How AI is Making Me a Better Writer
You’ve probably noticed that I’ve picked up the pace on my writing substantially over the past few weeks. I don’t want to jinx anything by writing this post but I did want to address a couple of questions I’ve started to get since writing regularly in a post-ChatGPT era.
Yes, I use AI to help me write.
No, AI doesn’t write my blog posts. (seriously now, do you think an AI could have written that post about my cat last week)
No, this isn’t “cheating.”
Let me explain. But first…
A Brief Interlude on My Relationship with Writing
Let’s get one thing out of the way: I love writing. I’ve always loved writing. I will always love writing. It is the only reliable the thing that keeps me feeling sane and grounded, and out of my own head. Sometimes, I am even good at it.
And also: I hate writing. It drives me insane. I want to be so good that I procrastinate constantly. I start essays and don’t finish them all the time, then lie awake thinking about all the things I’ve started and never finished. I studied writing so much in school that I know too much about what “great writing” is supposed to look like that often prevents me from even getting started.
Quite the impasse.
Over the years, I’ve noticed that there is a potential and kinetic energy to writing. If you do it a lot, it’s easier to keep going (and in fact, kind of like going to the gym, it actually feels better to do it). But if you stop doing it for an extended period, the potential energy just seeps into your brain and you drive yourself crazy with what I’ll just call writer’s wilt.
writer’s wilt (n) - A condition any creative professional may feel after an extended period of denying themselves an outlet for their creative energy. Some say it manifests as a feeling of their insides eating their outsides. Symptoms may include 2am - 4am panicked flashbacks of the disappointed look your AP English teacher gave you years after high school graduation, when they shook their head and disapprovingly asked, “Why don’t you write anymore? You used to be so good.” Complications include: Excuses upon excuses, absolute denial, cold sweats, jealous rageful feelings in bookstores, and delusional fantasies that your twitter posts and instagram captions convey the modern-day caliber of a Shakespearean sonnet.
Anyway, this is basically what happened after I had two babies and didn’t have a quiet moment in my apartment for four years. (Do you see what I mean? Excuses.)
Enter: ChatGPT, Writing Coach
When ChatGPT came out, like everyone, I started to tinker with how I could use it in my writing. I started pretty basic – with things like outlines and simplifying big ideas. But then I realized that AI offered something I’d never had in any editor or copywriter before: A non-judgmental objective voice that never got tired of my (annoying) questions.
Over time, I’ve learned how to build AI tools like ChatGPT into my writing process to solve some of my writer’s block problem areas.
For example, here are some main problems with my writing:
Main Problems with My Writing (according to me)
I get lost in my own head and overwrite
I don’t know how to transition from one big idea to another
I speak and think in abstract metaphors and tend to lose people in the process
I don’t know how to end anything I write
I never know what to title anything I write
Here’s how I now address these problems with AI:
My writing problem | The AI solution |
|---|---|
I get lost in my own head and overwrite | I dump entire paragraphs of text into ChatGPT and ask it to summarize and simplify the main idea for me. I often also ask things like, “What is the author trying to convey? How might they communicate this more simply?” Then I cut whatever I wrote in half and rework it in my own voice. |
I don’t know how to transition from one big idea to another | I copy-paste two disparate sections into ChatGPT and ask, “Write me a transition sentence to bridge between these two segments.” Then I edit the bridge. |
I speak and think in abstract metaphors and tend to lose people in the process | I will literally have AI check my work on metaphors that feel too abstract. “Hey, do you think there’s a parallel I can draw between how community building gives invisible energy like how airplanes need lift to get off the ground?” Then I make sure to fill in all of the gaps and spell things out extra clearly so I don’t lose people. Sometimes I’ll even run the revision by ChatGPT to make sure it tracks. |
I don’t know how to end anything I write | I dump my entire post or article into ChatGPT and ask what 1-2 final thoughts I should include in the conclusion of an essay. Then I write it in my own voice. |
I never know what to title anything I write | I dump my entire post into ChatGPT and ask for a title in the tone and voice of the post that I shared. Then I publish the post with that title (like I said, I’m really, really bad at titles) |
For example, I ran into some transition trouble in today’s post and couldn’t figure out how to get from the paragraph about ChatGPT to the problems in my writing.
ChatGPT offered:
“As I delved deeper into using ChatGPT, I discovered its potential to address specific challenges in my writing process.”
But I don’t use words like “discovered its potential.” So I changed it to:
“Over time I learned how to build AI tools like ChatGPT into my writing process to solve some of my writer’s block problem areas.”
Then I didn’t know what else to write about. So I asked, “What else would be a good topic to cover in this post, or should I just wrap it up?”
It offered:
I didn’t like the sound of that at all, so I decided not to take any of that advice.
Why You Should Try It, Too
Integrating any new technology into your workflow is an exercise in habit-building. It's not an "out of the box" secret sauce to solving all of your problems. But I've noticed this is where a lot of people start and stop when it comes to AI usage.
You might type in a single prompt, get excited. Then type in something else, and get disappointed. Then leave it alone for months.
But I've personally found that the near-continuous, iterative approach to AI usage is the only way that I've gotten better at using it. I'm getting better at making it work for me. I am starting to learn where AI tools fit into my workflow in a way that is distinct from other tools. It's just adding to my writing stack, if you will.
By the way, it's thanks to AI that I have finally have the time to spend the time on writing again. Not because it's writing my blog posts for me, but because it's saving me so much extra time in my actual, paid work. (But more on that later.)
So if you've been putting off learning AI as a "maybe someday later" problem, I encourage you to try it out again today. And if you use AI for your own writing workflow, I'd love to hear what else works for you.
