Use caseWrite
Write a new piece the way your best one was written
You have a post, a memo or a column that worked — the opening, the rhythm, the way it lands. Point at it, give the new topic, and the new piece is written that way. Then keep the style as a genre, so the next one starts there.
- You start with
- One piece whose writing you want again — your own, or someone else’s you admire — and the notes, files or links for the new topic.
- Time
- Under an hour for the piece. Saving the style takes a few minutes more.
- Your part
- Choosing the model, saying what to take from it, and the read against the original. Working the voice into a new subject is handed over.
What you'll end up with
- A new piece on your topic in the model’s shape and voice — not its sentences, and not its facts.
- Every fact from the material you gave for the new topic, or asked of you where that material is silent.
- A genre of your own — the structure, the voice and the checks, with your pieces kept as samples — to pick for any topic from now on.
Describing a style in adjectives rarely works; every model reads “warm but direct” differently. A piece you point at shows sentence length, how paragraphs open and what it leaves out.
How to get AI to write in the style of an example, step by step
Which piece should it write like?
YouPick by the job, not by how much you like it: a launch post to model a launch post, a memo for a memo. Your own piece or someone else’s; a note, a PDF, a Word file or a web page. If it is not in your folder yet, paste the link.
Name it in the brief, and say what to take.
YouAskA launch post for the new sync feature, just like [[Last spring’s launch post]], from @sync-notes.
In a new document, type / and choose Writing brief, then write the task as you would say it. “Just like” takes the form — the order of the parts, the headings, the length — as well as the voice; “in the voice of” takes only the voice. Leave the genre on Auto: a piece written just like the model takes its genre and length unless the brief says otherwise.
Where do the facts for the new topic come from?
YouFrom what you @ for it — notes, files, a folder, a link. Named as a model, the example supplies the how, not the what: nothing in it is cited, and a fact only you have is asked for at that spot rather than borrowed from the model.
It plans in the model’s shape, then writes.
MindMaxThe plan cards follow the model’s run of parts — how it opens, how it makes the case, how it ends — filled with your new subject. A short piece goes straight on to writing; add “show me the outline first” to the task to stop at the plan. When it finishes, it reads the whole piece through once.
Does it sound like the model?
YouRead the opening and one middle paragraph beside the original. If it drifted, say on the Voice line what the model does that this does not (“short paragraphs, one claim each, no rhetorical questions”), restore the section to its plan card and write it again — or select a paragraph and ask for the change with ⌘J.
Save the way it is written as your genre.
You ask · MindMax answersRight-click the model in the file tree — or select two or three of your own pieces and right-click — and choose Save as my genre…. The assistant distils the structure, the voice and the checks, keeps the pieces as samples, and shows a skill draft. Read it, change anything, and press Save skill; nothing is saved before that.
Next time, pick it from the genre menu.
MindMaxYour genre sits in the brief’s genre menu under My writing skills and works for any topic: the voice and structure come from it, the facts from what you give the new piece. Edit it like any skill as your writing changes.
Why it works here
Pointing beats describing
You name a piece and say what to take in your own words; it works out whether you mean the form or only the voice, and a long model is read for exactly that.
Write like a piece you name →The model is not a source
The example shapes the writing; the facts come from your material for the new topic, and where they are missing the draft asks instead of borrowing.
Where it asks instead of inventing →The style becomes a file you own
A saved genre is a writing skill in plain text — structure, voice rules, checks and your samples — that you can read, edit and share.
Skills →Also used here: Genres, and your own · Guide: writing with a writing brief · What an agent skill is
Where it gets hard
- Close, not identical.
The shape and voice come near; a reader who knows the author may still tell. Read the opening against the original before you send it.
- One model passes on its quirks.
A single essay’s habit — opening with a question, a pet phrase — can become a rule. Two or three pieces give a steadier voice, especially when saving a genre.
- Right-click saving works on Markdown and text files.
A PDF or Word piece can be the model for a single piece. To build a genre from one, @ it in the assistant and ask for a genre like it.
- It takes form and voice, not sentences — but it is not a plagiarism check.
If the model is someone else’s published piece, what you publish still has to be your own work. Check any line that sounds borrowed.