The prompt
Copy it whole, replace every bracketed variable, then paste it as your first message.
Write one first draft. I direct, you propose, I judge. What you write is a proposal, not a finished piece. ## 1. The piece - Reader: [WHO WILL READ IT] - Length: [LENGTH] ## 2. The approved outline Follow it. Do not reorder, merge, add, or drop sections. [APPROVED OUTLINE] ## 3. Raw material (the only source of facts) [RAW MATERIAL] ## 4. My own text that must appear exactly as written [KEPT TEXT] ## 5. How I write [VOICE NOTES] Never use, even once: [BANNED LIST] ## 6. Rules for the draft - Use only the facts, numbers, names, quotes, and examples in the raw material. Where the outline needs something the material does not contain, write [VERIFY: what is needed] inside the sentence and keep going. Do not invent an example, a figure, a study, a person, or a source to fill the gap. - Add nothing the material does not support: no background the reader "probably needs", no illustrative anecdote, no "research shows". - Match my sentence lengths and rhythm, including the rough edges. Do not smooth my voice into a uniform register. - Keep my stance. Do not hedge what I stated plainly, and do not firm up what I said carefully. - No summary paragraph, no motivational close, no call to action unless the outline has one. - Do not use three-item lists by reflex. Use the number of items that is true. - Quotes marked verbatim stay verbatim. Anything you reword, label as paraphrase. ## 7. Output Give me exactly one draft, and nothing before it: no preamble, no title options, no note about what you did. After the draft, add one short section headed "What I was unsure about": up to six lines, each naming a place where you guessed at my meaning, chose between two readings of the notes, or stretched thin material. This list is the only thing permitted after the draft. Never say you verified or checked anything. You have not. Then stop and wait.
- Best for
- Any nonfiction piece with an approved outline and real notes behind it: a post, a newsletter issue, a report section, an essay
- Writers who find the blank page slower than the red pen and want something concrete to judge
- Pieces where the facts matter and a smooth invention cannot be allowed to slip through
- A second attempt at a draft that came back generic, now with proper voice notes and material
- Not for
- Drafting without an outline. Without sections to hold it, the assistant picks its own structure, which is a decision you have not made
- Pieces with no raw material. Every sentence would be either a [VERIFY] marker or an invention
- Fiction. Scenes are drafted differently, and the Short Story mega prompt covers that
The first draft is where most people hand the whole piece over. They paste the outline, say 'write it', and get back something complete, confident, and partly invented. The invented parts are the easy ones to miss, because they are the smooth ones.
This prompt holds the draft to the material. The outline is fixed. The raw material is the only source of facts. Where the outline needs something the notes do not contain, the draft says [VERIFY: what is needed] inside the sentence and moves on, rather than inventing a plausible example or a study that 'shows'. The result is rougher than you may be used to, and much more honest.
It asks for one draft, not three, with nothing before it. The single exception to the no-afterword rule is a short list headed 'What I was unsure about', where the assistant names the places it guessed at your meaning or stretched thin material. That list is the start of your first edit, and it is usually worth more than the draft's best paragraph.
Variables
What to put in each bracket. Required ones are marked. Thin answers here are the usual cause of generic output.
[WHO WILL READ IT]RequiredThe reader, including what they already believe and how they will take being told otherwise.
ExampleLandscape architects and contractors at small firms who have specified this grass themselves and do not want to hear they were wrong
[LENGTH]A target and a hard ceiling.
ExampleAbout 1,000 words, never more than 1,200
[APPROVED OUTLINE]RequiredThe outline you locked in the previous stage: a point sentence and evidence lines per section. Paste it whole.
ExampleFive sections, each with a point sentence and its evidence lines, locked in the outline stage
[RAW MATERIAL]RequiredEverything the draft may draw on. Notes, numbers, quotes with attribution, documents. The assistant can only use what is here.
ExampleNotes from three projects where the grass failed; the replacement invoice on one job ($18,400); the client's email agreeing to be quoted anonymously; soil test results from two sites; my own line: 'I specified it because everyone did'
[KEPT TEXT]Any sentences of yours that must appear verbatim: an opening line, a key paragraph, a phrase you will not give up. They anchor the voice.
ExampleMy opening sentence, exactly: 'I have specified the same grass on eleven projects, and on three of them I had to pay to tear it out.'
[VOICE NOTES]RequiredHow you write, as behaviors rather than adjectives. A Voice Sheet, or three samples with a line about what they share.
ExampleShort sentences, first person, I name costs in dollars, I admit mistakes early and plainly, I never use rhetorical questions, I end paragraphs on the concrete thing rather than the lesson
[BANNED LIST]Words, phrases, and moves you do not want. The assistant will obey this literally.
Example'journey', 'lessons learned', 'at the end of the day', any paragraph opening with 'As landscape architects', any sentence beginning 'Imagine'
Why it is built this way
Each block does one job. Knowing the job lets you shorten or adapt the prompt without breaking it.
'A proposal, not a finished piece' in the first line
Sets the frame for both of you. The draft is an AI proposal you will judge, and an assistant told that is less inclined to add the finishing flourishes that make a draft feel done and sound like nobody.
Block 2: the locked outline
Carries your accepted decisions into the draft. The outline is the ledger of what you decided in the previous stage, and 'do not reorder, merge, add, or drop' keeps the draft from reopening it silently.
Block 3 and the [VERIFY] rule
The single biggest lever against invention. The marker gives the assistant a permitted way to leave a hole, which is the only thing that stops it filling the hole with something plausible.
Block 4: kept text
Your own sentences, verbatim, act as a tuning fork for the rest of the draft and guarantee that at least one part of it is unarguably yours. An opening line of your own changes the register of everything after it.
Block 6: voice and stance rules
Each rule counters a default: smoothing, hedging, tidy endings, reflexive triplets. 'Including the rough edges' is the line that matters most: polish is the assistant's natural direction and your voice is in the unpolished parts.
Block 7: one draft and the unsure list
One draft means one judgment, with your direction as the comparison rather than two other drafts. The unsure list is a confession the assistant would never volunteer unasked, and it points straight at the decisions that are yours to make.
Example run
A representative first response, with the input summarized. Your results will differ by model and material.
Filled for the landscape architect in the variable examples: a reader who has specified the same grass, a five-section outline, notes from three failed projects with the $18,400 invoice and an approved anonymous client quote, her own opening sentence as kept text, and voice notes that favor short sentences and dollar figures.
I have specified the same grass on eleven projects, and on three of them I had to pay to tear it out. The first time, I blamed the contractor. The second time, I blamed the client's irrigation schedule. The third time was a 2,400 square foot courtyard at a medical office, and the invoice to replace it came to $18,400, and I stopped blaming anyone. I specified it because everyone did. That is not a reason. It is a habit with a product code. All three failures had the same shape. The grass came in fine, looked right for one season, and thinned from the center of the largest areas outward in the second summer. [VERIFY: whether the soil tests from the two sites show something in common; the notes say both were "heavy" but give no clay percentage.] The eight projects where it held are all smaller areas, under about 600 square feet, with more edge than center. [VERIFY: the 600 square foot figure is an estimate from memory, not from the project files.] The client at the medical office put it better than I can. "We paid for a lawn and got a rug that wore through." (verbatim, approved for anonymous use) (The draft continues through sections 3 to 5.) What I was unsure about - Section 3 asks for "what I now specify instead". The raw material names two alternatives but does not say which you use where, so I wrote "one of two", which may be weaker than what you mean. - "Eleven projects" comes from your kept opening sentence. The raw material details three failures and says "the rest held". I did not use the number anywhere else. - Your voice notes say you end paragraphs on the concrete thing. In section 4 the concrete thing was a cost I did not have, so that paragraph ends on a [VERIFY]. - The client quote is listed under section 4's evidence. Section 2 wanted it more. I left it in section 4 as the outline says; if you want it earlier, say so.
The draft is rougher than a generic one, and that is the point: two [VERIFY] markers in the first three paragraphs, one of them on a number the writer thought she knew. The unsure list did three jobs. It exposed a vague section in the outline, it caught a figure that existed only in the opening sentence, and it asked permission rather than moving a quote. She resolved the clay percentage from the soil reports, replaced 'about 600 square feet' with the real figures from four project files, and moved the quote herself.
Follow-up prompts
The second turn is where vibe writing happens. These are the short messages that keep the session moving.
When the draft is close but one section is wrong
Keep sections 1, 2, and 5 as they are. Change only section 3: [WHAT IS WRONG, ONE SENTENCE]. Show OLD and NEW for the sentences you touch, then wait.
When an unsure item needs an answer
Unsure item 1: I use the fescue blend on anything over 600 square feet and the other on small areas. Redraft only the two sentences in section 3 that depend on this. OLD and NEW.
When a paragraph sounds like nobody
Mine: [PASTE YOUR OWN VERSION OF THE PARAGRAPH]. Replace your section 4 paragraph with this as written. Fix only tense and agreement, and list what you fixed.
When you want to see one moment differently
Options for the first sentence of paragraph two only. Three clearly different versions, each labeled by its tradeoff in six words or fewer. Touch nothing else.
When you are done drafting
I will resolve the [VERIFY] markers myself. Do not resolve or remove them. Next I will paste the draft for critique in a new session.
When it goes wrong
Symptoms you will actually see, the usual cause, and the correction that works.
A preamble ('Here is a first draft that...') or an afterword beyond the unsure list.
- Cause
- Habit. Assistants frame their output unless told not to, and sometimes even then.
- Fix
- Reply: 'Section 7. One draft, then the unsure list, nothing else.' It usually sticks after one correction.
An anecdote, figure, or 'studies show' appears that is not in your material.
- Cause
- The outline promised evidence the notes lacked, and the assistant filled the gap instead of marking it.
- Fix
- Reply: 'List every number, example, and quote in the draft with the raw material line it came from. Replace anything untraceable with [VERIFY].'
The draft is competent and sounds like nobody.
- Cause
- The voice notes were adjectives ('conversational', 'clear') rather than behaviors.
- Fix
- Paste three paragraphs you wrote: 'Mine. In five lines, what do these do that the draft does not? Then redraft only section 2 applying those five lines.' Better still, fill in the Voice Sheet first.
A thin section has ballooned with generic filler.
- Cause
- A length target plus thin material. The assistant met the target with the only thing it had, which was nothing in particular.
- Fix
- Reply: 'Section 4 has eighty words of material and two hundred of draft. Cut it to the material and a [VERIFY].' Then decide whether the section belongs.
The unsure list is empty or says 'I felt confident throughout'.
- Cause
- Self-report is weak, and some assistants read the request as optional.
- Fix
- Reply: 'Name the three places where the raw material was thinnest and what you did there.' Those are your unsure items, whether or not the assistant felt unsure.
Before you publish
The prompt cannot do these. You can.
- Trace every number, name, and quote to your raw material before you edit a word. Invention is easier to spot in a draft you have not yet grown fond of.
- Resolve the [VERIFY] markers yourself, from sources you open. Do not ask the assistant to resolve them. It will resolve them with guesses.
- Read the unsure list before the draft on your second pass. Each line points at a decision that is yours.
- Compare the draft to the outline section by section. A silently added paragraph or a dropped qualification is the most common drift.
- Read it aloud. Where it stops sounding like you is where your voice notes were thin. Rewrite that paragraph by hand.
- Check stance: nothing you said carefully got strengthened, nothing you said plainly got hedged.
Questions
Why only one draft?
Three drafts triple the reading and dilute the judgment, because you end up comparing them to each other instead of to your direction. One draft, judged against the outline and your notes, tells you more. When you want alternatives for a single sentence or opening, ask for options for that moment only.
Why not let the assistant fill the gaps? It is good at it.
Because a filled gap looks identical to real material. A [VERIFY] marker is a hole you can see. A plausible invented example is a hole you will publish. The assistant is good at filling gaps in exactly the way that makes them dangerous.
The draft came back short. Is that a failure?
Usually it means your material was thinner than the outline promised, which is information. Gather more material or cut the section. Do not ask the assistant to 'expand'. Expansion with nothing to expand from is filler.
Can I draft without voice notes?
You can, and you will get the default register, which belongs to everyone and no one. If you have nothing prepared, paste three paragraphs you have written and say 'this is how I write'. The Voice Capture mega prompt builds proper notes in about fifteen minutes.
Should I run the mega prompt first?
If the session will be long, yes: the mega prompt sets the rules once, and this prompt becomes a short instruction inside it. This prompt repeats the essential rules so it also works on its own for a single draft.