Proven techniques, structures and strategies for writing, collected, ordered and condensed into one applicable standard of my own. This directory is the central standard for writing style and phrasing quality across the entire Schreiben repository and applies to every text (NRPG stories, lore entries, prose), whatever the world or system.
The repository is set up as an Obsidian vault; internal references use wikilinks ([[…]]).
The entry point is the map of content WritingMethods.md. The individual sections live in Sections/:
| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
Sections/StyleRules.md |
Primary standard. Scope, forbidden patterns, anti-AI prose, markup and structure, adverbs, filter words, weakening verbs, tautologies, positive requirements, fidelity to perspective, dialogue with depth, body and gesture, author voice (style profile drawn from the author's own texts), self-check. |
Sections/WritingTechniques.md |
Show don't tell, sensory writing, in medias res, POV and focalization, building tension, dialogue, figures of speech, clustering. |
Sections/Characters.md |
Protagonist, ghost, want vs. need, antagonist, character-arc types, character voice, foil characters, backstory drip-feeding. |
Sections/PlotStructures.md |
Hero's journey, three-act structure with pinch points, midpoint, try-fail cycles, subplots, setup & payoff, snowflake method, W-question model. |
Sections/Revision.md |
Revision phases, self-editing, scene-list diagnosis, Sanderson's draft system, continuity check, beta readers, sorting feedback. |
Sections/Productivity.md |
Freewriting, pomodoro, King's daily routine, writing goals, writer's block, Hemingway stop, writing tracker, dictation. |
Sections/AuthorAdvice.md |
Advice from King, Hemingway, Chekhov, Orwell, Faulkner, Leonard, Vonnegut, Sanderson, Le Guin, Bradbury, Freytag. |
Sections/ReferencingRule.md |
Wikilink direction: chapter → referenced object, not the other way round. |
Before any editing pass and before any text is produced: StyleRules.md has been read or is known. It is not a style suggestion but a list of prohibitions against the statistical default patterns of AI prose. Its scope reaches beyond prose and takes in notes, comments, commit messages and answers in conversation; the only exemption is the form of reference works and rule catalogs. For character work, Characters.md is to be read before character sheets are created or judged; for questions of structure, PlotStructures.md is the first place to look.
Priority in case of conflict: StyleRules.md > Characters.md / WritingTechniques.md > all other files. The style rules are the hardest constraint.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license (CC BY-SA 4.0). The full license text is in LICENSE.
The license is chosen deliberately so that both sides are covered:
- Use and citation of other people's methods. The writing techniques and third-party advice referenced here are ideas and procedures and therefore not protected by copyright. Mentioning, paraphrasing and applying them is free in any case. Where individual methods are attributed by name (King, Hemingway, Sanderson and others), that attribution stands as good scholarly practice.
- The author's own development of the material. The wording, selection, arrangement and synthesis in this repository are the protected work. CC BY-SA 4.0 permits redistribution and adaptation under two conditions: attribution (BY) and distribution of derivative works under the same license (SA, copyleft). That keeps derivatives open as well and traceable back to the author.
Recommended citation:
Mark: Writing Methods. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Adaptations must state that and how the material was changed, and the result is to be passed on under CC BY-SA 4.0 (or a compatible license) in turn.