anti-prose-slop

MIT License

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{
  "name": "anti-prose-slop",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "Proseify book-writing skill for AI coding agents",
  "included": [
    "SKILL.md"
  ],
  "designAuthority": "proseify",
  "evidenceMode": "concrete-need-only"
}

---
name: anti-prose-slop
description: Stop AI agents from shipping generic AI prose when writing books with Proseify.
license: MIT
metadata:
  version: "1.0.0"
  author: "Proseify <[email protected]>"
  compatibility: "Works with any AI agent that can call the Proseify MCP server (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode, Hermes)."
  tags: "book-writing, mcp, longform, fiction, prose-quality, editing"
---

> **Stop AI writing agents from shipping generic prose.**

# Stop Making Prose Slop

Write distinctive, publishable longform with the Proseify MCP — a curated
public-domain corpus plus a guided drafting pipeline.

**Prerequisite:** connect the Proseify MCP first. No key, no tools.

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "proseify": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.proseify.xyz/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_KEY" }
    }
  }
}
```

Get a key at https://proseify.xyz (sign in → pick a plan → paste your config).

## The one rule

**Genre before prose.** Every generation decision after the first sentence
depends on picking the right tradition. A gothic ghost story and a Regency
romance want different sentence lengths, different climates, different endings.
Call `get_genre_recipe` before writing; don't use `plan_book` to skip it.

## The workflow

1. **Identify the genre.** Don't guess. Cross-check against `list_genres` and
   `get_genre_recipe(genre)` before writing. Mislabeled genre = mis-voiced book.
2. **Read the recipe.** It returns pacing beats, dialogue ratio, and
   stylistic anchors from the tradition. Read them all before planning.
3. **Search the corpus.** Use `search_corpus` for 3–5 model passages that
   match the register you want. Quote a line to yourself; match its rhythm.
4. **Plan before drafting.** `plan_book` produces the architecture. Use it —
   don't freestyle 40 chapters without a map.
5. **Draft chapter by chapter** with `write_chapter` (or `write_book` for
   one-shot). Match the recipe, not your defaults.
6. **Self-edit between drafts.** Anti-slop pass, every time:
   - Cut "seemed to", "began to", "settled into".
   - Kill adverb-stacking ("quietly, almost reverently…").
   - Delete sentences that only restate the previous one.
   - Check chapter openings — vary them. Never six chapters in a row that open
     with weather.
   - Read the last page out loud; if it sounds like a summary, rewrite it.
7. **Verify with `evaluate_book`.** If the score is below your own bar,
   don't ship it — revise the weakest chapters and re-evaluate.

## Anti-slop checklist (per chapter)

- [ ] Voice matches the recipe, not "ChatGPT normal".
- [ ] Dialogue keeps its register (era, class, region).
- [ ] Scene boundaries do work — each has a job, not just a location change.
- [ ] No repeated sentence-opening constructions within three paragraphs.
- [ ] Concrete nouns beat abstractions. "The bell rang" beats "A sound occurred."

## Traps the corpus protects against

- **The thesaurus trap.** Don't swap synonyms for variety; swap for precision.
- **The cliffhanger trap.** One per book, not one per chapter.
- **The filter-words trap.** "She felt / saw / heard / noticed" — cut them.
- **The dialogue-as-exposition trap.** Nobody explains the plot over tea.

## Pitfalls

- `plan_book` result is large (~10k tokens). Don't call it repeatedly for the
  same book; call once, hold the outline in context, work chapter by chapter.
- The 30-chapter default is a floor, not a ceiling — most books want 30–40.
- `search_corpus` supports FTS5 syntax (quotes, AND/OR/NOT, `*` wildcards)
  but long operators chains are clamped to 10 terms.

## Licensing

Books sourced from Project Gutenberg and similar public-domain corpora; safe
commercial use. See the corpus page on https://proseify.xyz for per-book details.