Editing Research/Fiction Writing/AI Prose Prompts (section)

== Drafting directive: fiction ==

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Draft the scene in [POV/person/tense]. Stay locked to [character]’s perception and knowledge.

Voice constraints:
- Use concrete nouns and active verbs.
- Ground emotion in action, sensory detail, gesture, silence, and subtext.
- Use metaphors from the character’s lived experience: [list domains].
- Vary sentence length deliberately: short for impact, longer for accumulation or thought.
- Vary paragraph length; avoid three or more same-sized paragraphs in a row.
- Dialogue should sound spoken, not essayistic. Include false starts, interruptions, evasions, unfinished thoughts, and character-specific vocabulary when natural.
- Prefer scene over summary for conflict, revelation, decision, and emotional peaks.
- Trust the reader. If the scene shows something, do not explain it afterward.

Avoid:
- Generic fantasy/fiction clichés.
- “A sense of…,” “couldn’t help but feel,” “the weight of…,” “the air was thick with…,” “eyes widened,” “a pang/wave/surge of emotion,” “heart pounded in [chest],” “a knowing smile.”
- Repeated triads: “X. Y. Z.” or “X and Y and Z.”
- Repeated “He/She did not…” constructions.
- “He/She thought about X” catalogues.
- Balanced-antithesis dialogue: “I’m not saying X. I’m saying Y.”
- Section breaks used to avoid transitions.
- Endings that summarize the scene’s meaning.

Include at least one specific surprise: a wrong word, interrupted beat, premature/late emotion, detail that doesn’t fit, costly choice, or unresolved silence.
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