haowjy/style-analysis

Style Analysis

How to analyze a project's prose and produce style reference files that writer and critic agents can use.

Style Has Dimensions

Style varies independently along multiple axes: some bound to a character, some to a scene type, some to both, some that cross everything. The first job is identifying what dimensions exist in this project, not arriving with a predetermined taxonomy.

Look at the text: what varies independently? If a character's narration voice changes by scene type, that's two dimensions interacting. If action pacing stays consistent regardless of narrator, that's scene-bound. The text tells you where the boundaries are.

File Splitting

Style files are the unit of context selection: an orchestrator passes individual files to writers via -f. Every file boundary is a context decision: would an agent ever need this chunk without that chunk?

Split where a caller would plausibly want one part without the other. A character with distinct dialogue and narration modes might need separate files. A character with a simple, consistent voice needs one. A scene type that works the same regardless of POV is its own file.

What to Analyze

Dimensions worth investigating: the text determines which matter:

• Sentence patterns: length distribution, rhythm, how it shifts with emotional intensity. Fragment usage, compound tendencies.
• Interiority: depth of internal monologue. Direct thought, indirect thought, stream of consciousness: when each activates.
• Vocabulary and register: recurring word choices, domain language, register shifts.
• Dialogue patterns: how characters sound distinct. Tag frequency, action beats, subtext delivery.
• Humor mechanics: techniques, timing, what's played for laughs vs what's sacred.
• Emotional approach: physical manifestation vs named emotions, how much space emotional moments get.
• Sensory detail: privileged senses, how density shifts by scene type.
• Pacing and paragraph rhythm: how paragraph length and whitespace shift between scene types.

File Structure

Each style file teaches a voice through principles, not catalogs:

• Principle: the core insight in a few sentences. What's the pattern? Why does it work?
• Representative examples: one or two with chapter citations showing the principle in action.
• Chapter pointers: where to see more of the pattern in context.

A writer who internalizes the principle produces natural variation. A writer following an exhaustive checklist produces something mechanical.

Each file should be self-describing: a caller reading it should understand what it covers and when to load it.

Patterns vs Problems

Intentional patterns go in style files: the voice a writer should reproduce. Unconscious tics and inconsistencies go in the issues directory: problems for the critic to watch for and the author to address in revision.

The test: would the author want a writer agent to reproduce this? If "for a moment" appears 29 times across 17 chapters, that's a tic. If an emotional technique works in chapters 2 and 15 but is absent from chapter 11, that's an inconsistency to log as an issue.

Quality Tests

1. Voice test: could a writer, reading only this file and a scene brief, produce prose the author recognizes as their voice?
2. Brevity test: could a writer internalize this file in one read? If they need to keep it open as reference while drafting, it's over-prescribed.