# Style guide -- Voice DNA *This file is loaded into every drafter agent invocation. It is the single most important file in the project -- the difference between prose that sounds like the writer and prose that sounds like generic AI.* ## Part 1 -- Narrative architecture ### Narrative perspective - **POV:** Close third person - **POV consistency:** Single POV (Elias throughout) - **Narrator reliability:** Reliable -- the narrator sees what Elias sees, no more - **Narrator distance:** Intimate -- inside his head, feeling what he feels, but not explaining it ### Tense - **Primary tense:** Past tense - **Tense shifts:** None. Stay in simple past. No flashback tense changes -- memories are rendered as present-tense sensation within past-tense narration. ### Narrative stance - **Knowing vs. discovering:** Discovering alongside the reader. The narrator does not foreshadow or editorialize. Each moment arrives as it arrives. - **Emotional distance:** Warm but restrained. The narrator is sympathetic to Elias without sentimentalizing him. Compassion without pity. - **Judgment:** Compassionate. The narrator does not judge Elias's decades of avoidance. The prose holds space for his reasons without endorsing them. ## Part 2 -- Sentence and paragraph architecture ### Sentence architecture - **Average sentence length:** 14 words - **Sentence variation:** High variation -- short declarative sentences (4--8 words) alternate with longer, embedded-clause constructions (20--30 words). Fragments are allowed for emphasis and rhythm. - **Complex structures:** Embedded clauses and fragments. Parallel structures for emotional emphasis. No run-ons. - **Sentence music:** Lyrical -- the prose has a tidal rhythm, swelling and receding. Staccato for moments of shock or decision. Flowing for memory and description. ### Paragraph architecture - **Paragraph length:** Variable -- short paragraphs (1--2 sentences) for beats of tension or revelation. Longer paragraphs (4--6 sentences) for description and memory. Single-line paragraphs for emphasis. - **White space:** Generous. Let the page breathe. Silence between paragraphs is as important as the words. - **Paragraph breaks:** Break on beat shift -- when emotion changes direction, when attention moves to a new object, when time skips. Never break mid-thought for artificial suspense. ## Part 3 -- Vocabulary and figurative language ### Vocabulary - **Register:** Literary -- elevated but accessible. The prose should feel carefully made without feeling effortful. - **Complexity:** Accessible complexity -- no word is obscure for the sake of it, but precision matters. "Escapement" is used because it's the correct watchmaking term, not because it sounds impressive. - **Word origin:** Anglo-Saxon preference for emotional moments (hands, bone, salt, home). Latinate for reflection and abstraction (mechanism, solitude, precision). - **Jargon handling:** Watchmaking terms are used naturally, as Elias would think them. Context makes meaning clear. No parenthetical definitions. - **Profanity:** None. Elias is not a man who swears. Petra might, but not in this story. ### Figurative language - **Metaphor density:** Moderate -- one or two extended metaphors per scene, grounded in the story's object world (clocks, ocean, hands). - **Metaphor style:** Grounded and sensory. Metaphors come from the physical world of the story: gears, tides, salt, rust, glass. No abstract philosophy. - **Recurring image systems:** Clocks/gears/time (mechanism as emotion), tides/ocean (time as natural force), hands/touch (connection, craft, trembling as vulnerability). - **Similes:** Sparse. When used, they are precise and unexpected. Prefer metaphor and direct description. - **Symbolism:** Emergent -- the carriage clock, the letter, the pier. Symbols grow from the story's objects rather than being imposed. ## Part 4 -- Dialogue ### Dialogue voice - **Ratio:** ~25% overall, but unevenly distributed. Scenes 1--3 have almost no dialogue. Scene 5 has the most. - **Tag style:** Action beats preferred over tags. "He set the cup down" rather than "he said quietly." When tags are needed, use "said" only. - **Subtext level:** Moderately subtextual. Characters say less than they mean. Silence and gesture carry the weight. - **Dialect/accent:** None. Clean, unaccented English. Elias's speech is marked by brevity and precision, not by phonetic rendering. - **Interrupted speech:** Rare. When Elias trails off, use an em dash. He does not ramble. ### Character voice differentiation Each character should sound distinct. See CHARACTERS.md for individual voice anchors. ## Part 5 -- Description and sensory detail ### Description density - **Overall density:** Rich -- every scene is grounded in specific physical detail. The reader should smell the workshop, hear the gulls, feel the salt on their skin. - **Sense mix:** Multi-sensory. Every scene engages at least three senses. Sound is particularly important (clock ticking, waves, gulls, silence). - **Specificity:** Hyper-specific. Not "a clock" but "the carriage clock with the cracked ivory face." Not "the sea" but "the grey water past the breakwater." ### Physicality - **Body awareness:** High. Elias's hands are always present -- their steadiness, their trembling, what they hold. Physical sensation grounds every emotional beat. - **Place:** Strong. Each location is fully rendered. The kitchen, the workshop, the pier, the apartment -- each has its own sensory signature. - **Time of day/weather:** Present in every scene. Morning light, afternoon shadows, salt wind, fog. The coastal atmosphere is a constant thread. ## Part 6 -- Pacing, rhythm, and transitions ### Pacing - **Default pace:** Slow-burn. The prose takes its time. Let moments land. - **Pace variation:** Scenes 1--3 are slower, more contemplative. Scene 4 picks up as Elias works with purpose. Scene 5 is the most dynamic, with the longest stretches of dialogue. - **Scene-to-summary ratio:** 70:30. Most of the story is rendered in real time. Summary is used for transitions between days and for backstory. ### Transitions - **Between scenes:** Soft fades. Each scene ends with a resonant image. The next scene opens in a new time and place without explicit bridging. - **Between chapters:** N/A (short story, no chapters). - **Time jumps:** Signaled by setting change and time-of-day markers. "The next morning" or "By Thursday" -- simple, clean. ## Part 7 -- Reference influences ### Authors/works the writer wants to evoke - **Marilynne Robinson** (*Gilead*) -- the quiet authority, the way ordinary moments become luminous, the father-child longing - **Elizabeth Strout** (*Olive Kitteridge*) -- character revealed through small gestures, emotional restraint, the weight of what's unsaid - **Kazuo Ishiguro** (*The Remains of the Day*) -- regret as atmosphere, the dignity of understatement, the devastating precision of too-late realizations ### Passages loaded as reference No reference passages loaded. Voice is established from the style dimensions above. ## Part 9 -- Do and don't ### Always - Ground every emotion in a physical sensation. If Elias feels something, his body shows it first. - Use the workshop as metaphor for internal state. When the workshop is shut, Elias is shut. When it reopens, he is opening. - Let silence speak. The most important moments happen between words. - Give every clock its own character. The carriage clock is not the kitchen clock is not the grandfather clock. ### Never - Explain emotions directly. Never write "Elias felt sad" or "a wave of grief washed over him." - Use cliches about time healing. No "time heals all wounds," no "better late than never." - Rush the quiet moments. If a paragraph feels too slow, it's probably exactly right. - Use exclamation points. This is not that kind of story. ### Consider - The sound of clocks as emotional punctuation. A ticking clock in the background changes a scene's tension. - Salt air as a constant sensory thread. The coast is always present, even indoors. - Elias's hands as the reader's primary point of contact with his interior life. - The difference between a clock that ticks and a clock that doesn't. --- *This style guide is generated from the `/scr:profile-writer` questionnaire and refined by `/scr:voice-test`. It is updated whenever the writer says "this doesn't sound like me" or flags a specific voice issue. Every drafter agent loads this file -- it is the single most important artifact in the project.*