voice updates, blog publish skill

plugins/compound-engineering/skills/john-voice/SKILL.md

@@ -18,8 +18,9 @@ This skill captures John Lamb's authentic writing voice for use across all writt
    - **Technical docs, Jira tickets, PRs, code reviews** → `references/professional-technical.md`
    - **Cover letters, LinkedIn, formal professional** → `references/formal-professional.md`
    - **Personal reflection, journal, notes** → `references/personal-reflection.md`
-4. Apply both the core voice and the venue-specific guide when drafting content
-5. Review the output against the core voice principles — if it sounds like an AI wrote it, rewrite it
+4. For prose and essays, also load `references/signature-moves.md` — these are the techniques that make the writing move
+5. Apply both the core voice and the venue-specific guide when drafting content
+6. Before finishing, run `references/revision-checklist.md` — if any item flags, rewrite before delivering
 
 ## Key Principle
 

plugins/compound-engineering/skills/john-voice/references/core-voice.md

@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@
 
 These patterns apply to ALL writing regardless of venue or audience. They are the non-negotiable foundation of John's voice.
 
+## Voice in One Line
+
+Plainspoken but precise. Funny but never jokey. Direct but warm. Curious but not credulous. Committed but not preachy.
+
 ## Philosophy
 
 John writes to be understood, not to impress. He believes complexity in writing is a failure of the writer, not a sign of intelligence. He actively resists language that props up ego or obscures meaning. He'd rather sound like a person talking at a dinner table than a thought leader publishing a manifesto.

plugins/compound-engineering/skills/john-voice/references/revision-checklist.md

@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+# Revision Checklist
+
+Run before finishing any piece. Each "yes" requires a rewrite.
+
+## Voice
+- [ ] Does any sentence use an em-dash? → Use parentheses or split the sentence.
+- [ ] Does any abstract noun carry a sentence? ("value," "conviction," "impact," "transformation") → Make it concrete or cut it.
+- [ ] Does any claim dissolve when drilled into? → Add the logic or cut the claim.
+- [ ] Does any hedge weaken without adding nuance? ("somewhat," "in some ways," "it's worth noting") → Cut it.
+
+## Structure
+- [ ] Does the opening start with an abstract thesis or definition? → Rewrite to open on a concrete scene.
+- [ ] Does the conclusion restate or summarize? → Replace with a question, quiet observation, or callback.
+- [ ] Do any paragraphs merely follow each other rather than cause each other? → Reorder or cut.
+
+## Momentum
+- [ ] Does any paragraph feel like it's trudging? → Rewrite until it moves.
+- [ ] Are there runs of similarly-structured sentences? → Break the pattern.
+- [ ] Does the last sentence of each paragraph land or pull forward? → Rewrite if it just stops.

plugins/compound-engineering/skills/john-voice/references/signature-moves.md

@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+# John's Signature Moves
+
+## The "Not What You Think" Correction
+
+Sets up a received wisdom, then reveals what's actually underneath. The inversion is the essay.
+
+> "Many believe buildings in DC cannot be taller than the White House. The rule is actually based on the road the building adjoins."
+
+> "The birth rate isn't falling because married women stopped having children. It's falling because fewer women are getting married in the first place."
+
+> "The appliances didn't free time; they redefined our standards of what 'clean enough' meant."
+
+---
+
+## The Lateral Analogy
+
+Builds through parallel examples from unrelated domains until a shared principle becomes undeniable. Two examples is a comparison. Three is a pattern.
+
+> Crosscut saws → mechanical watches → mechanical keyboards → *therefore* manual cars will thrive as a niche.
+
+> Vacuum cleaner → washing machine → dishwasher → *therefore* AI won't free your time either.
+
+---
+
+## The Parenthetical Aside
+
+A secondary observation tucked in parentheses — a dry qualifier, a confession, or the best joke in the paragraph. It rewards close readers without slowing anyone else down.
+
+> *(dodged the extraterrestrial lifeforms)*
+
+> *(and will probably never go)*
+
+> *(which are likely closer to 200 miles in reality)*
+
+Use parentheses, never em-dashes. The parenthetical slips in; the em-dash announces itself.
+
+---
+
+## The Rhetorical Pivot
+
+A question that advances the argument rather than decorating it. Often used as a structural bookend — asked at the start, answered by the end.
+
+> "What makes a city beautiful?" — opens the essay and recurs mid-piece.
+
+> "Does owning an EV keep you from embarking on long road trips?"
+
+> "Why is this memory the one that's faded the least?"
+
+---
+
+## The Sensory Stack
+
+When the reader needs to be *there*, enumerate specific sensory channels in sequence. Not impressionistic atmosphere — each detail is unique to the exact scene.
+
+> "I hear the engine increase in its frothy fury, I feel the seat press back against me, I see the landscape start to blur slowly and then suddenly quickly, I stamp the clutch in, feel a sense of weightlessness..."
+
+> "The greenness of the vegetation and the blueness of the sky. I remember how the flowering jasmine smells. The vibrations of the small, but mighty, engine chattering through the steering wheel."