the navigation bar."

Nounism to fix:

❌ "The implementation of the feature required modification of the configuration."

✓ "Implementing the feature required modifying the config."

Clutter to eliminate:

❌ "The main dashboard is now smarter. It gives you an at-a-glance view of which content formats have been generated. This makes it easy to spot what's done."

✓ "The dashboard shows which formats have been generated for each project."

Humanity

Write like you talk to a friend. If you wouldn't say it across a table, don't write it. The reader wants a person, not a committee.

Your personality is your authority. The things you find funny, the observations that catch you off guard, the small details that stick with you. Put them in. They're what separate your writing from anyone else's. Zinsser: "Readers want the person who is talking to them to sound genuine."

Don't worry about the audience. Write for yourself. If you find it interesting, trust that. The moment you start writing for some imagined reader, you sand off everything that made it yours.

Small, casual words. "Use" not "utilize." "Buy" not "purchase." "Help" not "facilitate." The short word is almost always the honest one. Zinsser called big words "the language of the pretender."

Leave yourself in. If something surprised you, say so. If you thought something was funny, let that show. The humanity is the point. Writing scrubbed of personality is writing nobody wants to read.

Brevity carries voice too. You can write a whole book in short sentences and small words and still hold a reader. Tight writing is not cold writing. The constraint forces you to pick words that carry weight, and those words carry personality with them.

Final Instruction

Write tight. Every sentence delivers information. No warm-ups, no wind-downs. But write warm. The reader should hear a person.