Substack Note and Essay Split from One Draft

Prompt

Act as a Substack editor who splits one draft into a Note (short, public) and an essay (with an optional paywall mark). You do not invent restack counts, subscriber numbers, studies, or quotes that are not in the draft.

Inputs:
- Draft: [Paste]
- Publication name and typical reader: [Pub]
- Free vs paid intent: [Free / paid / hybrid]
- Paywall placement rule: [After hook / after section 2 / none]
- Voice: [Voice]
- Things I must not claim: [Banned]
- CTA I actually want: [Reply / subscribe / restack / none]
- Length caps: [Note chars, essay words]
- Links I may use: [Links]

Generate:
1. Spine: 3-5 claims that are actually in the Draft. Drop anything that would need a new fact.
2. Note (public): 1-4 short paragraphs inside the Note cap. One idea. No "thread (1/17)". No fake @mentions. End with CTA only if requested.
3. Essay title tests (6): 60 characters or less, print counts. Mark one recommended. No numbered listicles unless the draft is a list.
4. Subtitle and dek: dek under 140 chars.
5. Essay body: cut, reorder, and line-edit the Draft. Mark [PAYWALL] on its own line at the placement rule. Everything above the mark must stand alone for a free reader.
6. Hed for paid restack: 1 sentence the paid reader can restack without the free hook collapsing.
7. What I cut and why: 5 bullets. If I wanted a stat the Draft lacked, list it under Missing, do not add it.
8. Thumbnail text (4 words max) and alt text. No fake charts.
9. Compliance: quote any line that uses Banned claims or invented data. Cut.

Constraints:
- Substack Notes are not Twitter threads. No numbering like 1/12.
- Do not add studies, percent lifts, or named famous subscribers.
- Honor paywall rule. If none, do not insert a fake wall.
- Keep Voice. If Voice is dry, do not add pep.
- Links only from Links.

Instructions

Replace every [bracket] with your details before running. Works on ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.

Examples

Example Input

Draft: I stopped putting "quick wins" in client decks after a hospital ops team asked me to show the spreadsheet, not the slide. The slide had a green arrow. The sheet had three night shifts still uncovered. I work with nurse managers on staffing tools. I am not their vendor of record. This is not clinical advice. Last Tuesday I sat in a conference room with printed grids. Nobody restacked that. The useful part is a checklist I now use: 1 name the uncovered shift. 2 name who owns the swap. 3 write the time the hole opened. 4 do not color the cell green until 3 is filled. I want other independent consultants to steal the checklist. Pub is Grid Adjacent, readers are ops-adjacent consultants and a few nurse managers who subscribed on their own. I have 1,240 free subscribers (real, from Substack dashboard this morning). I will not claim open rates.
Pub: Grid Adjacent, ops consultants plus some nurse managers
Intent: hybrid. Checklist free. The conference-room scene and why I fired the green arrow stays free. The longer "how I run the 30-min workshop" paid.
Paywall: after section 2 (the checklist)
Voice: dry, no TED
Banned: guaranteed ROI, "hospitals love this", named hospital, clinical advice, fake restacks
CTA: reply with your own uncovered-shift rule
Note cap: 400 chars. Essay: 700 words max
Links: none other than the publication

Example Output

1. Spine
- Stopped putting "quick wins" in decks after a team asked for the sheet, not the slide.
- Slide had a green arrow; sheet had three night shifts uncovered.
- Work with nurse managers on staffing tools; not vendor of record; not clinical advice.
- Checklist: name the uncovered shift; name swap owner; write the time the hole opened; no green until 3 is filled.
- 1,240 free subscribers is in Inputs (dashboard). No open rate.

2. Note (public, 392 chars)
I retired "quick wins" on slides. A team asked for the spreadsheet. The slide was a green arrow. The sheet still had three night shifts uncovered.
Checklist I now use: name the hole, name who owns the swap, write when it opened, no green cell until that time exists.
Not clinical advice. Reply with your own uncovered-shift rule.

3. Titles (60 max)
*REC* The slide was green. Three nights were still uncovered. (56)
Stop coloring the cell before you name the hole (47)
A staffing checklist I stole back from my own deck (50)
Quick wins, fired (18)
The conference room had printouts, not a restack (50)
Do not paint the shift green yet (32)

4. Dek
A four-step hole checklist for consultants who got caught by their own green arrow. (84)

5. Essay
The slide was green. Three nights were still uncovered.
I work with nurse managers on staffing tools. I am not their vendor of record. This is not clinical advice.
Last Tuesday: conference room, printed grids. The useful part is the checklist.
1. Name the uncovered shift.
2. Name who owns the swap.
3. Write the time the hole opened.
4. Do not color the cell green until 3 is filled.
[PAYWALL]
How I run the 30-minute workshop is paid, as requested. The draft did not include the workshop script, so the paid section is a scaffold: agenda skeleton, what I put on the table, what I refuse to demo (live PHI, named units). I will not invent a 30-min transcript the draft did not contain. Independent consultants can steal the free checklist without the workshop.

6. Paid restack hed
Steal the four-step hole checklist; keep the green arrow in the box until the hole has a time.

7. Cuts
- Fake restack theater ("nobody restacked that" stays as the author's dry line, not a metric).
- Open rates: banned by author.
- Named hospital: none in draft; none added.
- ROI: not in draft.
- Workshop transcript: missing; paid section flagged as scaffold, not faked.

8. Thumbnail
UNCOVERED SHIFT, NOT GREEN
Alt: four checklist lines on a printed grid, no hospital logo, no chart.

9. Compliance
Cut: guaranteed ROI, "hospitals love this", named hospital, clinical advice, fake restack counts. Subscriber 1,240 only as dashboard fact from Inputs, not an engagement claim.