# Writing styles

> Save, share and apply a prose style across novels.

Source: https://reverie.im/en/docs/writing/writing-styles
Language: en

A writing style is a reusable profile that decides how a [novel](https://reverie.im/en/docs/writing/novel-mode) reads — perspective, tense, prose density, rhythm, how much dialogue, how much imagery, pacing — plus tone tags, things to avoid and free-form instructions. It is the third step of the novel wizard, and it turns up again in **Novel Settings → Writing style** and in the [chat-to-novel](https://reverie.im/en/docs/writing/chat-to-novel) dialog.

The step has three tabs: **Presets**, **Custom** and **Library**.

## Presets \[#presets]

| Preset                 | What it does                                                                                                        |
| ---------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Adaptive default**   | Lets the story and recent prose set the voice. This is what you get if you never touch the step.                    |
| **Cinematic**          | Clear physical staging, purposeful images that serve character and tension.                                         |
| **Light novel**        | Character-close prose, lively dialogue, controlled inner reactions, clean paragraphs.                               |
| **Restrained realism** | Precise behaviour and concrete detail instead of melodrama.                                                         |
| **Tender romance**     | Intimacy built through subtext, hesitation, touch and character-specific reaction.                                  |
| **Noir suspense**      | Limited information, concrete clues, compressed rhythm, consequential uncertainty.                                  |
| **Fast web fiction**   | Clear causality, fast momentum, micro-payoffs, hooks at real boundaries.                                            |
| **Mature sensual**     | Slow, body-aware intimacy with consent and anticipation. Only takes effect where mature content is already enabled. |

## Custom: describing or extracting a style \[#custom-describing-or-extracting-a-style]

The **Custom** tab has two ways in, and both end at **Extract style**.

* **Describe it** — write what you want in plain language: *third person, short sentences, restrained emotion, more dialogue, fewer metaphors*. The AI turns the request into a consistent, reusable profile.
* **Paste a sample** — paste a passage whose craft you want as a reference, between 12 and 12,000 characters. The sample is analysed and converted into craft attributes; it is treated as untrusted reference material and is not kept in the long-term prompt.

Extraction returns **How this style was extracted**: a **Confidence** rating of Low, Medium or High across eight aspects — voice and tone, perspective and narrative distance, sentence rhythm, dialogue and character voice, emotion and interiority, description and imagery, narrative pacing, word choice — each with the **Evidence** behind it, what was **Applied to the profile**, **Limits to keep in mind**, and a short **Style demonstration** with the techniques it carried across.

The **Style demonstration** is kept with the style and shown to the AI as an example of how to write; it never becomes part of your story. A sexual demonstration reaches only novels with mature content enabled.

## Reading and adjusting the profile \[#reading-and-adjusting-the-profile]

Whatever you pick, **Current style profile** shows a one-line summary plus badges for perspective, tense, pacing and the first few tone tags. **Advanced controls** opens the seven dials:

| Control             | Options                                                |
| ------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Perspective**     | Adaptive · First person · Second person · Third person |
| **Tense**           | Adaptive · Past tense · Present tense                  |
| **Prose density**   | Lean · Balanced · Rich                                 |
| **Sentence rhythm** | Tight · Balanced · Flowing                             |
| **Dialogue**        | Sparse · Balanced · Dialogue-led                       |
| **Imagery**         | Selective · Grounded · Vivid                           |
| **Pacing**          | Slow · Balanced · Fast                                 |

Adjusting a dial edits the profile in hand; it does not change the preset or the saved style you started from.

## Preview it on your own cast \[#preview-it-on-your-own-cast]

**Preview on real story content** generates a short sample using the characters, persona and premise you actually selected — not a generic paragraph. **Try again** re-rolls it.

If the sample is the opening you wanted, **Use as opening** promotes it to the novel's first passage. You can also write or paste your own **Opening prose** in the same step; either way that text becomes real story text and the strongest immediate anchor for the voice. Leave it empty and the AI writes beat one instead.

## Saving and sharing \[#saving-and-sharing]

**Library** lists **My styles** and **Public styles**, with **Use style** to apply one.

**Save the current profile** stores what you have: a **Style name** (up to 60 characters), an optional description (up to 300) and a visibility of **Private**, **Link only** or **Public**. **Copy sharing link** hands a style to someone else; a public style shows up under Public styles with its creator's name.

A shared style the platform finds sexual is listed and usable only for accounts with 18+ content turned on.

> **A style is snapshotted into the novel.** When you start a novel, the
> profile is copied onto it. Editing a shared style later — or deleting it —
> never re-tones novels that already use it. Changing a novel's style in its
> settings applies from the next generated passage onward; prose that already
> exists is not rewritten.

## Related \[#related]

* [Novel mode](https://reverie.im/en/docs/writing/novel-mode) — where the style step sits in the wizard
* [Directing prose](https://reverie.im/en/docs/writing/directing-prose) — the per-turn half of the same job
* [Chat to novel](https://reverie.im/en/docs/writing/chat-to-novel) — picking a style for an adaptation