How to get better writing from ChatGPT
If you’ve tried using ChatGPT to write for your business and weren’t happy with the results, I understand why you might have given up. There’s plenty of criticism of AI writing, and when your own draft sounds like every other AI-generated post you’ve seen, it’s easy to decide there’s no point.
But those first results don’t tell you everything about what ChatGPT can do for your writing. I know because I used to spend hours rewriting its drafts, and now I get writing that’s better than what I could write myself while still sounding like me.
I still need to edit the drafts, but I spend much less time on it than I used to. Getting to something I’m happy to publish takes some back and forth, but at least I'm starting with something that's close to usable.
Why ChatGPT often gets it wrong
When business owners are disappointed with ChatGPT’s writing, two things are usually missing: their voice and their expertise. They’ve told it what to write about, but haven’t given it enough information about how they speak and write or what they know.
For instance, an interior designer is writing about organizing a kosher kitchen in a small space. The value of that post comes from the designer’s experience: what clients need, what works in a small kitchen and what they’d recommend based on the kitchens they’ve designed. This can't be replicated simply by telling ChatGPT to "write a post about organizing a kosher kitchen."
And then there's the voice. An enthusiastic designer, a serious one and one with a sense of humor give similar advice in very different ways. The post should use the terminology that designer uses and sound like something they’d actually say. This makes for more authentic writing that appeals to potential clients.
What changed in my own writing
My first ChatGPT drafts had wording and punctuation that sounded like AI. I’d spend so much time removing those issues and rewriting the content, that I wasn’t getting the time savings I’d hoped for.
That changed after I learned to give it better information. I saved my writing preferences, created rules for each client and improved the way I asked for things.
I also started having conversations with ChatGPT before asking it to write a draft. Talking through ideas gives me a chance to share my knowledge and decide what I actually want to say before working on the wording.
Those changes made a big difference. I spend much less time editing now, and the drafts give me something useful to work with.
Better writing still needs you
I don’t expect to copy a draft from ChatGPT and publish it without reading it carefully. I still check whether the information is true, whether it sounds like me and whether the piece says what I wanted it to.
For me, better ChatGPT writing means getting a draft that expresses my ideas well and needs much less editing. Sometimes it helps me explain something more clearly than I would have managed on my own.
That’s why I wouldn’t dismiss it based on a few disappointing attempts. There’s a lot of room between your first draft and the results you can get once you’ve built a useful foundation.
A foundation you can keep using
In my one-on-one ChatGPT writing sessions, we work on that foundation using your business and your content. You’ll leave with a draft you can lightly edit and publish, along with the tools to repeat the process.
We’ll save information about your business and writing style so you don’t have to explain it every time. You pay for one session and can use what you’ve learned whenever you write a blog post, email or social media post.
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