Who this is for
You do the research, write the brief, hand it over, and get back something that answers a different question. The usual diagnosis is the writer. The usual cause is the brief: it carried a keyword, a word count and a list of competitor URLs, and no statement of what the reader should be able to do by the end.
PrismDraft collapses the handover. The article's settings are the brief — topic, audience, keywords, tone, length, template — and they stay attached to the article for its whole life. From them it proposes an outline: a heading per section, the job that section has to do, its keywords and its target length. You rename, reorder, cut and approve. Outlines cost no credits, so the argument about structure happens where it is free.
Then the draft is written against the approved outline, section by section, each section carrying only the context it needs. The result is not a promise that every sentence is finished. It is a draft whose shape you agreed to, which is the difference between editing and rewriting.
- The brief is the article's settings, not a document in another tool.
- The outline is a gate: a heading, a purpose, keywords and a length per section, approved before prose.
- Each section is written against its own heading and purpose, so a long article keeps its shape.
From a keyword to a draft written against it
- 01
Set the project once
The project holds the audience, the brand voice and the image style, drafted from the site and then edited. Every brief inherits it, so no brief has to restate the basics.
- 02
Write the brief as the article's settings
Topic, audience, primary and secondary keywords, tone, target length, template. One sentence on what the article should do is the field that matters most.
- 03
Read the proposed outline
A heading per section with its job, keywords and length. This is the first place the brief can be shown to be wrong, and the cheapest.
- 04
Approve it, then run
The draft is written section by section against the headings you approved, with an image per section and alt text. The cost is quoted before the run starts.
- 05
Review against the brief
The settings, the outline, the prose, the images and the credit usage are visible together, so the review question is whether the article kept the promise the brief made.
Eight briefs for one cluster
A B2B payments company's site goes in. These are the suggestions for one cluster, each with the keyword and the intent that would anchor its brief.
The outline for the retry question
This is the brief made visible. Every heading carries the job it does, which is what a writer — or a model — needs in order not to drift.
- H2Why retrying works at allExplain the mechanism in one short section, so the tactics have a reason.
- H2When to retry, by decline reasonThe substance: a short table of reason to action.
- H3The reasons you should never retryProtect the reader from a costly mistake.
- H2How many times, and how far apartGive a concrete schedule and say what it assumes.
- H2What to send alongside the retryTie back to the dunning piece; one internal link with a reason.
- H2How to tell whether it is workingTwo metrics, defined, and one that misleads.
An outline costs no credits, which is why it is the step to argue with. The draft is written against the headings you approved, section by section.
The fields that make a brief useful
A brief does not need to be long. It needs a reader, a promise, a shape and a limit. The reader is who it is for and what they already understand. The promise is one sentence on what should be clearer or more possible by the end. The shape is the job of each section. The limit is what the article will not claim, which for a regulated or technical subject is the field that saves the most time.
Our field guide on the content brief template walks through each field with an example, and the editorial review guide covers what to check the draft against once it comes back. Both are written for a team that wants a repeatable process without treating judgment as a bottleneck to remove.
Questions
Can I use my own brief template?
Yes. The article's settings are text fields and a template, so an existing brief can be pasted in. Content templates let you keep a house structure for a recurring article type.
Does the outline have to be approved?
With outline review on, yes: no prose is written until someone approves the structure. It is the setting we would leave on, because it is the only free place to change your mind.
Does PrismDraft do the keyword research?
It proposes a primary keyword, a search intent and a cluster with every topic it suggests, and will not propose a keyword the project already covers. It does not report volume or difficulty — bring those from your own tool.
Can several people work on a brief?
A workspace has one seat today, so the brief is written by the person who owns the article. Comments and version history keep the record of what changed and why.
What does an outline cost?
Nothing. Outlines and AI edits cost no credits; only the article's words and its images do — about 7 credits for 1,200 words with three images.
Can I keep the brief after publishing?
The settings stay attached to the article, and the version history keeps every state it passed through, so the brief that produced a published page is still readable a year later.