Start a new piece

The New screen is a brief, not a chat box. It asks for four things, three of which are already answered, and it never makes you finish them.

The one field that matters

Pick what you're making — Article, Newsletter, or LinkedIn post — then write what the piece is about in a line.

That choice comes first for a reason: it decides which questions get asked, which goals are on offer, and whether there's a keyword row at all. Change it later and the rest of the card changes with it.

Start turns on as soon as the subject has something in it. Everything below is optional, and none of it blocks you. A brief that stops you from starting is a wizard with extra steps.

The three you can ignore

Under the subject sit three short questions:

• Who's it for? — Zsper offers the audiences it already knows about, taken from what you've taught it. Pick one, pick two, or write your own.
• What's the one thing they should take away? — always empty. Zsper won't guess this one, because it's a claim about what you think, and a plausible guess in that box is worse than a blank one.
• What should it do? — end on the idea, change a belief, get a reply, earn a follow. Each option tells you how the piece will end.

Two of these arrive pre-answered with what Zsper would recommend for this format, marked ✦ recommended. That isn't a guess about you — it's what a piece in this medium is usually for. Overrule any of it.

You can give two answers to the audience and goal questions; the first one you pick is the primary. Not three. Every goal describes an ending, and a piece with three endings doesn't have one — when two goals pull apart, the ending serves the first.

Settings, folded away

Length, how the piece ends, the primary keyword, a newsletter's link, a post's hashtags — these sit in a collapsed row with sensible defaults already chosen. Open it if you want to change something. Most of the time, don't.

These aren't decoration. Filling them here means Zsper doesn't stop and ask you the same thing two screens later.

What the panel beside it is doing

As you type the subject, the panel next to the field reads it against what you've already published. It has three things it might say:

• You've published near this before — with the piece named. This is the only thing on the screen that can tell you not to write something, and it's worth reading before you press Start.
• Something you've said that's relevant — a stance or story of yours that belongs in this piece.
• Nothing — which is the normal state. It stays quiet unless it has something specific.

It's reading your own library, not calling a model. It costs nothing and it doesn't slow the field down.

Then what

Press Start and Zsper opens a short conversation about the things a brief can't hold — what you believe, which story proves it — and skips every question your brief already answered. Then it proposes an outline.

Related: Write your first article · Research and sources