sethshoultes/authors-rewrite

/authors-rewrite <file> <author>

Dispatch a named author to rewrite an existing manuscript file from scratch.

When to use

• An existing chapter is not working — the prose is mechanical, the voice has slipped, or the chapter doesn't match the established voice of the rest of the manuscript
• A chapter was drafted in autonomous mode or by an orchestrator pattern-matching a voice, and a clean rewrite by an actual author persona is needed
• A chapter exists but doesn't honor the architecture (e.g., the architecture says it is not clean and the chapter is clean)

Not for: line-level edits (use /authors-edit); critique without rewrite (use /authors-critique); drafting a chapter that doesn't exist yet (use /authors-draft).

Instructions for Claude

When this skill is invoked with a file path and an author name:

1. Parse arguments

• <file> — required. Path to the manuscript file to rewrite. Resolve relative to the current working directory if relative; absolute path otherwise. Must exist.
• <author> — required. One of the valid author names accepted by /authors-channel (see the channel skill's resolution table — king, vonnegut, hemingway, didion, baldwin, mccarthy, mcphee, le-guin, wallace, orwell, plus short forms).

If the file doesn't exist, tell the user and stop. If the author name doesn't resolve, list the valid names and ask.

2. Discover bible context

Walk up from the file path looking for .great-authors/ (typically the file is at <project>/manuscript/<chapter>.md and the bible is at <project>/.great-authors/). If no bible is found, warn the user that the rewrite will not have project context and ask whether to proceed anyway.

If a bible is found, identify these files:

• .great-authors/project.md
• .great-authors/voice.md and .great-authors/voice-lints.md (if exists)
• .great-authors/structure.md (if exists) — find the entry for this file
• .great-authors/suspense-architecture.md (if exists) — find the relevant architecture beats
• .great-authors/timeline.md
• The most recent journal entry under .great-authors/journal/
• Any character or place files referenced in the chapter

3. Discover continuity context

In the same manuscript/ directory:

• The chapter immediately preceding this one (numerically, if filenames are chapter-NN.md)
• The chapter immediately following this one
• (Skip if not applicable, e.g., for prologue or epilogue)

4. Confirm before dispatching

Before dispatching, briefly tell the user what's about to happen:

Rewriting <file> in <Author>'s voice.
Bible read: <list of bible files identified>
Continuity context: <preceding chapter>, <following chapter>
Dispatch in 5 seconds; say cancel to stop.

If the user cancels, stop. Otherwise proceed.

5. Dispatch the author

Use the Agent tool with subagent_type: <author>-persona. The brief must include:

• Project name and the chapter being rewritten
• The voice the author has established in other chapters (if applicable)
• Full list of files to read in order, with absolute paths
• A note that this is a FULL REWRITE, not a revision; discard the existing draft's emotional and dramaturgical choices
• The architecture beats the chapter must hit (extract from suspense-architecture.md if present, or from structure.md)
• Voice rules (hold what's in voice.md/voice-lints.md)
• Length expectations (compare to current draft; specify a target range)
• One concrete craft challenge specific to this chapter
• Constraints (don't change architecture-level facts; don't introduce contradictions to the bible)
• Where to save the output (overwrite the original file)
• Reporting back format ("under 200 words: what you did differently and why")

A self-contained brief is the leverage. Spend time on it.

6. Wait for the dispatch to return

The author sub-agent reads the bible, reads the existing chapter, decides what to keep and what to discard, writes a new draft, and saves it back to the original file. They return a brief report.

7. Confirm to the user

<Author> has rewritten <file>.
Words: <new word count> (was <old word count>).
Author's report:
> <quoted report>

Run /authors-continuity <file> to verify against the bible.

8. Suggest next moves

Based on what the author reported:

• If the rewrite touched architecture beats, suggest the user re-read the architecture for any drift
• If the rewrite introduced new characters or places, suggest /authors-build-character or /authors-build-place
• If the rewrite is significantly different in length, suggest /authors-continuity against neighboring chapters

Notes

• This skill is a one-shot dispatch. It does not loop. If the rewrite needs another pass, the user (or orchestrator) runs /authors-rewrite again with adjusted brief.
• The named author's voice file is what the persona uses for register. If the project has its own voice rules in voice.md, the persona respects those over its defaults — that's already in each persona's ## Before you edit protocol.
• Rewrites discard emotional/dramaturgical choices but preserve architecture-level facts. If a chapter says Audrey arrives at Yellow Knolls at 5:32 a.m., the rewrite preserves that. If a chapter has Audrey crying on page, the rewrite is free to make a different emotional choice if the architecture doesn't lock that in.
• For complex chapters, consider running /authors-debate between the named author and a second author before the rewrite, to surface craft questions the brief should address. The debate's verdict becomes part of the rewrite brief.
• Never reproduce an author's actual published work in the rewrite. Each persona's identity section enforces this.