How to Build Your Voice File
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How to Build Your Voice File
The best method: collect five pieces of writing you’re proud of. Not the most polished — the most you. Read them back-to-back, looking for patterns rather than content.
What keeps showing up? A particular transition phrase? A tendency to open paragraphs with short declarative sentences? Commas in unusual places? A preference for concrete over abstract? That’s your voice.
Write down what you notice. That’s the start of your VOICE.md.
Then reference it from your CLAUDE.md:
## Voice
When writing as me or for my publications, follow the voice profile
in VOICE.md. Match the patterns, not just the "tone."
The last line matters — “patterns, not just tone” — because tone is what most people specify and patterns are what actually determine whether something sounds like you.