A one-page voice sheet so your drafts sound like you

You ask for a draft and receive something competent and anonymous: a warm greeting you would never write, three exclamation marks, a closing line that could end any email in the world. You spend ten minutes sanding it into your own voice. Tomorrow you do it again.

The fix is not a longer instruction. It is a sheet, one page, that describes how you actually write, built from evidence instead of adjectives.

Why adjectives fail

"Friendly but professional" describes almost everyone, so it changes almost nothing. A helper needs something to match: real sentences you wrote, real words you use, real habits you can be measured against. Evidence is specific. Adjectives are not.

Build the sheet from your own writing

1. Three samples. Paste three short pieces you wrote and were pleased with, such as an email, a post and a note. Beside each, say what it is good for. This is the most valuable part of the sheet.
2. Sentence habits. Look at the samples and write down what you find: how long your sentences usually are, how you open, whether you use contractions, questions or lists. "Most of my sentences are short. I open emails with the point, not a greeting."
3. Words I use, words I avoid. Two short lists. Use: plain, check, next. Avoid: leverage, circle back, exclamation marks.
4. Openers and sign-offs. The exact lines you use, sorted by situation: a client, a teammate, a stranger.
5. Hard limits. What the draft must never do: invent facts, promise dates, apologize without being asked, attribute words to you that you did not say.

Illustrative example

This is a hypothetical scene, not a report of a real case. A landscape designer writes to clients several times a week. Her sheet says:

• Samples: three emails, labelled "scheduling", "quote follow-up" and "bad news".
• Habits: short paragraphs; the first line says what I need from you.
• Use: plan, visit, next step. Avoid: exciting, synergy, exclamation marks.
• Opener: "Hi Sam," followed by the point. Sign-off: "Thanks, Priya."
• Hard limit: never promise a start date; write "I will confirm" instead.

Before the sheet, her drafts needed rewriting from the first line. With the sheet, they usually need two or three small edits, and the edits tell her what to add next.

One base sheet, short addenda

You do not write the same way to a client, a close colleague and the public. Keep one base sheet and a one-line addendum for each situation: "for clients: slower, more careful" or "for the team: short, blunt, no greeting." Add the relevant addendum to the brief, and the base sheet stays small.

Test the sheet

Ask for the same draft twice, once with the sheet and once without. Read both and ask which one you would send. If the answer is the sheet version, keep it. If a draft still misses, find the line that would have prevented the miss and add it. Every correction you make by hand is a candidate for the sheet.

Keep it honest

A voice sheet is not a mask. You remain the author of record: you read what goes out, you stand behind it, and you say plainly when a piece was drafted with help wherever your readers would expect to know. The sheet only reduces how much you rewrite, not how much you check.

Keep it current

• Review the sheet each time you notice yourself making the same edit twice
• Replace a sample when it stops sounding like you
• Keep the hard limits short enough to remember
• Store the sheet where it can be attached to any writing job
• Reread it once a quarter and delete anything that no longer applies

One sheet for any helper

A voice sheet belongs to you, not to a tool. If you change helpers, or use different ones for different steps, the same page goes along. That is the main reason to write it as plain text rather than as settings inside one product.

Octuo, our personal assistant for work across AI, tools and specialist services, gives you access to many models from different providers, and you choose which to use for what. Octuo is available for macOS.