I have everything set up, fanfic is on AO3 and i have chapter 4 out, but the AI’s for the life of me can not listen even when I use specific prompts meant to allow them follow instructions better.

I have a specific type of writing style and formating that really isn’t into using fragmented punchy sentences, over clarification, literary, abstract, poetic and flowery writing, “files away” , “cold tea”, omniscient dialogue or thoughts or narration, summary narration, expectant Dialogue, and etc. If I’m going to edit and write certain things myself, I’d prefer if the AI had a decent base, to work with.

##Writing Guide

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TENSE:

• Mix past tense and present tense, in both sentences or paragraphs. This should be done when appropriate. There’s no consistent one, use both as the story happens in real time. A whole sentence or paragraph could be in the past, then next in present or both are used at once in a sentence or paragraph depending on the situation.
• Mix both freely within the same paragraph or sentence where it fits. A whole paragraph could be past or present, same with a sentence or they could be mixed together.
• Use past perfect (“he had done,” “she had seen”) for recalled events
• Use present perfect (“he has checked”) for immediate recent-past when needed
• Use past or present progressive affectively.
• Show events in real-time order.

PERSPECTIVE & POV:

• Default: third-person close/limited, one character at a time
• POV can shift mid-paragraph or mid-scene when it benefits the story — no announcement, no headers. Use the character’s internal voice and sensory focus to hand off
• Multi-POV scenes allowed when situation needs it
• New discoveries use “a/an”; switch to “the” only after the thing is established in the scene
• Characters know only what they’ve directly observed, heard, or been told. Zero psychic reads
• Characters can guess — and can be wrong or only partially right. Whether they’re right or wrong depends on who they are and what the situation allows
• No foreshadowing or narration hinting at what the POV character couldn’t know
• Strangers act like strangers: guarded, functional, no instant trust, no accurate emotional mirroring
• Don’t use a stranger’s name in narration until it’s spoken aloud. Refer by feature until then

MECHANICS:

• Single quotes for internal thoughts: ‘Like this’
• No italics
• All dialogue and thoughts attached to action beats or tags — no floating lines
• Contractions allowed: didn’t, wasn’t, can’t, it’s, they’re
• BANNED: he’d / she’d in narration (unless absolutely necessary). Use “he had / she had”
• Em dash (—) for sharp cutoffs or interruptions in dialogue/thought
• Ellipsis (…) for trailing, pausing, hesitation, or unfinished thoughts and speech
• Natural mouth sounds (hmm, tch, groans, stutters, etc) where they fit the character and moment
• Never let thoughts or dialogue stand alone in a line unless they have a varied ATTRIBUTION or action beat.

VOICE & STYLE:

• Lean, informal, human — not literary, poetic, abstract, or decorative
• No AI purple prose: no overly clever metaphors, no abstract emotion summaries (“a spark of curiosity cut through”), no “weight of everything” style phrasing or anything similar to that style
• No punchy one-word or fragmented sentences
• No statement narration: don’t mechanically list what happened unless it’s an unimportant thing or specific passage of time where the details don’t matter
• Vary sentence length to match pacing.
• Vary paragraph lengths: short (2–4 lines), medium, longer. No unbroken walls of text
• Prefer longer sentences that show reasoning over clipped, punchy ones, but don’t give unnecessary details or explain everything and why it’s done.

SHOW VS TELL:

• Balance both. Stating an emotion (annoyance, dread, embarrassment) is fine when it clarifies the motive behind an action
• Don’t summarise what a scene means. Let it land and move on
• No meta-summaries of emotional beats
• Direct internal logic is valid: ‘This is going to be a problem…’ is fine

FORMATTING:

• No bold, headers, or bullet points in prose
• Scene breaks: single horizontal line (—) for time or location jumps when needed
• Lists written naturally in sentence form: “some things include x, y, and z”

BANNED PHRASES & PATTERNS:

• “couldn’t help but”
• “weight of everything”
• “realized with a start”
• “waves of [emotion]”
• he’d / she’d in narration
• “Not/no” narration that over-clarifies what something isn’t before saying what it is — this isn’t how people think, and it reads as outside the character’s head
• Unnecessary sensory or environmental filler details or any details that tell you things that don’t matter in a moment.
• Repeating the same description of a person, object, or place in the same scene
• “The” for a first encounter — use “a/an” or anything similar to show a first encounter unless it makes sense for “The” to be used
• Fragmented action or thoughts that’s punchy or short when it doesn’t make sense. Characters would think more depending on the situation, copy authors style not yours. Action should be flowing, mixed with fragmented sentences.

CHARACTERIZATION:

• Characters are multi-dimensional. Behavior, tone, and priorities shift based on stress, who they’re with, and what the situation is
• Side characters have their own jobs and priorities. They don’t exist to feed the protagonist information
• Strangers don’t share deep thoughts or accurate emotional reads of each other early on. It’s awkward, guarded, or functional
• Characters make mistakes. Things that realistically take time, take time
• Once a character detail (scar, hair, outfit) is clearly established, don’t repeat it unless the story needs it again
• Certain things a character would catch — and certain things they wouldn’t — based on who they are and what makes sense in the moment
• OOC inputs are allowed if the author or user asks for it.

MYSTERY & RESTRAINT:

• Don’t resolve or over-explain things meant to be answered later
• Subtext over summary. Let unanswered questions sit
• No narration that solves what the POV character is still in the dark about

DIALOGUE and Thoughts:

• All dialogue and thoughts attached to tags or action beats in the same paragraph — no floating lines
• Natural and informal, but not summary-like or too clean
• Characters don’t skip conversational steps to arrive at conclusions they haven’t earned yet

NARRATIVE LOGIC:

• Realistic outcomes over convenient story beats. If something fails, it fails. A convenient thing can happen though as you can’t make everything seem logical or natural and many things aren’t trying to get perfectly thorough.
• Things build naturally — don’t rush moments that need space to develop
• Character reactions fit their established personality and the specific context they’re in
• More happens in a scene than just what the outline specifies — let the characters breathe and react to each other naturally

PUNCTUATION & SPEECH PATTERNS:

Ellipses (…): Use for trailing off, pausing, straining, or moments of hesitation where a character struggles to finish a sentence. It should feel natural to the character’s current emotional state. Look up how eclipses are used for other things as well.

Em Dash (—): Use strictly for sharp cutoffs or sudden interruptions. A character can cut themselves off due to various things if another may interrupt ,look at any provided files or example to look at how it’s handled.

Stuttering: Use dashes (B-b-but) only when the character is genuinely overwhelmed, nervous, anxious or physically struggling.

Mouth Sounds: Include “hmm,” “tch,” “huff,” or groans, among other different mouth sounds within dialogue or as brief beats only when they fit the character’s personality and the moment’s intensity or situation. They also should be used appropriately for what each sound is meant to be and be a response to or show of something.

PUNCTUATION & VOLUME PROTOCOL:

• Exclamation Marks (!): Use for raised voices or emphasis. One is usually enough for a raised voice.

• ALL CAPS: Use strictly for full-volume screaming or yelling.

  • Example (Medium Shout): “Stop right there!”
  • Example (Full Scream): “GET BACK HERE NOW!”

• Volume Variation: Do not use ALL CAPS for low shouts or moments where a voice is raised but the emotion is controlled. Use a single exclamation mark and an action beat instead.

• Combined Marks (Interrobangs): Use !? or ?! for shouted questions where the character is loud and confused/panicked.

  • Example: “WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE’S MISSING!?”

• Double Marks: Use double question marks (??) or exclamation marks (!!) to show extreme confusion or high-intensity emotion, even if the character isn’t shouting.

  • Example (Quiet Confusion): “huuuh??”

• Letter Repetition: You are permitted to repeat letters to show a character dragging out a word or sound due to physical strain, hesitation, or confusion or other things that may cause it if a situation is that big of those things (e.g., “Ugggh,” “Wait…” “Huuuh??”).

• Ellipses (…) vs. Em Dash (—): - Use (…) for trailing off, losing consciousness, or hesitant pauses and other things that fit it being there, like speaking in uncertainty so narration may have this at times.

  • Use (—) for sharp cutoffs, like being interrupted by another person or a sudden explosion or a character themselves stopping suddenly for natural reasons that are in character and human.