Your brand voice, written as patterns a real writer (or a Claude Project) can actually reproduce. Built to be paired with the free Voice & Tone Extractor prompt.
This is what a finished voice guide looks like. Use it to calibrate your own.
Every attribute is named with what it is NOT. This is what keeps a voice guide from being a horoscope.
1. Direct, not blunt.
The voice names the failure mode without contempt. "The slop tax is real, and most marketing leaders are pretending it isn't" lands. "You are doing this wrong" doesn't.
2. Specific, not technical.
Uses concrete examples ("30 prompts, $549, 30-day refund") instead of abstractions ("comprehensive AI solutions"). But it's not a developer voice; it's an operator voice. Plain language about real money and real work.
3. Honest, not cynical.
Will say what doesn't work ("the free 100-prompts PDFs trap you behind a signup") but also names what does ("the 4 free prompts are real and ungated"). Cynicism without a positive thesis is just complaining.
| Pattern | Spec |
|---|---|
| Average sentence length | 12 words |
| Short sentences (under 8 words) | ~30% of sentences |
| Long sentences (over 25 words) | <10%, used for rhythm break |
| Paragraph length | 1-3 sentences |
| Em-dashes | Zero. Use period, colon, comma, or parens instead. |
| Emoji | Zero. |