Writing with a writing brief

Writing happens in an ordinary document. The plan is written at the top of it and under each heading, and the AI writes the piece into the same file, section by section. You can edit any of it — the plan, the finished sections — while it works.

For a thesis or a book, see writing a thesis or a book: the same parts, organised as a folder with a file per chapter.

Before you start

Your material in the folder — papers, notes, transcripts, earlier drafts — and some idea of what you are writing and for whom.

Step 1: say what you are writing

Either way works:

• In the assistant, describe the piece: the topic, the reader, the rough length, and which material to draw on (@ files or a folder). For example: “Using @interviews, write a memo for the team leads on why our decisions take weeks.” Add “show me the outline first” if you want it to stop at the plan.
• In an empty document, type / and choose Writing brief. A brief appears under the title with the cursor on the Task line. Write the task, pick a genre from the brief’s header if you want one, and press Write it all.

A writing brief in an empty document, with the genre menu open.

The new document is saved next to the document you have open, or in the folder you have selected.

Step 2: read the plan

Before drafting, it reads your material — the files you named, or what in your folder fits the task — and, if the brief allows it, a few web or paper searches. Then the plan appears in the document.

Before the plan appears, it reads — here it is surveying and about to search the web, because the Sources line allows it.

The writing brief, under the title:

Line	What it is for
Task	What you asked for, in your words
Reader should agree	The one thing the piece should leave the reader agreeing with
Angle, Reader, Voice, Stance	Why it is written this way, for whom, in what tone, and in whose voice (the maker’s, an outside reviewer’s, or your own)
Materials	[[links]] to the files it should draw on — empty means your whole workspace
Sources	My files only, My files + web, My files + papers, or both
Your requirements	Anything else you want followed
Length	A rough budget for the whole piece

A plan card under each heading:

Line	What it is for
Point	What the reader accepts by the end of this section
How	How the section makes its point
Evidence	The file, and the first sentence of the passage the section rests on
Sources disagree, To check, Needs from you	Conflicts it found, public facts to look up, and facts only you can supply
Length	A budget for this section

Every line is plain text. Rewrite the claim, delete a line of evidence (the section will not use it), add a [[link]] (it must), delete a card (that section is not written), or move headings around.

tip

A short piece is planned and written straight through, so you may only see the plan once it is already turning into prose. That is fine — the plan stays in the file. If a section comes out wrong, change its card and restore it (step 5). Course papers, journal articles, theses and books stop at the plan so you can work on it first.

Step 3: let it write

Sections are written in order, each one reading everything above it. Introductions, abstracts and closing summaries are written last, from what the body actually says. The section being written shows what it is doing — finding material, the points it is about to make, any lookups — and then the prose appears in place of its card.

Every line of the brief is editable while it writes; the text below is being written in place.

While it writes:

• Only the section being written is locked. Edit the brief, a later card or anything already written, and the next section reads your version.
• Switching to another tab or closing this one does not stop it.
• Stop (on the brief) keeps whatever is written. A half-written section keeps its text with the card below it, and continuing writes on from there.

Step 4: answer what it asks

Two kinds of gap stay visible in the draft:

• Needs your material — a card where a fact only you have (your results, a figure, what happened on the project) was not in your material. It asks a question and shows an example of a good answer. Write your answer after Your answer (or @ a file), then press Write it in. Or choose I don’t have it — write around it (no invented specifics), or I’ll write it to remove the card and write there yourself.
• [To verify: …] — a public fact it could not find. Nothing is filled in. When the piece is done, the brief’s menu offers Verify online; anything it finds is offered as a tracked change.

Both are kept when you export, so a gap never disappears without you seeing it.

A material card: the question, an example of a good answer, and four ways out.

Step 5: the read-through

When the last section is written, it reads the whole piece once — for things the introduction promised and the body did not deliver, a step one section skipped that a later one relies on, repetition, and length that does not match weight.

The read-through runs once the last section is written.

• Sections it wrote in this run, and you have not edited, are revised in place. The brief lists which ones and why; Undo read-through puts them back, as long as you have not changed the document since.
• Text that was already yours comes back as tracked changes for you to accept or reject.
• Questions only you can answer arrive as comments.

What the read-through changed, on the brief: each section with its own undo, and Undo read-through for all of it.

Run it again any time from the brief’s menu (Read through).

Step 6: change it, then export

• Rewrite one section: from the brief’s menu, Restore a section to plan, adjust its card, and write it again. Right after a section is written, Undo also takes it back to its card.
• Write just one section: Write the next section only or Write one section in the same menu.
• Revise like any document: select text and use the AI at the cursor, or comment and revise from comments — see reviewing and revising with AI.
• Export to Word or PDF. The brief and plan cards are left out; footnotes become citations that keep their quotes. See exporting to Word, PDF or images.

When everything is written, the brief folds to a single line. It stays in the file because it is the standard later revisions are measured against; delete it if you do not want it.

Sources, the web and your privacy

• Your files are always used first. Outside sources only fill gaps.
• The Sources line decides whether it may search the web or scholarly papers. The first time a piece in a workspace wants to, you are asked; only search queries drafted from the topic are sent, never the text of your files.
• A paper known only by its abstract supports only what the abstract says, and its footnote says so.
• Footnotes quote the exact passage they rely on and are collected in a Notes section at the end. Add to workspace in the brief’s menu saves the outside sources as files beside the piece.
• Documents the AI drafted are marked as such and are never used as evidence by later writing.

Genres

A genre decides the structure, the voice and the pitfalls to avoid: report, proposal, work summary, blog post, how-to, reading notes, literature survey, course paper, journal article, thesis and book. Pick one from the brief’s header, or let it choose.

To make your own, open Settings → Skills → Writing and start one from the closest built-in genre, or build one from pieces you have written (next section). Your genres appear in the genre menu under My writing skills.

Use a piece as a model

To write a new topic the way an existing piece is written, name that piece in the task and say what to take from it, in your own words:

• “A launch post for the new sync, just like [[Last spring’s launch post]]” — the new piece follows its form (the order of the parts, the headings, the length) as well as its voice. If the brief has no genre or length set, it takes the model's.
• “…in the voice of [[My column]]” — only the voice.
• You can also write the use in brackets right after the link: [[My column]] (its tone only).

The model can be a note, a PDF, a Word file or a web page. Named as a model, it is not material: nothing in it is cited, and the new topic is written from what you @ for it. A long model is read for what you asked — an account of its voice with a few passages quoted word for word, and its outline when you want the form.

One piece named as the model, a link as the material.

To keep the style, save it as a genre:

1. In the file tree, right-click the piece — or select two or three of your own pieces and right-click — and choose Save as my genre…. (This works on Markdown and text files; for a PDF or Word piece, @ it in the assistant and ask for a genre like it.)
2. A conversation opens and drafts the genre: its structure, its voice and its checks, with your pieces kept as samples. A Skill draft card appears.
3. Press Review & save, read and edit the draft, and press Save skill. Nothing is saved before that.

The genre drafted from one essay, before it is saved.

Next time, pick it from the genre menu. It shapes the plan and the voice; the facts still come from the material you give the new piece.

What it will not do

• Judge whether the idea is any good. That stays yours.
• Sound exactly like you. A genre of your own gets close, not identical.
• Write fiction. It does not track characters, plot or a story's timeline.
• Fact-check the world. It quotes your sources; whether they are right is a separate question.

Next

• Writing a thesis or a book
• Reviewing and revising with AI
• AI writing