[wenc]

I have a steering .md file that instructs Opus how not to sound like an LLM when writing prose (I write prose in my IDE with Opus). The steering is specific to me, but I've found that giving Opus rules like eschewing punchy journalistic sentences ("Not because X. But because Y. And that matters."), varying sentence lengths and avoiding staccato sounding clauses go a long way in smoothing out LLM smells in writing (at least according to me).

Aside: different LLMs sound different too! ChatGPT is the worst offender for LLM-sounding writing and needs the most smoothing, but Claude (web) actually sounds like a humanities major from the get-go.