How I'm Using AI To Write
AI is the co-writer every creator needs. Use it to write and earn more.
Are you worried about AI replacing your job?
Or perhaps you can’t figure out how to use AI in your content creation workflow.
When I started using ChatGPT, I told people it was mind-blowing.
But I was secretly worried.
Would AI put me out of the job and kill my content business?
Why would anybody need to hire or work with a writer if they can plug a prompt into ChatGPT and get something for free?
After a few months of playing around with AI, I enjoyed seeing AI content contain hallucinations and factual inaccuracies.
IBM says, “AI hallucination is a phenomenon wherein a large language model (LLM) perceives patterns or objects that are nonexistent or imperceptible to human observers.”
Basically, it’s when AI takes magic mushrooms and spits out a result but is confidently wrong.
Psychedelics aside, I increasingly use AI in my writing workflow. Here’s how AI is transforming my approach. 🚀📝🤖
1. AI Saves Me Dozens of Hours Creating Content Briefs
I spend several hours each week briefing writers about articles I want them to write for my websites.
Usually, writing a content brief takes 15-30 minutes. I’ve cut this time down by 50% with ChatGPT.
I’ll use a prompt like,
“Hey ChatGPT! I’m writing an article about earning a living from writing. The audience is new writers. Create me a content brief.”
Tip: Install the Prompt Perfect plugin, and it will refine your prompts so the results are more specific.
Boom! Instant content brief.
I sense-check the brief against top-performing examples of similar content online and then commission the piece.
But what if you don’t work with other writers? Well, the next time you want to write an article or another piece of writing, use AI to create a brief for yourself.
Every good creative needs constraints to work within.
Sometimes, I’ll prompt AI to expand on specific sections in a brief like that, but I never publish content written by AI as is.
Instead, I consider the outputs as first drafts that I can expand and revise. AI is helping me write and publish more frequently. I use that free time to learn skills like the art of writing a great AI prompt.
2. AI Frees Creators Up for Deep Work
The best way to get more value from your content is to repurpose it.
That article you wrote for Substack or Medium? It’d make a great thread on X or even a script for a YouTube video.
Repurposing content is time-consuming, though.
Enter AI.
I can create one pillar piece of content and then use AI to rework it for different mediums.
I’ll still add personal impressions and insights, but turning one piece of content into an email, social media post, and article is much easier. It can use AI to expand, shorten, rewrite, and revise.
After writing the article, AI can eliminate drudgework. I can use ChatGPT or Bard for:
SEO audits
To optimize blog post headlines and introductions for the right keywords
To write meta-descriptions and synopses
For that first point, I’ll use a prompt like this:
"Hey ChatGPT, I need to optimize the introduction of my blog post for better SEO. The primary keyword is [Your Keyword Here]. The blog post is about [Brief Description of Blog Topic]. Can you rewrite the introduction to naturally incorporate this keyword while making it engaging and informative for readers interested in [Related Subject]? The target audience is [Describe Target Audience]. Please ensure the tone is [Specify Desired Tone, e.g., professional, friendly, informative]."
I regularly use ChatGPT and other AI tools to create 5-10 variations of headlines for YouTube, Medium, LinkedIn, and even podcast episodes. I tell ChatGPT what the topic is and then pick the best headline.
Fun fact: the AI versions often get better clickthrough rates.
3. AI Is a Personal Research Assistant
I’ve interviewed several New York Times best-selling non-fiction authors over the years for my podcast.
Do you know what many of the best non-fiction writers have in common?
Research assistants.
They employ someone who does the heavy lifting for them.
The writer must still write their book, but an assistant reduces hours spent wading through research papers, primary sources, and other books.
(Unless your name is Ron Chernow)
What would you pay for a research assistant?
Can you even afford one?
Most writers can’t.
They’d still benefit from working with someone who can handle the laborious parts of writing, like writing citations, synopses and collating information.
That’s exactly what AI can do right now.
In fact, ChatGPT just rolled out an update that supports adding citations and sources to its outputs. Or you can use another AI tool like Grammarly to create these automatically.
4. I’m Building an AI Writing Assistant
I’m experimenting with a ChatGPT personal writing assistant. GPT Builder is still in beta, but anyone can create a personal writing assistant…without code. Click on “Create a GPT” and give it a purpose. Now, refine and configure your ChatGPT instance to suit how you write.
For example, I asked Social Scribe (my personal ChatGPT) to analyze my writing using this prompt:
Please analyze the given piece of writing for its tone, sentence structure, and style. Then, use your analysis to generate additional outputs that reflect similar or complementing tone, sentence structure, and style. Your responses should be influenced by the specific characteristics identified in the original writing, and they should demonstrate an understanding and application of the tone, sentence structure, and style observed in the provided text.
Now, when I use ChatGPT to generate an output, it's like having a digital writing partner. The results I get are closer to my tone and voice. It's as if ChatGPT is learning to mimic the nuances of my writing. The results aren’t perfect, but they’re a useful first draft.
Worried About AI? Ask Yourself This BIG Question
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman explained people still play and watch chess even after IBM’s Deep Blue machine beat world champion chess player Gary Kasparov in 1997.
In fact, in 2020, Chess.com saw a whopping 238% increase in new sign-ups.
Writing isn’t going anywhere, and neither are writers.
We just got a new tool.
If you’re still worried about AI, ask yourself this BIG question: “What one thing can I write or create today that AI can’t?”
The answer is key to what you should do next.