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Writing Coach

The Writing Coach teaches craft. It should not answer, “How would you write this for me?” by default. The better prompt is:
Give me an exercise, grade me, and help me improve my own writing.
The coach should also support authors who are starting from nothing. Scritorio should be able to teach foundational writing skills, help shape an idea into a story or nonfiction argument, and guide the author through the process step by step. The coach should produce author work, not just conversation. Its core teaching object is an assignment: a focused, saved practice task with a goal, prompt, constraints, author submission, review, and next revision step. Scritorio should support two coaching modes:
  • one-off coaching for a selected passage, scene, chapter, or craft problem
  • guided curriculum paths that generate a sequence of assignments over time
See Creative Writing Curriculum for the structured course experience.

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Coaching Flow

  1. The author selects a manuscript passage or skill area.
  2. Scritorio diagnoses one focused weakness or opportunity.
  3. The coach creates a focused assignment.
  4. The assignment appears in the project navigation.
  5. The author reads the assignment and writes a response.
  6. The author submits the response to the coach for review.
  7. The coach gives rubric-based feedback tied to the assignment goal.
  8. The author revises or completes the assignment.
  9. The coach assigns one focused revision task for the real manuscript.
  10. The assignment, submission, feedback, and completion state are saved locally.

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Assignments

Assignments are first-class coaching documents. They should feel like the private writing-class layer of Scritorio: small enough to complete, specific enough to teach, and connected enough to help the real manuscript improve. Each assignment should include:
  • title
  • craft focus
  • teaching note
  • prompt
  • constraints, such as word count, point of view, tense, scene condition, or forbidden move
  • rubric
  • author submission
  • coach feedback
  • optional revision prompt
  • manuscript link, when the assignment is tied to a scene, chapter, or planning note
  • status: active, submitted, reviewed, revised, completed, or archived
The left sidebar should expose assignments as part of the project workspace. A useful starting shape is:
  • Active
  • Submitted
  • Reviewed
  • Completed
Assignments should not feel like generic AI prompts. They are curriculum artifacts with a teaching purpose. The coach may generate them dynamically, but the app should present them as durable work items the author can return to, revise, and learn from.

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Assignment Types

  • Warmups: short exercises that help the author begin writing or get unstuck.
  • Craft lessons: targeted practice for a skill such as dialogue, scene tension, prose rhythm, or point of view.
  • Diagnostic assignments: samples the coach uses to learn the author’s current strengths, habits, and feedback needs.
  • Project assignments: exercises tied to the author’s actual manuscript, characters, outline, or style goals.
  • Revision drills: focused passes over existing prose, such as increasing subtext, cutting summary, sharpening stakes, or clarifying a turn.

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Writer Profile

The coach should build a visible writer profile from onboarding, assignments, manuscript feedback, and author edits. The profile should be inspectable and editable by the author. It may include:
  • voice samples
  • genre, audience, and project type
  • admired books or authors
  • preferred feedback style
  • current craft goals
  • strengths
  • recurring habits
  • style constraints the coach should preserve
  • things the author does not want the coach to change
The writer profile should help the coach choose assignments and calibrate feedback, but it should not become an invisible taste engine. The author should be able to correct it.

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Beginner Author Flow

For authors who do not yet know how to write a book, the coach should provide a guided path:
  • choose a fiction or nonfiction project type
  • define the intended reader
  • develop a premise, thesis, or central promise
  • build a structure
  • complete assignments before drafting full chapters or scenes
  • revise with one focused lesson at a time
  • prepare for reader feedback, final polish, and eventual publishing

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Fiction Coaching Modes

  • Dialogue Gym
  • Scene Gym
  • Description Gym
  • Character Voice Gym
  • Subtext Gym
  • Revision Gym
  • Prose Rhythm Gym
  • Point Of View Gym

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Nonfiction Coaching Modes

  • Argument Gym
  • Explanation Gym
  • Structure Gym
  • Analogy Gym
  • Evidence Gym
  • Teaching Sequence Gym
  • Visual Explanation Gym

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Coaching Output

Coaching reports and assignment review files should include:
  • skill focus
  • diagnosis
  • assignment
  • constraints
  • rubric
  • author submission
  • feedback
  • optional grade
  • next revision assignment
The coach should favor one useful lesson at a time. Too many lessons at once makes revision harder, not easier.