Below are 14 Claude writing prompts for non-fiction work: planning a piece, drafting blog posts and newsletters, editing for structure and tone, summarizing, and checking claims before you publish. They are built on Anthropic's own prompting advice, so they play to how Claude reads instructions.
How to use these prompts
Every prompt is ready to copy into Claude. Replace the blanks in double braces, or keep the default after the colon: {{audience:engineering managers}} means "engineering managers" unless you change it.
Most of these prompts wrap your material in tags like <notes> or <draft>, and put long material before the instructions. Both habits come from Anthropic's prompting best practices, which say XML tags help Claude separate instructions from content, and that "Queries at the end can improve response quality by up to 30 percent in tests, especially with complex, multidocument inputs."
The same guide offers a simple test for any writing prompt: "Show your prompt to a colleague with minimal context on the task and ask them to follow it. If they'd be confused, Claude will be too." If a draft comes back wrong, the fix is usually more context about the reader, not more adjectives about the style.
For general Claude prompts on long documents, analysis and code, see Claude prompts. This page focuses on writing.
Which prompts help you plan a piece?
1. Interview me before outlining
Use it when the ideas are in your head, not on the page. Answering questions is faster than staring at a blank document.
I want to write {{piece:a blog post}} about {{topic}} for
{{audience:engineering managers}}.
Before outlining anything, interview me. Ask one question at a time,
up to {{count:8}} questions, about what I want the reader to understand,
the examples and evidence I have, what I disagree with in the usual take
on this topic, and what the reader should do after reading. When we're
done, summarize my answers in a short list and wait for my go-ahead.
2. Outline from messy notes
Paste bullet fragments, voice memo transcripts or old drafts.
<notes>
{{notes}}
</notes>
Turn these notes into an outline for {{piece:a blog post}} aimed at
{{audience:engineering managers}}. Start with the single point the piece
makes, in one sentence. Then give H2 sections in a logical order, each
with the key idea and which note supports it. List notes that don't fit
anywhere, and gaps where I need an example or evidence.
3. Find the angle
For a topic that has been covered many times. A sharper angle is worth more than better sentences.
I'm writing about {{topic}} for {{audience:engineering managers}}. Here is
what I know and believe about it:
<notes>
{{notes}}
</notes>
Suggest 5 distinct angles for the piece. For each, give a working title,
the one-sentence argument, why this reader would care, and which of my
notes backs it up. Then say which angle you think is strongest given my
notes, and why.
Which prompts help draft blog posts and newsletters?
4. Blog post draft from an outline
The format line follows Anthropic's advice to "Tell Claude what to do instead of what not to do": ask for prose instead of banning bullets.
<outline>
{{outline}}
</outline>
<voice_samples>
{{voice_samples}}
</voice_samples>
Write a draft of this blog post for {{audience:engineering managers}},
about {{length:1,200}} words. Open with the main point in the first two
sentences. Write in smoothly flowing prose paragraphs with short
sentences, using the outline's H2s as headings. Match the voice in the
samples. Use concrete examples from the outline; where one is missing,
write [EXAMPLE NEEDED] instead of inventing one.
5. Newsletter issue from links and notes
For a weekly roundup that has to sound like you, not like a list of links.
<items>
{{links_and_notes}}
</items>
Write this week's issue of {{newsletter:my newsletter}} for
{{audience:product designers}}. Open with a short note tying the items
together if there's a real thread; skip it if there isn't. For each item,
two or three sentences: what it is and why this reader should care, using
my notes. Order items from most to least useful. End with one question for
readers. Give 3 subject line options.
6. Rewrite the opening
Most drafts start a paragraph too early. This prompt finds where the piece really begins.
<draft>
{{draft}}
</draft>
Write 3 alternative openings for this piece, each under 80 words. One
starts with the main claim, one with a specific scene or example from the
draft, one with the reader's problem. Then tell me if the current first
paragraph can simply be cut, and what the new first line would be.
Which prompts help you edit?
7. Structural edit
Do this before line editing. Fixing sentences in a section that should move is wasted work.
<draft>
{{draft}}
</draft>
Give me a structural edit of this draft, not a rewrite. In order:
1. The main point as you understand it, in one sentence.
2. Sections that are out of order, repeated, or don't serve the point.
3. Where a reader like {{audience:engineering managers}} would get lost
or stop reading.
4. What's missing.
5. A suggested new section order.
Quote the passages you mean. Don't rewrite any of the text.
8. Tighten without losing the voice
For drafts that say the right things at the wrong length.
<draft>
{{draft}}
</draft>
Cut this draft by about {{percent:25}} percent. Remove repetition, throat
clearing, hedges and filler, and merge points that say the same thing.
Keep my voice, my examples and every fact. Don't add new ideas or swap my
words for fancier ones. Return the edited text, then a short list of the
biggest cuts so I can restore any I want.
9. Change the tone for a new audience
For turning an internal doc into a public post, or a technical write-up into a summary for leadership.
<original>
{{text}}
</original>
Rewrite this for {{new_audience:customers who aren't technical}}. They
need to know {{goal:what changed and what they should do}}. Keep every fact
accurate. Replace jargon with plain words or explain it in a few words.
Tone: {{tone:calm, direct and warm}}. Keep it about the same length or
shorter.
10. Learn a style from examples
Anthropic's guide calls examples "one of the most reliable ways to steer Claude's output format, tone, and structure" and suggests three to five of them, wrapped in <example> tags.
<examples>
<example>{{sample_1}}</example>
<example>{{sample_2}}</example>
<example>{{sample_3}}</example>
</examples>
First, describe the writing style in these examples in 6 to 10 specific
points: sentence length, vocabulary, how paragraphs open, use of
examples, humor, formatting. Then rewrite the text below in that style
without changing its meaning.
<text>
{{text}}
</text>
Which prompts help with summaries?
11. Summary for a specific reader
The same document needs a different summary for a CEO, a customer and a new hire. Saying who reads it changes what Claude keeps.
<document>
{{document}}
</document>
Summarize this for {{reader:a busy executive who has two minutes}}. They
need to decide or know: {{need:whether to approve the proposal}}.
Give: a one-sentence bottom line, then {{length:3}} short paragraphs with
the facts that matter for that decision, then any risk or open question.
Leave out background they already know.
12. Turn a transcript into an article
For talks, podcasts, interviews and recorded meetings.
<transcript>
{{transcript}}
</transcript>
Turn this transcript into a readable article of about {{length:900}}
words for {{audience:people who missed the talk}}. Keep the speaker's
main ideas and best lines; quote them exactly when you use quotation
marks. Remove filler, false starts and tangents. Add H2 headings phrased
as questions. Don't add claims the speaker didn't make.
Which prompts check a draft before you publish?
13. Claim check against sources
Based on the "Verify with citations" technique in Anthropic's guide to reducing hallucinations: every claim gets a supporting quote, or it gets flagged.
<sources>
{{sources}}
</sources>
<draft>
{{draft}}
</draft>
Check every factual claim in the draft (numbers, dates, names, quotes,
cause and effect). For each, quote the passage in the sources that
supports it. If you can't find one, mark the claim "unsupported". If a
quote in the draft doesn't match the source word for word, show both
versions. Output a table.
14. Read it as the reader
A final pass that catches what you can no longer see in your own draft.
<draft>
{{draft}}
</draft>
Read this as
{{reader:a smart engineering manager who has never heard of our team}}.
Tell me: the three questions you'd still have at the end, the
first sentence where your attention dropped, any term you didn't
understand, and the one thing you'd remember tomorrow. Be specific and
quote the lines.
How do you get better writing out of Claude?
Give it the reader, not just the topic. "For engineering managers deciding whether to adopt this" produces a different and better piece than "about this tool".
Show, don't describe. Three samples of the voice you want do more than a paragraph of adjectives. If you want prose, ask for prose: Anthropic's guide notes that the formatting in your prompt can influence the formatting of the reply, so a prompt full of bullets tends to get bullets back.
Keep your context in one place. A Claude project lets you upload files that Claude uses as background for the chats in that project, and set project instructions such as a tone. Put your style notes, audience description and best past pieces there; see the Claude Projects guide for setup. For a repeatable process, a skill can carry the same rules; Anthropic's help article on using skills in Claude explains how Claude decides when to use one.
Make your favorite one a skill
If you run the structural edit or the claim check on every draft, turn it into a skill so Claude applies it without the paste. Paste a prompt into the free SKILL.md generator to get a valid SKILL.md you can add to Claude or Claude Code. For copy aimed at buyers, see the marketing prompts, and for search-focused pages, the SEO prompts.
To keep your writing prompts one search away, save them in Kipt with their {{blanks}}, tag them by stage (plan, draft, edit), and find any of them with ⌘K. Your library is Markdown in a private GitHub repo you own.