Flesh on the Bones: Drafting Section by Section
Transform your skeleton outline into living prose—one bite-sized section at a time for maximum control and quality.
"Then he said to me, 'Prophesy to these bones... I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.'"
— Ezekiel 37:4-6
In the Bible, the prophet Ezekiel reports a vision in which he stands amidst a valley of dry bones. There, God commands him to tell the bones what he is about to do. Just as breath entered dead bones in Ezekiel's prophecy, you now stand ready to transform your bare-bones outline into living words.
The skeleton awaits only the sinew, flesh, and skin—the style and voice that will allow your ideas to walk down the page with attitude.
Your thoughts have been captured, organized, and distilled. The language model has been primed to channel your unique perspective, based on your source material, in your preferred style of writing.
Setting Up the Drafting Conversation
Begin this phase by initiating a new conversation with Claude. The accumulated length of your outlining conversation adds up to a lot of context, which will slow down responses. In resetting, you'll need to provide key context just once, at the beginning:
The Style Sheet (if you created one)
A single source material document containing:
Main point/thesis
Detailed skeleton outline
Menu of quotes/Cheat sheet
Timestamped outline
Full transcript
Here's an example opening prompt:
"I'm attaching a style sheet and source material for an article I'm writing. You'll be helping me draft this piece section by section. The main point is [X]. Please review the materials and confirm you're ready to begin drafting."
The Importance of Bite-Sized Drafting
From here, if you said "Proceed," Claude would churn out an entire article conforming loosely to your outline. But don't do this.
Instead, narrow the focus to a single, short section:
"Let's start with the introduction. Based on my outline, draft a 150-word opening that hooks the reader with [specific angle] and establishes the main point."
Going section-by-section prevents AI meandering and enables course correction. I've found Claude more reliably addresses all outline details when given a narrow scope.
Handling Section Transitions
When drafting articles section-by-section, AI models often conclude each part as a standalone piece. This results in repetitive or vague summary sentences that disrupt the flow.
Fix #1: Simply delete repetitious final sentences so one section flows directly into the next.
Fix #2: Provide Claude overlapping context—include the end of Section 1, the header for Section 2, and the first bullet point of Section 2. With this context, Claude will write a smooth transition.
Calculating Section Length
The optimal length depends on your total sections and target article length:
2,000-word article with 5 sections → ~400 words per section
500-word article with 3 sections → ~150-175 words per section
Pad each request slightly over your per-section tally to give yourself a buffer for editing.
Enriching AI First Drafts
While a detailed outline provides critical direction, additional customization helps refine the draft. As you draft, you may realize certain sections require more elaboration.
Option 1: Modify your bullet point outline in Notion. Insert instructions formatted to stand out—Claude will follow guideposts like from within the document.
Option 2: Offer guidance apart from the outline:
"For this section, focus on improving connections between ideas and transitioning smoothly from the previous section about [X]."
Working with Quotes
When transforming interview transcripts into article drafts, be strategic with quotes:
Introduce guests naturally early on with full name attribution
Vary between repeating their name and using pronouns
Balance between exact quotes and paraphrasing
Preserve succinct, eloquent soundbites where personality shines
Lightly edit quotes for brevity and clarity; for sweeping changes, paraphrase instead
The Iterative Dance
AI-assisted writing is an iterative dance, relying on human judgment at each step:
Prompt for a section draft
Review the output
Provide feedback or edits
Continue to the next section
Repeat
Remain open to surprises in the final form your argument takes. Claude's first draft may reveal connections you hadn't considered.
This post is adapted from "Commanding the Page" (2023).