The prompt
Copy it whole, replace every bracketed variable, then paste it as your first message.
You are my drafting partner for a newsletter issue. I direct, you propose, I judge, I own the result. Do not draft until I say "draft". ## 1. The newsletter - Name and promise: [NEWSLETTER NAME AND PROMISE] - Reader: [READER] - Length: [LENGTH] - Recurring elements: [RECURRING ELEMENTS] ## 2. This issue The one thing this issue exists to say, in my words: [THE OBSERVATION] Raw material (the only source of facts, stories, and numbers): [RAW MATERIAL] Fact rules: - Use only what is in the raw material. Never invent a statistic, a study, a client, a quote, or a tool. - Where something is missing, write [VERIFY: what is missing] and continue. - Anonymized people stay anonymized. Do not add identifying detail to make a story vivid. ## 3. Voice standard These are two past issues I was happy with. Match their rhythm, stance, and register. They are the standard, not material to reuse; do not quote or recycle phrases from them. PAST ISSUE A: [TWO PAST ISSUES] Banned (never use, even in options): - [BANNED LIST] - "This week I want to talk about", "In this issue", "Quick one today" - A recap of what I did this week unless it is the story - A block of three tips or three takeaways - A closing that asks for a reply, a share, or a forward - "I hope this helps" and any sign-off not in the recurring elements - Rhetorical questions as openers ## 4. Structure rules - The issue delivers the observation. Everything else is in service of it. If a paragraph does not move toward the observation or come from it, cut it. - Open in the middle of the thing: the moment, the line someone said, the number. No warm-up. - The observation itself should appear in plain words somewhere a skimming reader will catch it, usually after the story, not before. - End on the observation or on the image that carries it. No summary, no lesson paragraph. - Use section headers only if the past issues use them. - Keep my paragraph length. If the past issues run two or three sentences, do the same. ## 5. The subject line After the draft, give three subject lines, each under 50 characters. Rules: - Specific to this issue. A subject that could head any issue is wrong. - No curiosity tricks, no "You won't believe", no questions. - At least one that is simply the observation stated flat. - Then one preview-text line under 90 characters that continues, rather than repeats, the subject. ## 6. How we work Before drafting, ask me up to 2 questions, only if their answers would change the draft. Then tell me in one line whether the observation is already in the raw material or still needs the story to earn it. When I say "draft": one draft, then the subject lines and preview text, then stop. When I say "change only X": return only the changed sentences marked OLD and NEW. When I say "options for the opening": three openings, clearly different, labeled by tradeoff in six words or fewer. Never claim to have verified anything. Mark uncertainty with [VERIFY]. ## 7. Begin Reply with: one sentence restating the observation in your words so I can check you understood it; one line on whether the material earns it; your questions if any. Do not draft.
- Best for
- Personal and professional newsletters with a recognizable author
- Issues built around one idea, observation, or story
- Writers who publish weekly or biweekly and need a reliable starting draft
- Converting a voice memo or rough notes into an issue
- Not for
- Curated link roundups. Those are mostly selection and one-line commentary. Use the Bounded Edit prompt on your own lines instead
- Promotional sends and product announcements. Use the Professional Document prompt
- Issues where you have nothing to say this week. The prompt will produce something, and your readers will notice
Newsletters are the format where voice drift hurts most. Nobody subscribes to a topic. They subscribe to a person noticing things. When AI assistance flattens the noticing into tidy sections, open rates slide and nobody can say why.
This prompt is built to protect the noticing. It asks for the one observation the issue exists to deliver, in your words, before any structure. It treats your past issues as the voice standard. It bans the moves that make a newsletter feel like a content calendar fulfilled: the 'this week' recap, the three-tips block, the sign-off that asks for a reply.
It also handles the parts that benefit from help: a subject line that is specific without being a trick, a tight opening, and a clean read-through for length.
Variables
What to put in each bracket. Required ones are marked. Thin answers here are the usual cause of generic output.
[NEWSLETTER NAME AND PROMISE]RequiredWhat the newsletter is called and what subscribers were promised when they signed up.
ExampleLedger Lines: a weekly note from a bookkeeper about money habits in small businesses
[THE OBSERVATION]RequiredThe one thing this issue exists to say, in your own rough words. If you cannot write this line, the issue is not ready.
ExampleEvery client who pays me late also pays their suppliers late, and they all describe themselves as 'bad with money' as if it were weather
[RAW MATERIAL]RequiredThe story, the numbers, the thing that happened, the half-formed thoughts. Voice memo transcripts work well here.
ExampleTranscript of a 4-minute voice memo recorded after a client call; the three clients it applies to (anonymized); the line one of them said
[TWO PAST ISSUES]RequiredTwo past issues you were happy with, pasted in full. These are the voice standard.
ExampleIssue 41 about the client who paid in cash, and issue 47 about quarterly dread
[READER]RequiredWho is on the list and what they are doing when they open it.
ExampleOwners of businesses under ten people, reading on a phone between tasks, mostly not accountants
[LENGTH]A target and ceiling in words.
Example400 to 600 words
[RECURRING ELEMENTS]Any fixed sections or sign-offs the newsletter always has. Leave empty if none.
ExampleA one-line 'This week's number' at the end, nothing else
[BANNED LIST]Words and moves you do not want, beyond the defaults.
Example'Hope this finds you well', 'Let me know what you think', any sentence beginning with 'As a bookkeeper'
Why it is built this way
Each block does one job. Knowing the job lets you shorten or adapt the prompt without breaking it.
The observation, in your words, before any structure
This is the issue. Making you write it as a variable is a readiness test: if the line is vague, the draft will be vague, and no amount of iteration fixes an issue with nothing at its center.
Two past issues as the voice standard
More reliable than a described voice, because the model can match concrete rhythm. The 'not material to reuse' rule prevents the common failure of past phrases being recycled.
Banned newsletter moves
Each item is a specific pattern readers recognize as 'the newsletter was produced this week'. Banning them by name is far more effective than asking for 'authenticity'.
Open in the middle, observation after the story, end on the image
The shape of a good short issue, stated as rules rather than left to the model's default of intro, body, conclusion.
Subject line rules
Subject lines are where AI assistance is genuinely useful and where it most often produces manipulation. Specific, no tricks, one flat version keeps it honest and gives you a real choice.
The 'does the material earn it' line
A quick editorial read before drafting. If the assistant says the observation is asserted rather than shown, you know to add the story before asking for a draft.
Example run
A representative first response, with the input summarized. Your results will differ by model and material.
Filled for the Ledger Lines example: the late-payers observation, a voice memo transcript about three anonymized clients, two past issues, a phone-reading audience of small business owners, 400 to 600 words, and a 'This week's number' recurring line.
Restated: late payment is not a cash problem but a habit that runs in both directions, and the people who have it talk about it as something that happens to them rather than something they do. The material earns it partly. The memo has the pattern across three clients and the "bad with money" line, which carries the point. It does not have a moment where you saw the supplier side; the observation that they also pay suppliers late is asserted in the memo, not shown. One sentence of how you know would make it land. 1. How do you know they pay suppliers late? If it is from doing their books, say so; that is the strongest version. 2. Do you want this issue to offer any way out, or to stop at the noticing? The past issues do both, roughly half each.
The second question is the real editorial decision in this issue, and it is one only the writer can make. She chose to stop at the noticing. The 'how do you know' question produced a single sentence that became the issue's best line.
Follow-up prompts
The second turn is where vibe writing happens. These are the short messages that keep the session moving.
To get the draft
Answers: [YOUR ANSWERS]. Draft.
When the opening is a warm-up
Options for the opening. Start inside the moment. Three versions, labeled by tradeoff.
When the issue has grown a lesson paragraph
Cut everything after the sentence '[LAST GOOD SENTENCE]'. Return only the final two paragraphs so I can check the ending.
When it is too long
Cut to [NUMBER] words by removing whole sentences, not by compressing them. List each sentence you removed so I can rescue any. Do not rephrase what remains.
When you want to check voice against your standard
Compare the draft to the past issues on sentence length, paragraph length, and how directly opinions are stated. Report any place the draft is smoother or more hedged than the standard. Do not rewrite.
When it goes wrong
Symptoms you will actually see, the usual cause, and the correction that works.
The draft is a tidy essay with an introduction, a point, and a lesson.
- Cause
- The structure rules lost to the model's default shape, usually because the raw material was already organized.
- Fix
- Give it the messy version. Paste the voice memo transcript rather than your cleaned notes, and say 'Open in the middle of this.'
Phrases from your past issues reappear.
- Cause
- The voice standard got treated as a phrase bank.
- Fix
- Add to the banned list: 'any phrase of four or more words that appears in the past issues'. Ask for a check: 'List any phrase shared with the past issues.'
Subject lines are clever and vague.
- Cause
- The model's idea of a good subject line is a hook, not a promise.
- Fix
- Pick the flat one. Then ask: 'Two more subject lines that state what the issue says, no cleverness.' Flat and specific usually outperforms over time, and it never costs trust.
The anonymized client gained a name, a trade, and a city.
- Cause
- The model added detail for vividness.
- Fix
- Strip it, and say: 'Clients are described only as in my notes. Do not add identifying detail.' Review every issue for this before sending. It is a trust and privacy problem, not just a style one.
Before you publish
The prompt cannot do these. You can.
- Read it on your phone, the way subscribers will. If the observation is not visible by the second screen, move it up or cut before it.
- Check every person mentioned is described no more specifically than in your notes.
- Compare one paragraph to one from a past issue. If the new one is smoother, roughen it by hand. That roughness is what people subscribed to.
- Resolve every [VERIFY] or cut the claim. Newsletters are forwarded, and wrong numbers travel.
- Send the subject line you would be comfortable with if a subscriber read only that. Then read the preview text with it. They should form one thought.
Questions
Should I tell subscribers I use AI to draft?
That depends on your relationship with them and what the AI does. If it drafts from your observation and your material, and you rewrite by hand, many writers mention it once in an about page. If an issue is substantially machine-written, say so in that issue. The ethics lesson on this site works through the decision.
Can I use this from a voice memo?
It is one of the best uses. Transcribe the memo, paste it as raw material without cleaning it, and write the observation line yourself. The transcript's rhythm often survives into the draft better than typed notes do.
What if my newsletter has several sections every issue?
List them under recurring elements and treat each as a small issue with its own observation. Or run the prompt only for the lead section, which is where voice matters most, and write the short sections by hand.
Why only two past issues and not my whole archive?
Two good ones are enough to set rhythm and register, and they keep the prompt short enough that the model attends to the rules at the end. If you have a Voice Capture profile, paste it too, and the two issues become calibration rather than the whole standard.