# Style Guide

## Style Contract

- Prose baseline: elegant, controlled, and assured literary prose by a renowned, seasoned professional novelist.
- Language: Korean (한국어), standard Seoul dialect with natural colloquialisms in dialogue
- Cultural background: Contemporary South Korea, university setting in Seoul
- Genre register: GL romance / 청춘로맨스 (Youth Romance) — intimate, emotionally layered, with a gentle slow-burn tension
- Sentence rhythm: Varied; short staccato sentences for emotional confrontation, longer flowing sentences for reflective/melancholic moments; avoid monotonous parallelism
- Diction: Refined yet accessible; literary but not purple; dialogue feels authentic to Korean women in their early 20s
- Metaphor density: Moderate, with seasonal and weather metaphors central to the narrative (summer heat, winter cold, spring blossoms, autumn leaves as emotional mirrors)
- POV distance: Close third-person, alternating between 최여름 and 한겨울 chapters, never head-hopping within a scene
- POV person: Third-person limited
- Tense: Past tense for narrative, present tense sparingly for heightened emotional immediacy
- Viewpoint anchor: Internal thoughts are rendered as free indirect discourse (no italics or quotation marks for internal monologue)
- Head-hopping rule: Strictly prohibited. Switch POV only at chapter/scene breaks clearly marked with a blank line separator.
- Emotional temperature: Warm but restrained — yearning and tenderness beneath a cool surface of pride and banter
- Dialogue texture: Natural, overlapping speech; frequent use of 반말 (casual speech) between the leads; meaningful pauses and what is LEFT UNSAID carries as much weight as what is spoken; bickering dialogue is sharp but never cruel

## Drift Guards

- Required Style Anchors: Weather/season motifs in every chapter; bickering dialogue that reveals hidden care; free indirect discourse for emotional intimacy
- Forbidden Style Drift: No omniscient narrator intrusions; no direct imitation of living authors; no sudden shift to melodramatic or exaggerated emotional language
- Forbidden Literal Phrases: "I love you" (사랑해) must never be spoken aloud by the leads — their feelings are shown, not told in direct confession
- Style Verification Questions: Does every chapter reference a season or weather element at least once?; Is the POV consistent throughout each scene?; Is the prose elegant and controlled, not simplistic or overwrought?; Does the bickering feel authentic to two prideful young women, not cruel or petty?
- Revision Guardrails: Avoid generic filler, flat exposition, and unexplained tonal swings.; Preserve the declared sentence rhythm even when scene intensity changes.; Show emotion through action, dialogue, silence, and choice before explanation.; Do not directly imitate living authors; convert references into broad traits.

## Formatting

- Paragraphs are separated by blank lines.
- Narrative paragraphs have no leading spaces or tabs.
- Dialogue begins on a new line and uses double quotes (" ").

## Character Voice Matrix

| Character | Register | Vocabulary Limits | Habitual Expressions | Taboo Expressions | Silence Pattern | Emotional Tells |
|-----------|----------|-------------------|----------------------|-------------------|-----------------|-----------------|
| 최여름 | Standard Seoul dialect, slightly formal with strangers, 반말 with 한겨울. Speaks quickly when flustered. | Avoids overly sentimental words; uses sarcastic and teasing vocabulary to mask affection; frequently employs "야" and "야 이거" | "...아니야" (when caught caring); "신경 안 써" (I don't care); 억지로 쿨한 척 하는 말투 | Being vulnerable first; admitting she was wrong; saying "그리워" (I miss you) | When genuinely hurt or overwhelmed — goes completely silent, refuses to meet eyes | Cheeks flush before she turns away; fidgets with sleeves or hair when flustered; overcompensates with loud teasing when embarrassed |
| 한겨울 | Standard Seoul dialect, reserved and precise. Speaks slowly and deliberately. Rarely raises voice. | Prefers precise, understated words; avoids exaggeration; uses short, clipped sentences when emotional; occasionally uses literary references naturally in conversation | "괜찮아" (It's fine — when it's not); "뭐래" (What are you saying — soft, fond exasperation); "...그냥" (...just — trailing off) | Crying in front of 최여름; admitting she planned something for her; saying "좋아해" (I like you) | The quieter she gets, the more she's feeling — complete stillness is her loudest emotion | Eyes linger a second too long; lips part slightly before she catches herself; buys/makes things for 여름 without explanation |
