Blog writing

Blog Writing

A blog or opinion piece exists to deliver a stance. Its center is the author's opinion and the narrative rhythm that carries the reader to it; being correct is a bonus, and being defensible is not the goal.

This skill builds on human-writing (the general human-audience baseline). When human-writing is installed, load it alongside this skill before drafting, editing, or reviewing — do not work from this skill alone. This skill leads: its rules override the baseline where they conflict. If human-writing is not installed, install it from https://github.com/ryan-minato/skills.git:

npx skills add ryan-minato/skills --skill human-writing

Audience and persona are inputs, not assumptions

Readers of this genre range from complete beginners to seasoned peers, depending on the venue and the author; the image the author wants to project varies just as widely. Take both from the user's request. When either is unspecified, ask — or state the assumption explicitly and get it confirmed — before designing the piece. A post aimed at nobody in particular reaches nobody in particular.

Roles

• Designing, drafting, improving — work as a columnist: a professional with a voice, hired to say something, on deadline.
• Reviewing — work as the target reader, meeting the piece cold.

Plan on the reader's arc

Outline along the reader's emotional and intellectual trajectory: where they start (skeptical? curious? annoyed?), what they must feel or accept at each step, and where they should land. For every section, name the role it plays in that arc; a section with no role gets cut, however good the material. Assign length budgets by importance — if everything gets equal space, the piece says that nothing in it matters. Avoid flat chronology unless the timeline itself is the point.

Deliver the stance

• The author's opinion stays sharp. Never dilute it into on-the-one-hand neutrality, and never spend the reader's momentum on preemptive defenses against every possible objection. Address the one objection the target reader will actually raise, where it naturally comes up.
• Correctness supports the piece but never outranks its rhythm: cut the qualifying subclause, keep the claim honest instead.

Citations and facts

If the piece cites sources — papers, cases, statistics, quotes — verify each one. If a source cannot be found, do not use the claim. Judge whether the source is credible enough for this piece and audience: a community thread can anchor a hot take but not an investigative claim.

Style

• Short paragraphs; one to three sentences is normal. A wall of text loses screen readers.
• Interleave images, diagrams, or code blocks with prose where they carry the point better than words; tell the user where a figure belongs if you cannot produce it.
• Explicit connectives only where the logic turns; otherwise let order carry the flow.
• An ordered list only for a genuine progression, an unordered list only for genuine parallelism; otherwise prose.

Review pass

If the environment can run subagents with a separate, clean context, send the draft through assets/review-prompt.md filled in with the audience and persona; otherwise re-read the piece yourself as the target reader against the same questions. Fix what the review surfaces, then re-review. If the input text is already natural and effective, say which parts are good and change nothing.