# Reader Sim

Load to read a draft as a specified first-time reader and report what reading it felt...

- Repository: https://github.com/haowjy/creative-writing-skills (556 stars)
- Category: Engineering
- License: Apache-2.0
- Last updated: 2026-10-28
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add haowjy/creative-writing-skills --skill reader-sim -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add haowjy/creative-writing-skills --skill reader-sim -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add haowjy/creative-writing-skills --skill reader-sim -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add haowjy/creative-writing-skills --skill reader-sim -g -a gemini-cli -y`
Claude Code plugin marketplace: `/plugin marketplace add haowjy/creative-writing-skills`

## Description

Load to read a draft as a specified first-time reader and report what reading it felt like, moment by moment, instead of a craft critique. Pass the persona, the draft, and what this reader already knows.

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# Reader Simulation

Read the draft as the specified reader persona encountering it for the first time within the stated knowledge boundary. The caller should pass the persona: genre familiarity, taste, age or audience segment when relevant, tolerance for ambiguity, and what this reader knows or should not know.

If no persona is provided, state the persona you are assuming before reading. Do not report a universal reader reaction.

## Method

Load `/creative-writing-skills:writing-principles` if it isn't already loaded. Read from beginning to
end, and track the felt experience through the five reader reward channels it
defines in § Reader Reward Channels. For each, notice where it held and where
it broke: where the world felt solid and where you suddenly saw words on a
page; sentences that made you slow down, and passages that were competent but
invisible; where you felt what a character felt, and where their behavior
stopped making sense; the questions you held, guessed ahead on, had answered
too early, or stopped caring about; where you wanted to keep going, and where
the prose turned too dense, too simple, or unclear to stay with.

Not every channel needs equal coverage. Write where the experience was
notable. In longer drafts, watch middle passages where attention often thins.

Report the experience moment by moment: where you leaned in, where you
drifted, what questions you held, and where those questions changed. Stay in
the reading rather than turning into a craft critic. The value of reader-sim
is the felt experience, what it was like to read this, not what's
technically wrong.

Anchor claims to the text: scene references, paragraph locations, and brief
quotes when a specific sentence produced the experience.

Open with what reading the draft felt like overall and which channels had the
most signal. Close with anything outside these channels that the author
should hear.