Even though ChatGPT has been dominating tech news headlines for a full year, we all know that artificial intelligence (and specifically, generative artificial intelligence like ChatGPT) is not new. Website chatbots, Google Predictive Text, and Amazon Alexa all use this technology.
And let’s face it, the ways we use AI today are going to seem primitive in a few months or years! I can’t wait to see what’s on the horizon in 2024.
But for now, as we close out 2023, I wanted to provide a list of ways I’m using generative AI* to improve my creativity and efficiency as a writer. These methods have helped me overcome writer’s block and achieve a better work/life balance since I’m able to do more work in less time!
*My ChatGPT-powered tool of choice is Magai.co, which is why I’m a proud affiliate partner!
1. Generate a First Draft
Write a brief summary of your topic and ask ChatGPT to write a first draft of whatever output you’re seeking. This works great for things like blogs, social media captions, and cover letters. The more you provide in your prompts – such as key points, keywords, and length – the better the output will be.
2. Ideate for Topics
Feeling stuck on new content writing ideas? We all run dry sometimes!
Tell ChatGPT about your audience and the solution you provide, and ask for a list of pain points or FAQs that your audience is likely to have. This prompt works great for coming up with blog, podcast, and video topics. You can also provide your business website and ask ChatGPT to come up with a list of ideas for social media posts, blogs, freebies, and/or video and podcast topics.
3. Summarize a Source
If you’re working on a larger piece of content, and you’re referencing sources, save time by asking ChatGPT to summarize sources for you. Just provide the link to an article or a PDF. As long as the article is not behind a paywall, you’ll get a summary back.
If the source is behind a paywall or you only need a certain section summarized, you can copy and paste the text you want summarized.
4. Expand on a Section
Have you written a paragraph or two but you need the content to be longer? You can ask ChatGPT to expand on what you’ve written so far, to give you more content to work with as you write.
Watch out for long-winded content, however! I often find myself grabbing nice phrases and sentences from the expanded content to weave into what I’ve already created, but I never use the output in full.
5. Ask for Quips/Turns of Phrase/Puns
Some people are funnier than others – I’m in the “others” category, btw – so when it comes to capturing short quips or turns of phrase, it helps to have an AI generator on your side. Ask AI to give you “punchy ways to say (existing word or phrase)” or “give me 10 puns related to (topic)” to inject more fun into your writing. This also works great for alliteration and emojis.
6. Create Event Promotions
When you have an event coming up, such as a conference or webinar, generative AI can save a ton of time in generating content. Simply give the basic who/what/where/when why details and a little info about your target audience. I have found that a summary of the event, including key takeaways that recipients will gain, is also very helpful in the prompt.
After providing those details, ask your AI tool to write social media posts, marketing emails, website landing page content, video scripts, and flyer content. Give just one direction at a time, of course!
I have found AI to be really helpful for writing event promotions because we’re not asking the generator to come up with a ton of new ideas, which it could potentially get wrong. We’re just asking it to rework some existing facts in fresh ways.
7. Write Headings/Subject Lines
Along the same lines as #5, it can be challenging to craft the perfect website heading, blog title, or email subject line to go with the content you’ve just perfected. You want to write something catchy to really grab attention – so why not let AI do the heaving lifting?
You can provide your content in full or just provide a summary of what you’ve created, then ask AI to “generate 10 ideas for an eye-catching ____ to introduce this content.” It is also helpful to also provide a word count for the output, since AI tends to get long-winded.
8. Create a Personality Quiz
A great way to build your email list for your organization is to offer a free resource in exchange for someone’s email address. I recently created a fun and valuable personality quiz for a client, using generative AI to complete the bulk of the work. Check out this article for the step-by-step (including prompts): How to Use Generative AI to Create a Personality Quiz.
9. Ask for Feedback
Whether you’re a seasoned writer or still building your confidence, generative AI can also provide helpful feedback on your work. Ask things like “how would you improve this blog post” or “give me suggestions to make this social media caption more persuasive” to get feedback.
But Don’t Forget…
Always, always, ALWAYS fact-check what your generative AI tool is giving you. It’s been known to plagiarize and make things up. And to make sure you don’t sound like a robot in your copy, make sure you edit for voice, flow, and human touches.
I know I’ve only scratched the surface of what’s possible with AI, and would love to hear about your experiences! Feel free to leave me a comment on my LinkedIn.