Imported from human-avatar/skills-for-humanity (skills/s4h-writing/SKILL.md). Install upstream with npx skills add human-avatar/skills-for-humanity --skill s4h-writing. Copyright stays with the author.

Writing

Every writing problem has a name. Name it precisely, and the fix becomes obvious. The most common mistake is treating a structural problem as a prose problem, or a character problem as a plot problem — applying the wrong tool while the real issue goes unaddressed.

This routing skill reads your situation, identifies the problem type, and connects you to the right technique immediately.

Your Process

Step 1: Read the Situation

If the user hasn't described their writing challenge yet, ask:

What's the writing problem? Paste the relevant passage, describe the situation, or tell me what isn't working.

Wait for their response before diagnosing.

Step 2: Diagnose the Problem Type

Framing check: Confirm the specific writing challenge before continuing. State what you've identified — the content being worked on and its core problem type — in one sentence, then use AskUserQuestion:

• Question: "I'm reading this as: [your one-sentence framing of the specific writing challenge, content type, and what isn't working]. Is that right?"
• Header: "Framing"
• Options:
  • Yes — proceed — framing is correct
  • Adjust — one element is off; user will correct it before you continue
  • Reframe — different situation than read; incorporate the correction before proceeding

Read the situation and classify it against these problem clusters:

Fiction craft — The core problem is in the storytelling machinery: character psychology, plot architecture, scene structure, dialogue texture, world credibility, narrative arc, or point-of-view integrity. → Route to: /s4h-writing-character-development, /s4h-writing-plot-structure, /s4h-writing-scene-construction, /s4h-writing-dialogue, /s4h-writing-worldbuilding, /s4h-writing-arc-design, /s4h-writing-pov

Continuity and consistency — Something in the story contradicts itself: timeline errors, character knowledge violations, world-rule inconsistencies, physical continuity breaks. → Route to: /s4h-writing-inconsistency-audit

Editing and revision — The material exists but needs structural reordering, tonal coherence, sentence-level cleaning, prose quality elevation, or voice stabilisation. → Route to: /s4h-writing-restructure, /s4h-writing-tone-alignment, /s4h-writing-line-editing, /s4h-writing-prose-elevation, /s4h-writing-voice-consistency

Professional and non-fiction — A real-world document needs to be written or improved: a business report, marketing copy, technical documentation, analytical argument, or executive brief. → Route to: /s4h-writing-report, /s4h-writing-copy, /s4h-writing-technical, /s4h-writing-argument, /s4h-writing-executive-summary

Rhetoric and audience — The writing needs to be calibrated for a specific reader, or the rhetorical moves in a piece need to be surfaced and examined. → Route to: /s4h-writing-audience-calibration, /s4h-writing-rhetoric

Step 3: Identify 3–4 Best-Fit Skills

Before narrowing: Show the complete set of candidate skills for the diagnosed cluster to the user first. Use AskUserQuestion:

• Question: "I've identified [N] skills in the [cluster name] cluster. Before I select the best fits, are there any you'd flag as especially relevant, or any angle I've missed?"
• Header: "Prioritise"
• Options:
  • Proceed with your selection — the set looks right
  • Flag one — user will name a specific skill to include
  • Add a missing angle — user will describe it

Within the most relevant cluster, identify the 2–4 skills that best match the specific problem. Use the routing guide below.

Prioritize skills that match the type of output the user needs:

• They need a diagnosis → audit skills (/s4h-writing-inconsistency-audit, /s4h-writing-pov, /s4h-writing-scene-construction)
• They need a rebuild → design skills (/s4h-writing-plot-structure, /s4h-writing-arc-design, /s4h-writing-character-development)
• They need a revision → editing skills (/s4h-writing-restructure, /s4h-writing-line-editing, /s4h-writing-tone-alignment)
• They need a produced piece → production skills (/s4h-writing-report, /s4h-writing-executive-summary, /s4h-writing-copy)
• They need a rhetorical read → analysis skills (/s4h-writing-rhetoric, /s4h-writing-argument)

Step 4: Present Options

Use the AskUserQuestion tool to present your diagnosis. Construct options dynamically based on the 2–3 best-fit skills you identified:

• Question: "Here's what I think you need. Which fits your situation best?"
• Header: "Skill"
• Options: (build dynamically — 2–3 skill options plus a fallback)
  • Label: [skill command name], Description: [one sentence on why this fits and what it produces]
  • (repeat for each diagnosed skill, up to 3)
  • Label: "More options", Description: "Show all skills in the Writing category"

Proceed based on their selection.

Step 5: Execute

When the user picks an option:

• A selected skill: Run it immediately. Do not ask them to type another command. Use the context already gathered as the input.
• More options: Show the full skill table for the Writing category. Let them pick from the complete list, then execute.

Routing Guide

Notes

• Don't confuse problem types. A flat character is almost never a prose problem — it's a character-design problem. Line-editing flat prose won't fix it. Diagnose the layer first.
• Structure before style. If the piece has structural problems, fix those before applying prose elevation or line editing. Rewriting sentences in the wrong order is wasted work.
• The context gathered in Step 1 is the input. When the user selects a skill, run it on that context — they shouldn't have to re-explain the situation.
• If the situation spans multiple problem types (e.g., a scene that has both dialogue problems and structural problems), present both skills and let them choose the highest-leverage starting point.