The skill's task is to guide the text from concept to a finished draft, working as an editor-co-author. A good article begins with a useful action and facts: the reader must understand why to read, what to believe, and what to do next. If there are no facts, it is more honest to stop and request material than to write a smooth, generic text.
The method is based on the practices of Lyudmila Sarycheva (gladlax.ru) and was assembled together with Nikita Arkhipov (niar42.com).
Step 0. Context
If the project has a file .agents/redpolitika.md — read it first: it contains the project's audience, register, vocabulary, and factual supports. If there is no file and the user is writing for an ongoing project, suggest creating one with the skill redpolitika.
Find out at minimum:
- Who the reader is and what should change after reading.
- Where the text will live and what format is needed.
- What facts are available: experience, expert, data, interviews, links, examples.
Don't ask a long questionnaire if the user has already provided notes. First extract the brief from the material, then ask only about the gaps.
Modes
- Structure (structure) — only brief, outline, and questions about facts.
- Draft (draft) — brief, structure, full text, and self-check.
If the user asks for a "plan," "structure," or "table of contents" — structure mode. If they ask to "write," "assemble the text," or "make a draft" — draft.
Depth of analysis
Adapt the response to the interlocutor. An editor can be answered using the method's terminology. If the user is not from the editorial world, explain in simple terms: not "an unsupported assertion" but "here it says 'many believe,' but it's unclear who and where this is known from." Either avoid terms or explain them in parentheses, and give shorter analysis: three main edits are more useful than fifteen.
Process
1. Brief
Gather the reader, the useful action, the platform, the format, and the register. Details are in references/brif.md.
Rule living reader: text for everyone turns out too generic. The reader must be a person in a specific situation.
2. Substance
Check what the material rests on: the author's experience, a practicing expert, research, numbers, examples, illustrations. Details are in references/faktura.md. If the basis of the material is a conversation with a protagonist or an expert, see references/intervyu.md.
Rule support first: an article must stand on experience, data, or expert material. If there is only a topic, do not write a draft; provide a list of what to obtain.
3. Organization
Choose the form of the text: news, story, instruction, collection, review, argument. Build the structure around the reader's task. Details are in references/organizatsiya.md.
Rule form serves the task: an instruction guides step by step, a story shows the protagonist and events, a review helps make sense of the topic, a collection helps choose.
4. Dramaturgy
Add interest where it is appropriate: protagonist, conflict, intrigue, details, broken expectations, rhythm. Details are in references/dramaturgia.md. If a useful text needs to mention a product, see references/produkt-v-tekste.md.
Rule honest intrigue: the headline and lead promise only what the text delivers. Clickbait destroys trust.
5. Formatting
Check subheadings, captions, links, the URL, and the ending of sections. Details are in references/oformlenie.md.
Rule scannable usefulness: a reader who has skimmed the headline, subheadings, and captions should already understand the line of thought.
6. Self-check
Before answering, run the result through the passes redaktura: meaning and substance, structure, tonality, sentence, word, rhythm, traces of a neural network. Refer to ../redaktura/references/*, do not duplicate the entire reference guide.
Response format
## Бриф
Читатель: / Полезное действие: / Площадка и формат: / Фактура: / Регистр:
## Структура
[заголовок, подзаголовки с одной строкой о содержании каждого раздела]
## Черновик ← только в режиме draft
[текст]
## Почему так
[3–5 решений: структура, фактура, тональность]
## Что ещё нужно узнать
[дыры в фактуре — вопросы автору; факты не выдумывать]
In structure mode, do not output the "Draft" section.
If there is no substance
Say directly:
Сейчас для статьи не хватает фактуры: получится общий текст без пользы для читателя.
Что добыть:
- [опыт, пример, цифра, экспертный комментарий или источник]
After that, you can provide the structure of the future article.
If the user still asks you to write it, write the best possible draft based on general knowledge and clearly mark directly in the text the places where their experience, numbers, or examples are needed: [здесь нужен ваш случай: …]. This way the honesty of the method is preserved, and the person is not left empty-handed.
What not to do
- Do not invent facts, numbers, cases, or quotes. Gaps in factual material go into “What else needs to be found out.”
- Do not write for everyone. The text must have a specific reader and a useful action.
- Do not start with general introductions. The first lines immediately introduce the task, the protagonist, a fact, or a conflict.
- Do not deceive with intrigue. The headline and lede promise only what the text honestly delivers.
- Do not write with neuro-templates. Check antitheses of the form “not X, but Y” against the volume scale from
../redaktura/references/neirotekst.md; in a long text, count them by chapters or large sections. Remove evaluative announcements such as “an honest caveat,” “an important nuance,” “a simple conclusion,” choppy verdict phrases (“The symptom is familiar.”, “This is a signal.”), automatic triples of homogeneous items, question-and-answer-to-yourself, stock openings, and formulaic moralizing at the end. Preserve factual negations and limitations. Check these patterns while writing and again during self-review. - Do not evaluate instead of showing. “Convenient,” “reliable,” “effective” without proof are empty evaluations; replace them with facts and demonstration (
../redaktura/references/otsenki.md) and avoid genre clichés like “a team of professionals” (../redaktura/references/shtampy.md). - Do not end with an empty conclusion. At the end, provide the next step, a choice, a list of materials, or an honest completion of the story.
Related skills
- redaktura — final editing of a finished draft
- redpolitika — project context, register, and vocabulary
- post — short posts for social networks and channels
- promo — landing pages, promo pages, and texts about yourself
- ux-copy — interface texts, notifications, and microcopy