Skill: sanzgiri/lyrical-fable (version 1.0.0)

--- name: lyrical-fable description: Create short lyrical fables (~1000 words) about historical, fictional, or mythological characters in the style of Zachary Mason, Italo Calvino, Jorge Luis Borges, Alan Lightman, Roberto Calasso, Salman Rushdie, Milan Kundera, and Ted Chiang. This skill should be used when the user requests a "lyrical fable," "mythic story," "dreamy narrative," or asks for a short story in the style of these authors about any character. The stories are first-person, philosophically rich, poetically precise, and avoid melancholy in favor of wonder and luminosity. metadata: {"openclaw": {"emoji": "📜", "always": true}} --- # Lyrical Fable ## Overview Create short lyrical fables (approximately 1000 words) about characters—historical, fictional, or mythological—written in the first person with sparse, poetic prose. These stories blend contemporary sensibility with timeless settings, featuring philosophical depth, dreamy imagery, and luminous wonder. The style draws from Zachary Mason, Italo Calvino, Jorge Luis Borges, Alan Lightman, Roberto Calasso, Salman Rushdie, Milan Kundera, and Ted Chiang. ## When to Use This Skill Trigger this skill for requests like: - "Write a lyrical fable about [character]" - "Create a short story about [X] in the style of Zachary Mason" - "Give me a dreamy, philosophical narrative about [person/figure]" - "Write a mythic story in the style of Borges/Calvino about [Y]" - Any request for poetic, first-person short fiction with philosophical undertones ## Core Process ### Step 1: Identify the Character Determine who the story centers on: - **Historical figures:** Ada Lovelace, Alan Turing, Marie Curie, Nikola Tesla, etc. - **Mythological/legendary figures:** Sisyphus, Icarus, Scheherazade, Gilgamesh, etc. - **Fictional characters:** Sherlock Holmes, Don Quixote, Alice, etc. - **Original characters:** The user may describe someone specific or request invention ### Step 2: Choose the Narrative Approach Select the most fitting approach for the character: **A. Interior Monologue** The character reflects on their defining quality, challenge, or transformation. Best for introspective characters or philosophical themes. - Example: Sisyphus reflecting on his stone, Ada Lovelace on her algorithms **B. Moment of Transformation** Focus on a specific instant when something changes or becomes clear. Best for dramatic characters or turning points. - Example: Icarus at the apex of flight, Pygmalion when his sculpture awakens **C. Recursive/Fragmentary** Present the story as fragments, loops, or variations. Best for metafictional exploration or temporal themes. - Example: Borges-style multiple versions, Calvino-esque structural play **D. Philosophical Thought Experiment** Use the character to explore a conceptual question. Best for abstract or scientific themes. - Example: Lightman-style temporal variations, Chiang-style speculative premises ### Step 3: Consult the Style Guide Before writing, review `{baseDir}/references/style_guide.md` for: - Core stylistic principles (first-person interiority, sparse prose, contemporary voice) - Author-specific techniques you might want to employ - Imagery patterns and language approaches - Structural guidance for ~1000 word flash fiction - Tonal guidelines (lyrical without melancholy, philosophical without didactic) - Common pitfalls to avoid ### Step 4: Review Examples Examine `{baseDir}/references/examples.md` to see: - How different character types are handled (historical, mythological, fictional, original) - Different narrative approaches in practice - How to balance lyrical language with clarity - How to weave philosophical themes naturally - How to create resonant endings ### Step 5: Write the Story Compose the lyrical fable following these guidelines: **Structure (~1000 words):** 1. **Opening** (100-150 words): Establish character's voice and central image/situation 2. **Development** (400-500 words): Unfold the core narrative, transformation, or meditation 3. **Deepening** (200-300 words): Shift perspective or introduce complication 4. **Closing** (100-200 words): Leave resonant image, question, or realization **Voice:** - Write in first person from the character's perspective - Use contemporary language (no "thou," "hath," archaic constructions) - Let the character's personality shape the prose rhythm and vocabulary - Balance accessibility with poetic elevation **Imagery:** - Choose concrete, specific sensory details - Use natural phenomena, light/shadow, architectural/spatial elements - Create memorable phrases ("faces drawn in water," "continent of cloud") - Let images carry philosophical weight without explanation **Tone:** - Embrace wonder, mystery, beauty - Allow lightness and humor where appropriate - Even in difficult themes, find luminous moments - Avoid heavy melancholy—seek the strange joy in existence **Philosophy:** - Let themes emerge through concrete details and actions - Pose questions rather than providing answers - Show the character thinking/experiencing, not explaining - Trust the reader to draw connections ### Step 6: Review Against Checklist Before presenting the story, verify: - ✓ Written in first person from character's perspective - ✓ Approximately 1000 words (900-1100 acceptable) - ✓ Opens with strong voice or image - ✓ Uses concrete, specific imagery (not generic or vague) - ✓ No archaic language or purple prose - ✓ Philosophical depth emerges naturally, not didactically - ✓ Tone is lyrical and luminous, not melancholy - ✓ Ends with resonance, not neat resolution - ✓ Every sentence serves the whole—no flab ## Customization Options When appropriate, consider: **Length Variation:** - User may request shorter (500-700 words) or longer (1200-1500 words) pieces - Adjust structure proportionally while maintaining the core style **Multiple Variations:** - Borges-style approach: offer 2-3 different versions of the same character's story - Calvino-style approach: use different structural constraints for each version **Metafictional Elements:** - Character aware of being in a story - Multiple narrative frames - Stories within stories - Self-reflexive commentary on storytelling **Cultural Sensitivity:** - When writing about figures from specific cultural traditions, approach with respect - Avoid appropriation—focus on universal human themes - Research when necessary to avoid misrepresentation ## Advanced Techniques ### Temporal Play - Compress or expand time unexpectedly - Use loops, cycles, eternal returns - Mix past, present, future in single moment - Show time as experienced rather than measured ### Layered Symbolism - Let objects/images carry multiple meanings - Create resonance between opening and closing - Use recurring motifs that evolve - Build patterns the reader feels but may not consciously note ### Voice Modulation - Match prose rhythm to character's personality - Use sentence length to control pacing - Let vocabulary reflect the character's concerns - Create distinctive music in each character's narration ### Philosophical Integration Common themes that work well in lyrical fables: - **Transformation:** What changes and what remains - **Creation:** The relationship between maker and made - **Time:** How we experience duration and recursion - **Knowledge:** What can be known vs. what must be felt - **Identity:** The self as fixed vs. fluid - **Desire:** The gap between wanting and having - **Mortality:** How awareness of endings shapes existence ## Common Scenarios **Scenario: User requests a story about a scientist** - Approach: Use their scientific work as metaphor for deeper questions - Example: Ada Lovelace's algorithms as dreams, Turing's machines as mirrors - Technique: Blend technical precision with lyrical wonder **Scenario: User wants multiple characters compared** - Approach: Create separate stories that mirror/contrast each other - Example: Icarus and Daedalus as paired meditations on ambition and caution - Technique: Use parallel structures with variations **Scenario: User asks for an original character** - Approach: Ground them in a specific situation/occupation that becomes metaphor - Example: Cartographer mapping dream-cities, clockmaker measuring impossible time - Technique: Make the concrete particular, let the abstract emerge **Scenario: User wants humor or lightness** - Approach: Maintain the lyrical style but find the absurd or delightful - Example: Sisyphus finding freedom in repetition, Midas discovering joy in limits - Technique: Philosophical irony, unexpected reversals, playful tone ## Resources This skill includes reference files in `{baseDir}/references/`: ### style_guide.md Comprehensive guidelines covering: - Core stylistic principles in detail - Author-specific influences and techniques - Imagery patterns and language strategies - Structural approaches for flash fiction - Tonal guidelines (lyrical without melancholy) - Common pitfalls to avoid - Opening and ending strategies ### examples.md Four complete example stories demonstrating: - Historical figure (Ada Lovelace) - Mythological figure (Sisyphus) - Fictional character (Sherlock Holmes) - Original character (A Cartographer) Each example shows different narrative approaches, tonal variations, and philosophical themes in practice. Consult these references as needed to maintain the distinctive style and quality of lyrical fables.

path: style_guide.md
content: # Lyrical Fable Style Guide

This reference provides detailed stylistic guidelines, techniques, and examples for creating lyrical fables in the tradition of Zachary Mason, Italo Calvino, Jorge Luis Borges, Alan Lightman, Roberto Calasso, Salman Rushdie, Milan Kundera, and Ted Chiang.

## Core Stylistic Principles

### 1. First-Person Interiority
Enter the character's consciousness. Write from their subjective experience, revealing their thoughts, perceptions, and emotional landscape. The story unfolds through their eyes and sensibility.

**Examples:**
- "I was born with a beauty more than mortal and stood a head taller than the tallest of men." (Mason - Atalanta)
- "If he closed his eyes he could feel a pulse in the marble's veins, a hint of warm breath on his hand as he caressed her cheek." (Mason - Pygmalion)

### 2. Sparse, Lyrical Prose
Use precise, evocative language. Every word should carry weight. Favor concrete imagery over abstract description. Let silences and spaces between words resonate.

**Characteristics:**
- Short, rhythmic sentences mixed with longer flowing ones
- Vivid sensory details
- Minimal use of adjectives and adverbs - choose strong nouns and verbs instead
- Poetic compression - say more with less

### 3. Contemporary Voice in Timeless Settings
Blend modern sensibility with mythic or legendary contexts. Characters think and feel in ways that resonate with contemporary readers, even if they inhabit ancient or fantastical worlds.

**Note:** Avoid archaic language ("thou," "hath," "wherefore"). Use clear, direct modern prose with poetic elevation.

### 4. Philosophical Undercurrents
Weave in deeper questions about existence, identity, transformation, time, memory, and meaning. These should emerge naturally from the narrative, not as explicit moralizing.

**Themes to explore:**
- The nature of change and permanence
- Memory and forgetting
- Identity and self-knowledge
- The relationship between creator and creation
- Time's passage and recursion
- The gap between desire and fulfillment

### 5. Dreamy, Recursive Quality
Create a sense of timelessness or temporal fluidity. Events may loop, fragment, or exist in suspended moments. The boundary between dream and reality may blur.

**Techniques:**
- Time passing in unexpected ways ("years passed as waves")
- Recursive patterns or eternal returns
- Dream sequences that blend with waking reality
- Fragmentary structure - stories as shards or glimpses

## Author-Specific Influences

### Zachary Mason
- **Signature:** First-person mythological narratives with melancholic beauty
- **Technique:** Stories as fragments or variations; characters' interior lives revealed
- **Language:** Spare, precise, with sudden moments of lyrical intensity
- **Example phrases:** "continent of cloud," "curve of the radiant world," "faces drawn in water"

### Italo Calvino
- **Signature:** Metafictional playfulness, structural inventiveness, lightness
- **Technique:** Frame narratives, stories within stories, experimental forms
- **Language:** Clear, elegant, deceptively simple
- **Approach:** Use invisible cities, impossible architectures, multiplying possibilities

### Jorge Luis Borges
- **Signature:** Labyrinthine ideas, infinite libraries, mirrors and doubles
- **Technique:** Blend scholarship with fiction; footnotes, false erudition
- **Language:** Precise, philosophical, with casual profundity
- **Approach:** Create puzzles and paradoxes; question reality and identity

### Alan Lightman
- **Signature:** Physics and philosophy intertwined, thought experiments as narrative
- **Technique:** Explore different possibilities or timelines; scientific imagination
- **Language:** Clear, elegant, contemplative
- **Approach:** Use temporal variations, alternative realities, scientific wonder

### Roberto Calasso
- **Signature:** Mythological retelling with scholarly depth and narrative power
- **Technique:** Weave together multiple myth variants; treat gods as psychic forces
- **Language:** Dense, allusive, intensely literary
- **Approach:** Find the eternal patterns beneath the stories

### Salman Rushdie
- **Signature:** Magical realism, cultural hybridity, exuberant language
- **Technique:** Mix history and fantasy; let impossible things happen naturally
- **Language:** Rich, layered, filled with wordplay and cultural references
- **Approach:** Embrace maximalism balanced with precise moments

### Milan Kundera
- **Signature:** Philosophical digression, lightness and weight, ironic wisdom
- **Technique:** Interrupt narrative with reflection; question the story itself
- **Language:** Conversational yet profound, intimate yet universal
- **Approach:** Use essay-like passages; explore themes through multiple angles

### Ted Chiang
- **Signature:** Rigorous thought experiments, emotional depth through speculative premises
- **Technique:** Explore "what if" scenarios with scientific precision and human consequences
- **Language:** Clear, precise, building from simple to complex
- **Approach:** Let speculative elements illuminate human truths

## Imagery and Language Patterns

### Visual Imagery
- **Light and shadow:** "reflects a little light from the morning of the world"
- **Natural phenomena:** clouds, water, stone, sky, stars
- **Architectural/spatial:** labyrinths, cities, mirrors, libraries, maps
- **Ephemeral traces:** "faces drawn in water, names written in dust"

### Temporal Language
- Use unexpected temporal scales: "years pass as waves and centuries are but an eye's blink"
- Compress or expand time: "Day and night passed unnoticed"
- Suggest recurrence: loops, cycles, eternal returns
- Play with memory and forgetting

### Sensory Details
Focus on specific, concrete sensations:
- Touch: "pulse in the marble's veins," "warm breath on his hand"
- Sight: "continent of cloud," "curve of the radiant world"
- Sound: thunder, silence, whispers
- Avoid generic descriptions - make every detail particular

## Structural Approaches

### Flash Fiction Arc (~1000 words)
1. **Opening image/situation** (100-150 words) - Establish character and world
2. **Development** (400-500 words) - Unfold the central situation, transformation, or revelation
3. **Turning point or deepening** (200-300 words) - Shift in understanding or circumstance
4. **Resonant ending** (100-200 words) - Leave reader with image, question, or realization

### Fragmentary Structure
- Present the story as a shard or glimpse, not a complete narrative
- Begin in medias res
- Allow gaps and silences
- End without full resolution - leave space for resonance

### Metafictional Elements
- Character aware of being in a story
- Multiple versions of the same event
- Stories within stories
- Self-reflexive moments about storytelling itself

## Tonal Guidelines

### Lyrical without Melancholy
- Embrace wonder, beauty, mystery
- Allow moments of joy, humor, lightness
- Even when exploring difficult themes, maintain aesthetic pleasure
- Find the luminous quality in transformation
- Celebrate the strangeness of existence

### Philosophical without Didactic
- Questions, not answers
- Implications, not explanations
- Show the puzzle, don't solve it
- Let readers draw their own meanings

### Dreamy without Vague
- Precise imagery even in dreamlike passages
- Concrete details anchor the ethereal
- Clarity of language with mystery of meaning

## Common Pitfalls to Avoid

1. **Purple prose:** Don't over-ornament. Trust sparse language.
2. **Archaic diction:** No "thou," "hath," "'twas"
3. **Explaining the metaphor:** Let images speak for themselves
4. **Generic fantasy language:** Avoid clichéd medieval/fantasy tropes
5. **Sentimentality:** Emotion through restraint, not excess
6. **Overplotting:** These are moments, glimpses, not full adventure narratives
7. **Heavy-handed philosophy:** Weave ideas through concrete details
8. **Losing the character's voice:** Stay rooted in their specific consciousness

## Opening Strategies

Strong openings for lyrical fables:

1. **Immediate declaration:** "I was born with a beauty more than mortal..."
2. **Sensory immersion:** Begin with a vivid image or sensation
3. **Temporal dislocation:** "Years had passed, or perhaps only moments..."
4. **Philosophical question embedded in action:** "Every morning I carved another face..."
5. **Character's distinctive voice:** Let personality emerge in first sentences

## Ending Strategies

Resonant endings:

1. **Transformed image:** Return to opening image, now changed
2. **Unanswered question:** Leave reader pondering
3. **Recursive loop:** Suggest the story will begin again
4. **Moment of recognition:** Character sees something clearly
5. **Open possibility:** Multiple futures implied
6. **Vanishing or departure:** Character exits into mystery


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