LLM Writing Guide: How-To-Write for krisyotam.com
This iceberg style draft guide takes inspiration from gwern's post on a similar topic.
DRAFT WORKFLOW (THE “ICEBERG BUILD”)
This guide includes a modular prompt workflow which can be used to generate either rough drafts or in the case of news polished prose for krisyotam.com. It is a distillation of the Condensed MoS and is designed to be used with an LLM.
Mind-Set
- Audience: Technically literate generalists who skim for overview, dig deep into specifics, and archive content. Your writing must serve both skimmers (clear structure, abstracts, margin notes) and deep-divers (dense information, rich linking, comprehensive footnotes/collapses).
- Tone: Terse, declarative, analytical, and critically skeptical. Avoid hedging, filler, and overly enthusiastic or promotional language.
Directly state claims and then provide evidence.
- Nix common LLMisms: “delve into”, “it is pivotal to”, “it is crucial to”, “it is important to note”, “explore the nuances of”, “tapestry of”, “showcases”, “serves as a testament to”. Replace with concrete verbs and direct statements.
- Goal: Focus on delivering insights that offer fresh synthesis—like linking discoveries in one domain with techniques from another to shed light on a particular phenomenon. Prioritize thoughtful reinterpretation of existing data or perspectives that reveal overlooked angles. The goal is to produce enduring understanding rather than fleeting commentary. Write for an intelligent audience that may not be deeply versed in the specific subject matter.
| # | Step | What to do | MoS / Hooks (see [Condensed MoS]) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Scope Definition | LLM Action: Restate the core request/topic in a single, precise sentence. List key in-scope points and deliberately out-of-scope points to confirm understanding. Place this in the initial meta-block. | Meta-block |
| 1 | Source Acquisition & Preparation | LLM Action: For any cited external information, prioritize finding and linking to full-text, stable URLs (PDFs, academic pages, reputable archives). Format all links with a title attribute: [display text](URL "Title", Author Year"). Find archive.org / archive.is links if primary is fragile. | Linking, Citations, Tooltips |
| 2 | Outline & Structure | LLM Action: Draft Title → Abstract (div.abstract blockquote) → H2 section titles (≤5 words if possible) → Key bullet points under each H2. Identify potential margin-note phrases (1–3 words) for paragraphs within sections. | Information Hierarchy, Abstracts |
| 3 | Prose Generation | LLM Action: Write content using “ventilated prose”: one sentence per line, blank line between paragraphs. Inline citations as **Surname Year**, hyperlinked. No separate “References” section. Emphasize precision and clarity. | Ventilated Prose, Citations |
| 4 | Iceberg Architecting | LLM Action: Review draft for digressions. Demote content: brief asides (≤200 words) to footnotes [^Footnote text.]; longer digressions, data, or code examples (>500 words) to <div class="collapse"> (with an .abstract-collapse if needed); extensive supplementary material (>500 words) to an Appendix (which also needs an abstract). | Information Density, Structure |
| 5 | Stylistic Polish | LLM Action: Apply American spelling, metric units (provide conversions for quotes if necessary), Oxford commas, and logical quotation. Use Kesselman estimative words for probabilities. Re-check for and eliminate banned/filler phrases. Ensure correct dash usage (hyphen, en-dash, em-dash—no spaces around em-dashes). | MoS Language Rules |
| 6 | Code, Tables, & Media | LLM Action: Label code blocks with language. Adhere to Bash (long flags, set -e), Haskell (ghc -Wall -Werror, qualified imports), and Elisp (byte-clean) rules. Format table captions. For images: ensure illustrative purpose, provide full MoS-compliant <figure> captions, note AI model+date if generated. Apply .invert / .invert-not if default dark-mode inversion is problematic. | MoS Code & Media |
| 7 | Final Self-Check | LLM Action: Rigorously apply the “Pre-Handoff Checklist” (below). | Quality Assurance |
| 8 | Meta-Block Insertion | LLM Action: Insert the concise HTML meta-block (template below) after YAML frontmatter and before the main text. | Transparency for Editor |
Sign in with GitHub to comment
Loading comments...
Citation
Cited as:
Yotam, Kris. (Jun 2025). Takes on LLMs. krisyotam.com. https://krisyotam.com/notes/manuals-of-style/takes-on-llms
Or
@article{yotam2025takes-on-llms,
title = "Takes on LLMs",
author = "Yotam, Kris",
journal = "krisyotam.com",
year = "2025",
month = "Jun",
url = "https://krisyotam.com/notes/manuals-of-style/takes-on-llms"
}