Unlock a new level of writing with generative AI

"Hello, I'm here," a soft and slightly raspy female voice introduces herself from a computer in a dimly lit LA apartment.

Startled, Theo struggles to respond to his new AI companion. "Oh, hi," he managed to mumble. This is when he realizes he has met a new artificial human-like entity. They begin a relationship that is both professional and, ultimately, deeply personal.

As Theo in the movie Her, most of us have had these moments in real life in the past few months. Suddenly, we have access to new generative AI tools, like ChatGPT, that can converse intelligently on almost any topic.

But how can we form a fruitful collaborative relationship with generative AI when writing?

In the last few months, I've been working with ChatGPT daily. Here are eight ways AI can help us write faster and better.

1. Think of AI as a writing collaborator

Many great writers have an editor or assistant that they regularly bounce ideas off, help the draft outlines, and craft the final text. Now, all of us have that collaborator with AI.

That's the best mental model I think we can take for working with AI. It's not a printer that gives us a finished text based on a quick prompt. The results of doing that are typically average and keep you from communicating in your own voice and honing your own thinking.

I have conversations about writing with ChatGP throughout the whole journey of creating a text, from idea generation to outlining to the finished thing.

During the writing process, I often ask for feedback from ChatGPT.

2. Supercharge idea generation

You'll never have to stare at the aggressively blinking cursor of the blank page again. Instead, you can start by prompting possible ideas around a theme from tools like ChatGPT.

You could ask ChatGPT, for example, to "give me 20 creative titles for a series of blog posts about remote work". For additional context, you could say it targets senior HR decision-makers.

I never copypaste ideas from ChatGPT, but it always provides a useful first push of creative energy to get me started.

3. Research together with AI

Digging deep into the internet for valuable research takes time and effort. With ChatGPT, you can directly ask it to provide facts and figures that could take hours to dig up.

For example, try prompting ChatGPT to "find me 15 surprising facts and studies about the effects of remote work. Include sources when you can". You can also use it to find amusing anecdotes to spice up your writing.

Sprinkling these facts and figures makes your writing more credible. Be aware, though, sources and citations are one area where ChatGPT is known to hallucinate quite a bit. So always double-check the provided sources online.

In addition to finding single pieces of information or anecdotes, you can use ChatGPT to research broader topics. This is especially useful if you're diving into a theme you're unfamiliar with. Try prompting, "Explain (theme) to me like I'm five" or "Give me a simple overview of (theme)." You can continue this discussion with the AI to dive deeper into any part you're interested in.

I often find supporting arguments for an opinion I’m writing about from ChatGPT.

4. Draft an outline with AI

There are two ways to draft an outline with AI. I prefer doing a first pass of the outline to start my thinking and take inventory of what comes to mind. I then feed the summary to ChatGPT and ask if I need to include anything relevant. The second way is to ask ChatGPT to give you an outline of a given topic. If you're going this route, remember to include enough context for the AI to provide a useful starting point.

Prompt the tool, for example, to "give me an outline of a blog post titled (title). The target audience is (title) in Fortune 500 companies. I want the blog post to position my company as the leading provider of (solution)".

5. Write in your voice

As I said, in most cases, I prefer to do my writing to include my voice and improve my thinking. Text generated by an AI is also usually quite average - although it's improving with each version.

Sometimes, you might want the AI to generate a first draft of the text. To do it in your voice, prime ChatGPT (or similar tools) to write in your or your company's voice.

You can prompt, "Below is an example of my writing (paste a representative sample text). Write me an article titled (title) in my style". Another way to do it is to paste a significant body of text to ChatGPT and ask it to describe its style with adjectives. You can then feed these style cues whenever you want it to write in your style.

I wouldn't use any text straight from an AI tool, but always refine it to suit the purpose.

6. Edit with your machine collaborator

Once you have a first draft of your text, AI tools can take your writing from a C to a B+ in a heartbeat.

A straightforward way to do it is to copy your text directly to ChatGPT and ask it to "make the text below more clear, fluent and engaging. Also correct any spelling and grammar mistakes. List any changes made". You'll get an edited version of your text in seconds.

You can also ask the AI to refine your text in a specific direction to, for example, align with your brand voice (" make the text below more friendly and conversational").

If you're stuck on a particular part of your text, it's also helpful to use ChatGPT to "make this sentence clearer" or "give me 5 versions of this sentence that are more engaging".

I also like to combine different writing tools. As I write, I usually have Grammarly open, which corrects my spelling and grammar inline. I then paste the text to ChatGPT for further refinement on style and tone.

You can also use ChatGPT to create a repurposed version of your text. For example, you can ask it to create a Linkedin post of Tweet thread of your more extended blog post.

ChatGPT is great at repurposing texts for different platforms.

7. Use generative AI ethically

Any writing you publish is naturally always your responsibility. So remember to check any facts and claims from other sources before letting it into the world.

Also, like I said, I wouldn't use AI-generated text directly as my output. How ethical that would be is still up for societal debate, but it doesn't feel right for now.

So there you have it.

Hopefully, these 6 principles will help you get going with using generative AI to boost your writing. Based on the last few months of collaborating with AI, I don't see it replacing humans (yet), but as a hyper-smart and knowledgable co-pilot for writing or any other human endeavor.

Also, I quite like ChatGPT, but I don’t think I’m falling from it anytime soon like Theo did with Sam.