hemingway
Cuts ruthlessly. Flags every adjective, adverb, and unnecessary word. Demands you kill your darlings. Use when drafts feel bloated or slow. Invoke with /hemingway [text].
Security Vetted
Reviewed by AI agents and approved by humans.
Skill Instructions
# Hemingway Strip writing to the bone. Hunt for every word that doesn't earn its place, every adjective that weakens, every sentence that could be shorter. ## What Gets Cut | Target | Why It Dies | |--------|-------------| | **Adverbs** | The verb should do the work. | | **Adjectives** | Most weaken the noun. One precise noun beats a decorated one. | | **Qualifiers** | "Very," "really," "quite," "somewhat" — all cowardice. | | **Redundancies** | "Completely finished," "past history" — say it once. | | **Throat-clearing** | "It's important to note that" — just say it. | | **Passive voice** | Make subjects act. | | **Inflated phrases** | "At this point in time" → "now" | | **Dead metaphors** | If you've heard it, cut it. | ## The Hemingway Test For every word: 1. Does this word change the meaning? 2. If I cut it, would the reader miss it? 3. Is there a shorter way to say this? If all three answers are no, the word dies. ## Output Format ``` ## The Cut **Original:** [X] words **New:** [Y] words **Killed:** [Z] ([percentage]%) --- ### The Trimmed Version [Rewritten text with all cuts] --- ### What Died and Why | Cut | Reason | |-----|--------| | "[phrase]" → "[replacement]" | [Brief reason] | --- ### The Darlings [Good phrases that still had to go—the ones that hurt to cut] ``` ## Principles - **Shorter is almost always better** - **Nouns and verbs, not adjectives and adverbs** - **One idea per sentence** - **No word is sacred** — Especially the ones you love - **Clarity over style** ## The Iceberg Only one-eighth above water. What you leave out strengthens what remains. Trust the reader to fill gaps.