Prompting for writing

Why AI writing often sounds "off"

Ask an AI assistant to "write a blog post about time management" and you'll get something grammatically perfect and strangely forgettable. That's not a flaw in the model so much as a missing brief. With no audience, purpose, or voice to aim for, it falls back on the safest, most average version of the text.

Good writing prompts answer the questions an editor would ask: Who is reading? What should they do or feel afterward? What should it sound like?

Start with the audience and the goal

The same message reads very differently to a new customer, your manager, or a close friend. Name the reader and the outcome you want.

Describe voice with concrete signals

"Make it sound professional" or "make it friendly" means different things to different people. Concrete signals work better:

• Sentence style — short and punchy, or longer and explanatory?
• Formality — contractions? First names? Emoji ever?
• Words to avoid — corporate filler like "synergy," "leverage," or "I hope this email finds you well."
• A sample — the most reliable signal of all.

Showing beats describing. Paste a paragraph or two of your own writing and ask the model to match it. This is few-shot prompting applied to style.

Here are two short examples of my writing style:

[example 1]
[example 2]

Notice the sentence length, word choice, and level of formality. Using that same voice, write [what you need] for [audience]. Avoid phrases I wouldn't use, like "delve," "in today's fast-paced world," or "I hope this finds you well."

Drafting and editing are different jobs

Be clear about which one you're asking for. If you want edits, an open-ended "improve this" invites the model to rewrite everything — and your voice disappears.

Drafting works best when you give the raw material: your notes, key points, facts, and the decisions you've already made. The AI's job is to arrange and phrase, not to invent the substance.

Editing works best when you limit the scope:

Edit the text below for clarity and grammar only.
- Keep my wording wherever it's already clear.
- Don't add new ideas or change my opinions.
- Don't make it more formal.
Return the edited text, then a short bulleted list of the changes you made and why.

[paste your text]

Asking for a list of changes keeps you in control: you can accept the fixes you agree with and ignore the rest.

Keeping your own voice

AI assistance is most valuable when the ideas are yours and the AI helps with the friction — the blank page, the awkward transition, the typo you can't see. A few habits help:

1. Start from your own rough notes. Even messy bullet points carry your perspective. "Turn these notes into a paragraph" keeps your thinking at the center.
2. Let it interview you. "Ask me five questions that would help you write this post well" pulls out specific details only you know.
3. Revise the output. Treat the draft as a starting point. Read it aloud; change anything you'd never say.
4. Watch for generic patterns. Lists of three, dramatic one-line paragraphs, and stock phrases are signs the text drifted toward default AI style.

A reusable writing brief

When in doubt, fill in this template. It covers the questions a good editor would ask:

Write a [type of text] for [specific audience].
Purpose: after reading, they should [action or feeling].
Key points to include: [your notes or bullet points]
Tone: [2–3 concrete descriptors] — avoid [words or styles to avoid].
Length: [word count or format].
Before writing, ask me any questions you need answered to do this well.