"Write me an Instagram caption" returns the same caption everyone else got. The problem is not the model — it is the question. A useful prompt is a brief, and a brief has slots.
The five slots
Audience — who specifically this is for and what they already believe. Voice — three adjectives and one thing you'd never say. Material — the raw facts, links or paste of what you're working from. Constraints — length, format, the one idea it must land. Example — one paragraph of your own writing to imitate. Five sentences of context, and the output starts sounding like a draftsman instead of a parrot.
Then edit ruthlessly
The model's draft is the clay, not the pot. We run every output through a second prompt — the critic pass: "Read this as my most sceptical reader. Mark every sentence that sounds generic." Delete every marked sentence. What survives is yours.
All 300 prompts in our library are built on these slots. Steal the method first, buy the library when you're tired of typing the scaffolding.
