Teach Claude to Write Like You (A Step-by-Step Setup for Cowork)

Teach Claude to Write Like You (A Step-by-Step Setup for Cowork)

Most AI writing sounds like AI writing. It's polished, it's generic, and it sounds nothing like you. That's because the AI doesn't know how you write - it's guessing.

This guide fixes that. You're going to show Claude examples of your real writing, have it figure out what makes your style yours, and save those rules so it remembers them every time. The whole thing takes about 30 minutes to set up, and it gets better the more you use it.

You'll be using Cowork, which is Claude's desktop app. If you haven't used it before, don't worry - I'll explain each piece as we go.

What You'll End Up With

Two skills that work together:

A writing skill that knows your voice. Every time you ask Claude to write marketing content, it checks your rules and writes in your style - without you having to remind it. It only loads the rules for the content type you're writing, so it's not cluttered with irrelevant information.

A learning skill that updates those rules. After Claude writes something, it asks what you think. Your feedback automatically updates the right file - whether that's your LinkedIn patterns, your email patterns, or your general voice rules.

You don't need to manage these manually. Once they're set up, the whole feedback loop happens inside normal Cowork conversations.

What You'll Need

Cowork installed on your Windows machine. You can download it from claude.ai if you haven't already. 

A working folder. This is just a regular folder on your computer that you tell Cowork to use. Create one called AI Marketing inside your Documents folder. When you open Cowork, it'll ask you to select a folder - point it here.

5 to 10 pieces of your own writing that you're happy with. LinkedIn posts, email intros, newsletter sections, capability statements - whatever you want Claude to be able to write more of. They don't need to be perfect, just representative of how you actually sound. A mix of content types is ideal if you have them.

Step 1: Set Up Your Folders

Inside your Documents\AI Marketing folder, create this structure:

AI Marketing/
├── examples/               ← your writing samples go here
├── patterns/               ← one file per content type (created in Step 3)
├── pending-feedback/       ← Claude saves drafts here for tracking
└── skills/
    ├── marketing-content/  ← the writing skill goes here
    └── marketing-learning/ ← the learning skill goes here

You can create these in File Explorer, or just ask Claude in Cowork: "Create the below folder structure for my marketing content system in the working folder"  and paste the above in.

Then drop your writing samples into the examples folder. One file per piece. Plain text (.txt) will be easiest so you can paste the content into Notepad and save it there. Give them descriptive names so you can tell what's what - something like linkedin-post-automation-tips.txt or email-intro-new-service.txt.

Step 2: Have Claude Analyse Your Writing Style

Open a new conversation in Cowork and paste this in:

Read all the files in my examples/ folder. For each one, figure out what type
of content it is, how it's structured (opening, body, closing), what the tone
is like, and how long it runs.

Write two things:

1. A file called marketing-patterns.md in the working folder with:
   - Core Voice Principles (things that apply across ALL my content)
   - Phrases and Hooks That Work
   - What to Avoid
   - Feedback History (leave empty for now)

2. A separate file in patterns/ for each content type you found. For example,
   if you found LinkedIn posts and emails, create patterns/linkedin-posts.md
   and patterns/email-copy.md. Each file should cover:
   - Structure (opening pattern, body format, closing/CTA)
   - Length and Formatting
   - Tone Notes (anything specific to this type)
   - Examples of What Works
   - What to Avoid for This Type

Keep everything practical - bullet points and short explanations.
If you spot anything inconsistent across my examples, flag it rather than
averaging it out.

Claude will create the files. The key thing here is the split: marketing-patterns.md holds the shared stuff (your overall voice, current topics, feedback log), while each file in patterns/ holds the rules for one content type.

Read through all of them. If Claude missed something or got something wrong, edit the files directly in any text editor. These are living documents - they'll keep evolving as you use the system.

Step 3: Have Claude Build Your Skills

A skill in Cowork is a set of instructions that Claude loads automatically in the background. Once set up, you don't need to remind Claude of your writing rules in every conversation - it just knows.

You need two skills. The writing skill handles content generation. The learning skill handles feedback processing. Open a new Cowork conversation and paste this in:

I need you to build two skill files for my marketing content system.

Read marketing-patterns.md and all files in patterns/ and examples/ first.

FIRST SKILL - marketing-content (skills/marketing-content/SKILL.md):
This skill fires whenever I ask Claude to write marketing content. It should:

- Contain my UNIVERSAL voice principles - things that apply to everything I
  write regardless of content type
- Route to the right content-type file: when writing a LinkedIn post, read
  patterns/linkedin-posts.md. When writing an email, read patterns/email-copy.md.
  Only load the rules for the type being written.
- If a content type doesn't have a patterns file yet, offer to create one
- After generating content, ask for my feedback
- Process simple feedback inline (log positive feedback, update the right
  patterns file for adjustable changes, propose edits for structural changes)

Keep it under 500 lines. Be specific - write rules Claude can actually follow.

SECOND SKILL - marketing-learning (skills/marketing-learning/SKILL.md):
This skill processes feedback on my writing and updates the right files. It
should:

- Know where rules live: universal voice in the writing skill, content-type
  rules in patterns/*.md, shared adjustable stuff in marketing-patterns.md
- Classify feedback as POSITIVE, ADJUSTABLE, or STRUCTURAL
- For adjustable changes: figure out if it's specific to one content type
  (update that patterns/ file) or applies to everything (update
  marketing-patterns.md)
- For structural changes: propose an edit and tell me which file it affects.
  Never apply structural changes without my approval.
- Log all feedback to the Feedback History section in marketing-patterns.md
- Be able to review accumulated feedback and suggest which patterns should
  become permanent rules

After creating both skills, tell me what went where and anything you
weren't sure about.

Read through the skill files Claude creates. The writing skill matters most - it shapes everything Claude writes for you. If something's off, tell Claude what to change or edit the files directly.

Step 4: Register Both Skills

Go to Customize > Skills > Add Skill in Cowork and add both:

1. Point to Documents\AI Marketing\skills\marketing-content\SKILL.md

2. Point to Documents\AI Marketing\skills\marketing-learning\SKILL.md

From now on, Cowork loads your voice rules automatically whenever you ask Claude to write marketing content. The skills run in the background - you don't need to mention them.

Step 5: Test It

Open a new Cowork conversation and ask Claude to write something. Try: "Write me a LinkedIn post about why business leaders need to be able to laugh at themselves."

Claude will load your universal voice principles and your LinkedIn-specific patterns, write the piece, then ask for your feedback. Give it an honest response - "mostly good but the opening is too formal" or "nailed it." Claude will classify your feedback and update the right file automatically.

If it's your first time writing a content type that doesn't have a patterns file yet, Claude will offer to create one. Just say yes and it'll set one up based on your examples and voice principles.

How It Works Day to Day

The beauty of this setup is you don't need to think about the plumbing. You just write and give feedback.

When you ask Claude to write something, the writing skill figures out the content type, loads only the relevant pattern file, and writes in your voice. It asks what you think when it's done.

When you give feedback, Claude puts it in the right place. "LinkedIn posts should be shorter" updates patterns/linkedin-posts.md. "Be more casual this month" updates marketing-patterns.md. "Always open with a question" gets proposed as a permanent rule for you to approve.

When you want to update your rules directly, just say "update my writing patterns" in Cowork and tell Claude what's changed. The learning skill handles the rest.

After 10 to 15 feedback entries, ask Claude to review your feedback history and suggest which patterns have proven themselves enough to become permanent rules. This is how your system graduates from "learning" to "trained."

Tips

• Start with one content type. Get this working for LinkedIn posts (or whatever you write most) before expanding. Each new content type gets its own patterns file, so you can add them one at a time.

• When in doubt, it goes in the patterns file. Skill changes are permanent and affect everything. Pattern file changes are easy to undo. If you're not sure where a rule belongs, put it in the content-type patterns file or marketing-patterns.md.

• Back up before approving structural changes. Before approving any permanent edit, copy the file being changed and add .bak to the name. If something goes wrong, rename the backup to roll back.

• Clean up the pending-feedback folder. It accumulates files. Once feedback has been processed, delete old files so things stay tidy.

• Each content type evolves independently. Your LinkedIn voice might get dialled in after 5 rounds of feedback while your email copy takes 10. That's fine - they're separate files with separate histories.

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