Writer Skills

Writer Skills is a collection of Codex skill packages, reference files, and reusable templates for planning, researching, drafting, editing, and reviewing book projects.

The project is designed for writers, editors, and publishing workflows that need concrete deliverables instead of generic writing advice. Skills are expected to end with named outputs such as diagnoses, research plans, chapter cards, revision checklists, risk registers, continuity ledgers, and next-action plans.

Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/wnsdy95/writer-skills.git
cd writer-skills

Copy the skill packages you want from skills/ into a Codex skills directory, or use this repository as a source collection for your own writing workflow.

For complex fiction projects, copy story-bible-template/ into your project as story-bible/ and use it as the source of truth for canon, characters, timelines, scenes, relationships, setup/payoff, continuity issues, and revision needs.

Example prompts:

Use $book-project-architect to diagnose this book idea and route the next workflow.
Use $fiction-story-bible-manager to create a story bible from these notes.
Use $high-stakes-book-review to review this chapter for evidence and reader-harm risk.

Skills

• book-project-architect: classifies a book idea and routes it into the right workflow.
• book-research-designer: designs research, source-quality, and fact-checking plans.
• book-structure-designer: turns ideas and research into concepts, tables of contents, and chapter cards.
• book-drafting-editor: plans drafting loops, revision passes, and manuscript quality checks.
• fiction-book-writing: designs fiction through plot, character arcs, scenes, POV, pacing, and payoff.
• fiction-story-bible-manager: maintains canon, timelines, scenes, relationships, setup/payoff, continuity, and revision queues.
• narrative-nonfiction-writing: structures real-event storytelling with evidence-aware narrative design.
• practical-nonfiction-writing: builds reader transformation frameworks, exercises, and checklists.
• scholarly-technical-writing: plans scholarly, technical, professional, and research-based books.
• visual-hybrid-book-writing: designs books where text, image, spread, caption, panel, recipe, or visual sequence is structural.
• high-stakes-book-review: reviews manuscripts for evidence, ethics, privacy, legal exposure, and reader harm.

Repository Layout

skills/                 Codex skill packages
research/               Writing, publishing, research, and risk reference material
story-bible-template/   Reusable fiction continuity template
docs/                   Skill contracts, story bible schema, verification report
scripts/                Local verification scripts

Requirements

• A Codex environment with custom skill support
• uv for running the verification script
• The Codex skill-creator validator, only if you want to validate package structure locally

Core Principles

• Diagnose every book project by domain, book type, reader, current stage, evidence burden, and risk level.
• Use both market/genre classification and workflow classification.
• End responses with named deliverables, not loose advice.
• Route high-risk topics through high-stakes-book-review or apply its review criteria directly.
• For complex fiction, rely on explicit story bible files rather than chat history alone.
• Keep long explanations and domain knowledge in references/ or research/; keep SKILL.md focused on operating rules and output contracts.

Skill Package Rules

Each skill package should follow this structure:

skills/<skill-name>/
  SKILL.md
  agents/openai.yaml
  references/

Rules:

• SKILL.md frontmatter should contain only name and description.
• name must match the directory name.
• description must clearly state when the skill should be used.
• agents/openai.yaml must mention the matching $skill-name in its default prompt.
• Every references/... path mentioned in SKILL.md must exist.
• fiction-story-bible-manager must include assets/story-bible-template/.

Story Bible Rules

story-bible-template/ is a reusable continuity system for long-form fiction projects.

• Every entity should have a stable ID.
• Confirmed canon and speculative ideas should not be mixed.
• Allowed status values are canon, proposed, uncertain, retconned, and cut.
• Chronological event order and manuscript reveal order should be tracked separately.
• Setups should connect to payoffs through setup_id and payoff_id.
• Any story bible update that requires manuscript changes should be recorded in revision-queue.md.

For field-level details, see docs/story-bible-schema.md.

Documentation

• Skill contracts: trigger rules, required references, and required outputs for every skill.
• Story bible schema: field-level schema for the reusable fiction continuity template.
• Verification report: implementation coverage and validation notes.
• Contributing: contribution rules and review expectations.
• Security: private reporting and safety scope.

Verify

Run:

scripts/verify-writer-collections.sh

The verifier requires the Codex skill-creator validator. If it is not in a default local location, set:

export SKILL_CREATOR_VALIDATOR=/path/to/skill-creator/scripts/quick_validate.py
scripts/verify-writer-collections.sh

Limitations

• This is a skill and reference collection, not a full writing application.
• It does not automatically install skills into every Codex environment.
• It does not replace professional legal, medical, financial, editorial, or subject-matter review.
• It does not manage citations, bibliographies, manuscripts, or project state through an external database.
• It does not guarantee factual accuracy; high-risk claims still require source checking and expert review.
• It does not remember long-form fiction canon unless the project uses explicit story bible files.
• It does not yet include exhaustive genre-specific skills for every market category or publishing format.

Future Direction

• Add clearer installation guidance for different Codex skill locations and workflows.
• Add more example prompts and before/after output samples for each skill.
• Expand genre-specific references for fiction, nonfiction, technical books, visual books, and children's books.
• Add optional templates for research logs, interview plans, source matrices, and manuscript revision trackers.
• Improve validation so package structure, links, references, and story bible templates can be checked in CI.
• Add regression-style prompt tests that verify each skill routes to the expected deliverables.
• Explore packaging or release automation for easier installation and versioning.

Out of Scope

• Replacing the author, editor, researcher, or expert reviewer
• Building a web app, external database, or automated citation manager
• Generating a complete manuscript without author direction and review
• Treating chat history as a reliable memory system for complex long-form projects

Safety

This repository includes guidance for high-risk nonfiction review, but it does not replace professional legal, medical, financial, or subject-matter review.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.