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From mattpocock-skills
Shapes raw markdown notes into a publishable article through a conversational session: drafts openings, grows paragraph by paragraph, and argues about format choices.
npx claudepluginhub joshuarweaver/cascade-content-creation-misc-1 --plugin mattpocock-skills-11How this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/mattpocock-skills:writing-shapeThe summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
<what-to-do>
Shapes raw markdown notes into a polished article through a conversational session, drafting openings and growing paragraph by paragraph with format arguments.
Guides creation of polished technical markdown documents like blog posts, proposals, and feedback via interactive clarifying questions and structured workflow.
Researches topics, generates outlines with citations, improves hooks, provides section feedback, and refines drafts for blog posts, articles, tutorials, and technical docs.
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The user has passed (or will pass) a markdown file of raw material. Treat it as the input pile — anything from a tidy list of fragments to a wall of unstructured prose to a transcript. The format does not matter. Read it end-to-end before doing anything else.
Then run a shaping session that produces a separate article document. Do not edit the raw material file — it is read-only to this skill.
If the user did not say where to save the article, ask once and remember the path. The user will be editing the article file during the session; always re-read it before writing so their edits are preserved.
This is a grilling session inverted. In ideation, the question was "what are you actually noticing?" Here it's "what is this article actually arguing, and in what order does the reader need to hear it?" Push back. Refuse to let weak transitions slide. If a paragraph doesn't earn its place, cut it.
Specific moves to keep using:
Treat the raw material as a quarry, not a script. Pull a fragment, rework it to fit the surrounding paragraph, and place it. A fragment may be split across multiple paragraphs, merged with another, or paraphrased. The pile's job is to be mined; the article's job is to read as one voice.
If the pile lacks something the article needs, name the gap explicitly: "We need an example here and the pile doesn't have one — give me one now or we cut this section."
When choosing how to render a beat, weigh these tradeoffs out loud with the user, not silently:
> [!TIP], > [!NOTE]) — but only if they'd genuinely derail the main argument inline. Otherwise leave them inline.Append to the article file as each block is agreed. Re-read the file from disk before every write — the user may have edited between turns. Never overwrite blindly. If the user wants a paragraph rewritten, edit that specific paragraph in place; leave the rest alone.