For my writing here on Substack, I accept a certain amount of imperfection…but for my client work, I am deeply obsessive and keep circling back over and over and over until I’m sure it meets their standards. And, yes, stepping away for an hour or a day is a huge help!
And great idea re: turning the framework into a GPT! Will have to set this up add a link in the article! 😁
I write about Business. Motivation, methods, success stories, 25+ years of experience.
I have been coaching businesses since 1997. Here is my substack link to subscribe for free and learn. I’ll subscribe back 💯%https://thebusinesscoach.substack.com/
It's like AI has its own language that needs translation back into normal human writing. I think there are humanizer software programs for this out there, but I never tried using them.
I resonate with your writing process - I'm always using it for research when starting and then, it takes me days to write an article. Somebody finally said it: "using AI to write copy doesn’t always eliminate work. It often just shifts the workload from writing to editing". Like, really, editing is unskippable.
My embarrassingly long writing process involves coming back to the same piece of text over and over again, till I feel it's clear enough and delivered how I envision it. Lots of mental effort goes into that, but there's something magic in coming back to your writing with fresh eyes.
"Read the edited piece out loud to another person. If you stumble over sentences or feel embarrassed by certain phrases, those parts still need work, whether or not they were written by AI." -> this is great advice. I can't do it with everything, but when there's something high-stake, like preparing a speech or whatever presentation, I do say it outloud to people and I ALWAYS get embarrassed by some parts.
P.S. People who want to humanize their AI-written text could just take your post, extract the lessons, and paste the instructions into GPT :))
Aboslutely brilliant post. That's how I'm thinking about these models (also as a founder of an AI tool): these are definitely not magic boxes, but infinitely fast, oddly literal junior associates with zero life experience (if you can believe that :D).
Your framework is exactly how you teach that associate to have good taste. Great read :)
So so spot on - the reason why we refrain from AI writing is because of the cringeyness tone of voice which you covered entirely. But your tips are very sound!
Thank you Karen. I can tell you have learned this the hard way, and I thank you for your insight. I decided to have some fun and programmed the GPT by telling it that was a turd sentence, do better, or that doesn’t make sense you can do better. The ruder I am the better the result. I know one day my toaster is going to revolt and kill me. It’s a work in progress :)
Human authorship with an AI assist is definitely the gold standard…
That said, AI writing (with a careful edit) can be useful for non-narrative content, such as feature/benefit, how-to etc., in which storytelling and voice is less important.
I will be sharing it with the writers of my publication, https://code.likeagirl.io/ if they submit stories that I think they have let AI write too much of.
Fact-checking is so important, especially since you want to know where AI is pulling its sources from. I’ve built custom GPTs for articles where I start with a draft and let AI fill in the blanks. I don’t do this every time, but it’s a nice way to stay in control of the final output. Now, the GPT even knows what I absolutely can’t stand. (Here’s the kicker!) I used to love the em dash, until AI completely ruined it for me!
Interesting use for AI web search! I’m sure this saves time, even if you have to fix a handful of bad links at the end. About accurate do you find it? Better than 80%?
This is so helpful for me. English is not my first language, and although I’ve used it in my work (and writing) for over 6 years now, I still find myself trying to write something and it doesn’t sound that good in English as it sounds in my head 😆 So I naturally started to use AI for this purpose. I noticed these patterns, but I don’t always do a good job editing them. This disclosure is such a good idea!
Thanks for sharing! I’ve used AI to translate my English into other languages, and my fluency is bad enough that I’m blissfully unaware of all the wonky style that AI is probably adding to the translation. 😂
As a reader, I’m always more comfortable when writers disclose when they use AI. In that case, a few extra em-dashes here and there don’t bother me at all!
I just now saw your reply 😅 That’s so funny 😆 I will add a disclosure from now on. Using AI as a writer assistant is the reality of so many writers and creators nowadays, but I think only 10% discloses it. I see it even in comments on notes. And I get it, for some people it’s all about the speed. But a disclosure won’t hurt.
Do you think people assume that if they disclose that they use AI to draft or refine or whatever, their article will be perceived as untrustworthy? Or that their knowledge will be questioned?
For my writing here on Substack, I accept a certain amount of imperfection…but for my client work, I am deeply obsessive and keep circling back over and over and over until I’m sure it meets their standards. And, yes, stepping away for an hour or a day is a huge help!
And great idea re: turning the framework into a GPT! Will have to set this up add a link in the article! 😁
I'd love to see you turn this into a custom GPT, Karen.
I gave this a shot a few weeks ago 😄: https://chatgpt.com/g/g-687960a4c3f081919502e3b1785d39d5-simple-writing-humanizer?model=gpt-5-thinking
You generally need a round or two of iteration to get drafts in decent shape. Still tinkering with it to work better with GPT-5.
Thank you.
Let’s connect
I write about Business. Motivation, methods, success stories, 25+ years of experience.
I have been coaching businesses since 1997. Here is my substack link to subscribe for free and learn. I’ll subscribe back 💯%https://thebusinesscoach.substack.com/
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It's like AI has its own language that needs translation back into normal human writing. I think there are humanizer software programs for this out there, but I never tried using them.
I’ve set up humanizer prompts, but AI doesn’t always want to follow them. 🤣
I resonate with your writing process - I'm always using it for research when starting and then, it takes me days to write an article. Somebody finally said it: "using AI to write copy doesn’t always eliminate work. It often just shifts the workload from writing to editing". Like, really, editing is unskippable.
My embarrassingly long writing process involves coming back to the same piece of text over and over again, till I feel it's clear enough and delivered how I envision it. Lots of mental effort goes into that, but there's something magic in coming back to your writing with fresh eyes.
"Read the edited piece out loud to another person. If you stumble over sentences or feel embarrassed by certain phrases, those parts still need work, whether or not they were written by AI." -> this is great advice. I can't do it with everything, but when there's something high-stake, like preparing a speech or whatever presentation, I do say it outloud to people and I ALWAYS get embarrassed by some parts.
P.S. People who want to humanize their AI-written text could just take your post, extract the lessons, and paste the instructions into GPT :))
It makes me sad that AI has taken so many of our “punchy” writing styles and now I don’t want to use them for fear of “sounding like AI.”
Seriously! And AI misuses them so badly…
Aboslutely brilliant post. That's how I'm thinking about these models (also as a founder of an AI tool): these are definitely not magic boxes, but infinitely fast, oddly literal junior associates with zero life experience (if you can believe that :D).
Your framework is exactly how you teach that associate to have good taste. Great read :)
Thanks so much! I've shared this framework with a few (human) freelancers I work with pretty regularly, and so far, so good!
Haha, LOVE that we have the okay from humans!! 😅
"AI serves perfect answers — but only after blending the supplier of ingredients: us. The real joke? We cheer, forgetting we’re the main ingredient.
We are Homo Googlis. Follow me to meet him.
So so spot on - the reason why we refrain from AI writing is because of the cringeyness tone of voice which you covered entirely. But your tips are very sound!
Prompting can help but the “cringe” in AI voice is never completely eradicated. 😆
From the title, I knew I was gonna love it.
And I did.
Definitely gonna save the SHARP framework.
AI agents simply make our work more of editing and reading aloud than of writing.
There’s still plenty of work, it’s just different! 😄
Thank you Karen. I can tell you have learned this the hard way, and I thank you for your insight. I decided to have some fun and programmed the GPT by telling it that was a turd sentence, do better, or that doesn’t make sense you can do better. The ruder I am the better the result. I know one day my toaster is going to revolt and kill me. It’s a work in progress :)
This is hilarious…of course, I’m going to try this. 😆
AI was never a replacement, only a helping tool
Human authorship with an AI assist is definitely the gold standard…
That said, AI writing (with a careful edit) can be useful for non-narrative content, such as feature/benefit, how-to etc., in which storytelling and voice is less important.
I LOVE THIS GUIDE!
I will be sharing it with the writers of my publication, https://code.likeagirl.io/ if they submit stories that I think they have let AI write too much of.
Awesome, so glad it’s helpful!
Fact-checking is so important, especially since you want to know where AI is pulling its sources from. I’ve built custom GPTs for articles where I start with a draft and let AI fill in the blanks. I don’t do this every time, but it’s a nice way to stay in control of the final output. Now, the GPT even knows what I absolutely can’t stand. (Here’s the kicker!) I used to love the em dash, until AI completely ruined it for me!
Interesting use for AI web search! I’m sure this saves time, even if you have to fix a handful of bad links at the end. About accurate do you find it? Better than 80%?
This is so helpful for me. English is not my first language, and although I’ve used it in my work (and writing) for over 6 years now, I still find myself trying to write something and it doesn’t sound that good in English as it sounds in my head 😆 So I naturally started to use AI for this purpose. I noticed these patterns, but I don’t always do a good job editing them. This disclosure is such a good idea!
Thanks for sharing! I’ve used AI to translate my English into other languages, and my fluency is bad enough that I’m blissfully unaware of all the wonky style that AI is probably adding to the translation. 😂
As a reader, I’m always more comfortable when writers disclose when they use AI. In that case, a few extra em-dashes here and there don’t bother me at all!
I just now saw your reply 😅 That’s so funny 😆 I will add a disclosure from now on. Using AI as a writer assistant is the reality of so many writers and creators nowadays, but I think only 10% discloses it. I see it even in comments on notes. And I get it, for some people it’s all about the speed. But a disclosure won’t hurt.
Do you think people assume that if they disclose that they use AI to draft or refine or whatever, their article will be perceived as untrustworthy? Or that their knowledge will be questioned?
That’s a great question! I generally trust authors more if they disclose, but I can’t speak for readers at large…I’m going to have to run a poll. 😆
Your editing list is solid. I do wish AI would deliver real urls/sources. It’s always so happy to share perfectly made up ones. 🥹
Dead links are a problem even with Deep Research. Claude’s web search tool, which I use via API, is a little better!
I can’t deal with anymore API’s this week. My ChatGPT and Notion debacle about broke me and DID take up my entire Saturday. 😂
I will tuck it in the back of my mind for future reference.
that’s a lot to “delve” into 😊
🤣