Give Claude Your Voice: The Three-File Writing System
Part 4 of 11 — A Practical Guide to Claude Setup
How do you use AI to help you write faster but maintain your own voice without it becoming AI slop? Set realistic expectations. AI isn’t going to perfectly write for you. You will need to spend time editing and fleshing out drafts, but make no mistake about it. A well built AI helps with the critical phase of getting started.
Claude has helped me write with my own voice at scale. I still end up spending 20-30 minutes making articles my own, but it is able to take my ideas and outlines and draft into a form that I can interact with to create real content.
Without lots of context and a properly curated system, AI writing drafts come back meh. The draft may be technically correct and cover the right points, but it lacks personality and sounds like nobody. It sounds like generic slop.
Building your Draft Writer
As I wrote about over the past few articles, most people don’t bother setting up their CLAUDE.md or CLAUDE_CONTEXT.md files. It’s not surpring that they don’t build out their writing voice. If they do, most people build a single writing file. They describe their voice in a paragraph or two, maybe add a few rules, and call it done. Then they wonder why Claude still misses the mark half the time.
The problem is that writing voice is too complex to capture in a single document. It has at least three layers:
The principles: How you think about writing, your structural patterns, and your non-negotiables. What does your writing sound like?
Examples: Actual examples of your writing is how you show Claude what you voice looks like. I do this by giving it all of my previous articles by connecting Claude to my Notion Writing Projects database.
Uniqueness: Do you use unique phrases, metaphors, or patterns of speech? Do you write about a specific niche topic with unique terms? If so, add a section to explain these.
Trying to put all three layers in one file creates a bloated document that’s hard to navigate and degrades the quality of Claude’s context window. The better architecture is three lean files, each doing a very specific job.
The Three Files
CLAUDE_WRITING.md — The Core Guide
If the CLAUDE.md file is the overall orchestrator, the CLAUDE_WRITING.md file is your writing orchestrator. It contains your voice description, structural patterns, platform-specific rules, and quality checklist. Think of it as the briefing document you’d hand a ghostwriter. Most of us can’t afford a ghostwriter, so AI can help us become our own ghostwriters.
What to include:
Your voice in plain language. I’m not talking about your conversational voice. Instead, give the file short paragraphs, setup-flip pivots, and ways to challenge the reader.
This is to help the AI know how your writing will flow structurally from opening to close.
Platform-specific rules. If you have a style guide, make sure and include it. If it’s a corporate style guide, it might be worthy of a FOURTH writing file, but now, let’s keep it simple. Think about the different places you write. You want different rules for emails to donors, Substack articles, LinkedIn posts, Tweets, and technical writing. All of these should feel like the same person but follow different rules and writing constraints.
What your writing is NOT. Provide negative examples that prevent the most common errors in writing.
CLAUDE_WRITING_EXAMPLES.md — The Reference Bank
This file contains actual examples from your writing. I suggest providing 10 to 15 annotated passages with commentary on why they work. Don’t just copy them into the document, explain why something works (or doesn’t work.
Annotate each example. Don’t just paste in paragraphs. Explain what’s happening. “This works because the opening names a universal frustration before introducing the argument.” These annotations are what makes the file useful.
Also include a link to your live archive if one exists. If you publish on Substack or Medium or a blog, Claude can access that archive to calibrate against your most recent work. If you keep a database in Notion or Obsidian, give your archive access to those databases. This is especially helpful because it allows your writing style to constantly evolve based upon your current writing examples.
CLAUDE_WRITING_QUICK.md — The Rapid Drafting Reference
This is the lean companion file for fast drafting sessions. It contains:
Your signature phrases. These are the expressions you reach for naturally.
Your metaphor bank. The comparisons you use repeatedly.
Topic-specific playbooks. You write about different topics with different styles. Your articles about AI should be different from leadership pieces and case studies.
If you have a quality control checklist, add this here. It will allow you to stress test your writing before review.
When you’re in a hurry or if you are just wanting a quick draft, you can load this instead of the full writing guide. It gets you 80% of the way there in a fraction of the context.
A Fictional Example
Meet Sonya. She’s a leadership coach who publishes a weekly newsletter on organizational behavior. Here’s a sketch of her writing system:
Voice (from CLAUDE_WRITING.md):
Direct and warm. I challenge leaders without making them feel stupid. Short paragraphs. I ask one uncomfortable question per piece and I don’t let the reader off the hook at the end. I use research to back up observations but I never let the data carry the piece. I carry the piece with my writing, but the data supports my writing.
Structural pattern:
Open with a behavior I’ve observed in real organizations (specific, not generic). Name the underlying dynamic. Offer the reframe. Close with a question the reader will still be thinking about tomorrow.
Negative examples:
Never use “synergy,” “leverage,” or “game-changing.” Never end with a tidy summary. Never open with “In today’s fast-changing world.”
From her examples file:
Three annotated opening paragraphs from her best newsletters, each with a note on why the opening worked.
From her quick reference:
Her signature pivot phrase (”Here’s what’s actually happening...”), her most-used metaphors, her checklist (Does this open with a real observation? Is there a question the reader can’t easily dismiss? Have I cut the summary?)
With this system loaded, the first draft sounds like Priya. Not approximately like her. Like her. It still needs work, but remember that getting started is usually the hardest part of writing.
Starter Templates
The examples below can be copied and pasted into .md files. It will take you about 15-20 minutes to create the files, but it will save you hours of drafting.
CLAUDE_WRITING.md:
# Writing Voice Guide — [Your Name]
## Voice
[2-3 sentences: tone, energy, what you're trying to do to the reader]
## Structure
Open: [how you open]
Body: [how you build the argument]
Close: [how you end — not a summary]
## Signature Moves
- [Pattern 1]
- [Pattern 2]
## What My Voice Is NOT
- [Anti-pattern 1]
- [Anti-pattern 2]
## Platform Rules
### [Platform 1]: [rules]
### [Platform 2]: [rules]
CLAUDE_WRITING_EXAMPLES.md:
# Writing Examples — [Your Name]
## Example 1: [Type — e.g., Opening Hook]
[Paste your example]
**Why it works**: [Your annotation]
## Live Archive
[Link to your published work, if accessible]
CLAUDE_WRITING_QUICK.md:
# Quick Reference — [Your Name]
## Signature Phrases
- [Phrase 1 — context for use]
- [Phrase 2 — context for use]
## Metaphor Bank
- [Metaphor — when to use]
## Pre-Publish Checklist
- [ ] [Check 1]
- [ ] [Check 2]
Next: Article 05 — Building a prompt library with the RIPEN framework.
