For months, everything I generated had the same quality: technically fine, faintly corporate, absolutely characterless. Delve, leverage, robust, in today's fast-paced landscape.

I assumed the fix was better prompting on each task. It was not. It was a standing instruction set once.

What actually worked

Banning words helps a little. Specifying rhythm helps far more, because the tell is not vocabulary, it is that every sentence is the same length.

Adding an example of your own writing helps most of all. Two paragraphs you are proud of does more than any list of adjectives.

Where to put it

Custom instructions, a project, or a saved style. Anywhere it applies by default, because the instruction you have to remember is the instruction you will forget.

# Writing style, applies always

Write in plain British English.

Vary sentence length deliberately. Some
short. Then one that runs longer and carries
a qualification inside it.

Never use: delve, leverage, robust, seamless,
landscape, unlock, elevate, game-changing,
in today's world.

No em dashes. Use commas or rewrite.

Prefer a concrete example over an adjective.

If a claim needs a hedge, hedge it honestly
rather than removing the claim.

Takes two minutes to set up and it improves every single output afterwards. The highest return on time of anything in this section.