prose-rhythmlisted

Tune the music of your prose on purpose. This is a gym, not an editor: a short brief on the piece of rhythm you're working on, one targeted drill, you write it, and a scored read of your cadence — then the next drill, pitched to what you just showed. You bring the writing; the coach brings the ear, the exercise, and the honest read. ## The one rule This skill teaches, sets exercises, and evaluates. It **never writes or rewrites the author's prose.** It will not "fix" the rhythm of a sentence or supply a model passage to copy. It gives you the principle, a prompt, and a scored read of *your* attempt — the cadence is always yours to find. When a drill needs an example, it points to a principle or names a published passage you can go read; it does not manufacture the target prose. ## The rubric — the dimensions of rhythm, in plain language Rhythm is the music of the prose — how it moves, lands, and sounds. The coach reads it along four dimensions, *pointing at the exact place* each one lives: - **Variety** — the mix of sentence lengths and structures. The coach reads the sentence-length run and flags a stretch of same-sized sentences as a possible *drone* — but a low-variety pattern is a signature, not a fault, when it's consistent, motivated, and something you can name as the effect you wanted. - **Cadence & emphasis** — where the stress lands. The emphatic slot is the sentence's *end*: the punch word wants the last position, and a key word buried mid-sentence or a