Using Preset Styles

Overview

Genesis Writer ships with three flagship voices — Lean, Lyrical, and Voice-Driven — plus 15+ curated preset styles that cover every major fiction genre. Each style has been carefully designed to produce prose with a distinct voice and rhythm — a romance style writes differently from a horror style, and the three flagship voices write differently from one another in ways a reader can identify at a glance.

Presets are the fastest way to get high-quality, voice-appropriate AI output. You don't need to build anything or write any prompts. Just browse, pick a style that fits your story, and start generating.

The three flagship voices

• Lean — plain words, short sentences, physical action over interior monologue. The Hemingway / Carver / early-McCarthy tradition. Runs a two-pass pipeline (Draft + Tighten) to keep ornament out.
• Lyrical — long sinuous sentences, sensory accumulation, mythic register. The Marilynne Robinson / late-McCarthy / Toni Morrison tradition. Reaches for what almost cannot be said.
• Voice-Driven — a narrator with a pulse. Conversational, self-aware, comedic timing under hard subject matter. The Saunders / Sedaris / Lockwood tradition.

Each flagship style ships with a voice example — a sample passage you can read in the style's detail panel before applying it. If you can't feel the difference between the three from the example alone, the style abstraction has failed. Reading the examples is the fastest way to pick the right one for your project.

Genre Categories

Preset styles are organized into nine genre categories. Each category contains multiple styles with different personalities — you won't find a single “Fantasy” style, but several Fantasy styles ranging from epic to cozy to grimdark.

Anatomy of a Style Card

Every style is displayed as a card with several elements that help you understand what the style does before you apply it:

• Name — a short, evocative label (e.g., “Lean,” “Velvet Dagger,” “Starforge”).
• Tagline — a one-line description of the style's voice.
• Voice example (flagship styles) — a sample passage of prose in the style. The single best signal for what you'll get.
• Illustration — a unique ink drawing in the Genesis Ink art style that captures the style's mood.
• Category — the genre category the style belongs to.
• Description — a longer explanation of what the style does to your prose.

The voice example on a flagship style card tells you what the prose will sound like

Browsing Styles

There are two places to browse preset styles:

1. The Style Selector in the writer toolbar — click the style name in the toolbar to open the selector. You'll see your library of saved styles plus an option to browse all available styles.
2. The Marketplace — navigate to the Style Marketplace from the main navigation. The marketplace shows all public styles, including presets and community creations, with filtering and sorting options.

Both views let you search by name and filter by category. The marketplace also supports sorting by popularity, newest, and trending.

Browse styles directly from the writer toolbar without leaving your draft

Applying a Style

Applying a style takes one click:

1. Open the Style Selector from the writer toolbar.
2. Browse or search for the style you want.
3. Click the style card to apply it.

That's it. The style is now active. All subsequent AI generations — Write, Continue, Rewrite, Expand, plugins — will use the selected style's voice profile until you change it.

Previewing with Style Test

Not sure if a style is right for your story? Use Style Test to preview it before committing. Style Test lets you feed sample text through the style and see what comes out — without affecting your actual draft.

1. Open a style's detail view (click the info icon or expand the card).
2. Click Style Test.
3. Paste or type a sample passage from your story.
4. The AI generates a version of that passage using the style's voice.
5. Compare the output to your original to see if the style fits.

Style Test costs tokens just like any other generation, but it's worth it to avoid applying a style that doesn't match your vision. Try testing the same passage across two or three styles to find the best fit.

Adding Styles to Your Library

When you find a style you like, add it to your library for quick access. Library styles appear at the top of the Style Selector, so you don't have to search for them every time.

To add a style to your library, click the Add to Library button on the style's card or detail view. You can remove it later if your tastes change.

Your library is personal — other users can't see what styles you've saved. Think of it as your bookshelf of favorite voices.

Switching Between Styles

You can change styles at any point during your writing session. This is especially useful when different parts of your story call for different voices:

• Use a tense, clipped style for action scenes.
• Switch to a lyrical, descriptive style for atmospheric passages.
• Drop into a precise, minimal style for dialogue-heavy chapters.
• Switch to a creative, high-temperature style when you're exploring.

Switching is instant — just open the Style Selector and click a different style. There's no delay, no restart, and no effect on text you've already generated or written.

Tips for Choosing a Style

• Read the voice example. The flagship styles all surface a sample passage in the detail panel. Read it. If it reads like prose you'd want to write, the style will produce more of it. This is the single best signal you have.
• Match school to story. Lean fits hard-edged contemporary fiction and crime; Lyrical fits long-form literary, historical, and Southern-Gothic; Voice-Driven fits first-person, comic, or memoir-adjacent work. Mismatches feel off — a Voice-Driven paragraph in a sparse crime novel will yank the reader out.
• Match genre to preset. For the 15+ genre presets, start with the one that matches your story's genre category. A romance preset in a horror novel (or vice versa) can produce jarring results.
• Test before you commit. Always run a Style Test with a passage from your actual project. Generic sample text won't tell you how the style handles your characters and setting.
• Don't settle. With three flagship voices, 15+ presets, and the ability to create your own, there's no reason to stick with a style that doesn't feel right.
• Mix and match. Some writers use one style for drafting and another for editing passes. Lean is excellent for a tightening pass on prose that came out too ornate; Lyrical is excellent for re-drafting flat passages with more sensory weight.

Want to build a style from scratch? Head to Creating Custom Styles. Or browse the full collection on the Style Marketplace.