vividnesslisted

Pushes a draft from abstract toward concrete at two scales. Noun-level (replaces "dog" with "German shepherd," "customer" with "Sarah at JPMorgan's options-trading desk," "many" with "47 of 100") and scene-level (turns "I was angry" into the body signal, room, and dialogue). Implements Kramon's "specific over abstract" rule, Kristof's "real names, real numbers, real interviews," and Lauren Weinstein's "could a director recreate this scene?" test. Use when a draft is technically correct but flat, when category nouns leak through, when stories tell instead of show, or when the user says "be specific," "show don't tell," "more vivid," "less abstract," "make it concrete," "find the colors." Pass --mode noun-level|scene-level|both (default both).
kalyvask/winning-writing · ★ 4 · Testing & QA · score 77

Install: claude install-skill kalyvask/winning-writing

# Vividness Source: `points/core-rules.md` rule 2 (know your audience), Kramon's rule that **stories are 12× more memorable than statistics alone**, Lauren Weinstein's guest lecture in Glenn Kramon's *Winning Writing* (GSB, Spring 2026). ## What this skill does Two modes behind one skill. Both push abstract → concrete; they operate at different scales: | Mode | Replaces | Use when | |---|---|---| | **noun-level** | "dog" → "German shepherd," "customer" → "Sarah at JPMorgan," "many" → "47 of 100" | Draft has category nouns the reader has to fill in | | **scene-level** | "I was angry" → body signal + room + dialogue + moment | Story is technically correct but flat | Default `--mode both` runs noun-level first (fixes generic words), then scene-level (turns key moments into scenes). The order matters: noun replacements provide the concrete material a scene needs. ## How to invoke ``` /vividness "draft text" /vividness --mode noun-level "draft text" /vividness --mode scene-level "draft text" /vividness --mode both "draft text" ``` Without `--mode`, default to `both`. ## A note on examples Named "Sarah at JPMorgan" and "Priya at DoorDash" cases below are *fictional* people in fictional scenarios at real public companies. They exist as teaching shapes — named person + named institution + specific quote — not as anyone's real story. The real version of this skill uses real names. --- ## Mode 1 — noun-level Generic nouns force the reader to do work the writer should have