8 Simple Steps to Training ChatGPT to Write Like You

Over the last 6 months, I’ve been trying to train ChatGPT to write like me, and it’s time I shared my learnings.

When ChatGPT was released on us, literally the first thing I thought was, “Can this help me spend less time writing and editing my work, and more time exploring new ideas?” The problem was, if I simply asked ChatGPT to write an article based on bullet points I gave it, I always found its output to be too formal and overly cliché. Even if I asked it to change its tone, it never quite sounded like me.

Since then, I’ve been iterating through drafts and articles, fine tuning its output. I think it often reverts to its old, cliché ways, but at this point it gives me a good draft that I can pretty quickly edit to a point where I’m happy with it.

Here are the 8 steps to do it yourself.

Step 1: Start a New Chat and Promote ChatGPT

Start by creating a new chat in ChatGPT that will be your virtual writing assistant throughout the training process. Prompt ChatGPT to tell it your goal and how to go about it. Here’s a sample prompt:

“I want to teach you to write in my style. We will call it “[your name]’s writing style”. I will teach you my writing style by giving you samples of my previous writing. Please analyze this writing for its tone, structure, and word choice. After I give you each writing sample, please provide a summary of how you would describe the tone. I will provide feedback if there is anything I disagree with or would change. We will do this with multiple writing samples, until I feel you have a good understanding of my style. At that point we will try drafting some articles together.”

Step 2: Feed in Your Favorite Writing Samples

The next step is to provide ChatGPT with your favorite writing samples. These can be articles, blog posts, or any content that reflects your unique style and tone. By doing so, ChatGPT will get a sense of your writing preferences.

Quick tip: If you use different styles, e.g. for work vs a personal blog, consider training two different writing styles.

Step 3: Ask ChatGPT to Describe Your Writing and Correct Any Errors

If you used the above prompt, ChatGPT should describe your writing style. Encourage it to point out any errors or inconsistencies it identifies. This step helps ChatGPT understand your writing at a deeper level. If you disagree with how ChatGPT describes your style, correct it.

Step 4: Repeat with at Least Five Writing Samples

To refine ChatGPT’s understanding of your writing, repeat steps 2 and 3 with at least five different writing samples. The more varied the content, the better ChatGPT can grasp your unique style.

Step 5: Ask ChatGPT to Write Its First Draft

Once ChatGPT has a good grasp of your writing style, ask it to write a draft in your voice. Provide it with bullet points to outline your thought and the argument you are trying to make, and let it work its magic. The first draft will likely be a bit rough, but that leads us to the next step.

Step 6: Manually Edit the Draft

Review the draft carefully for tone, style and accuracy, then make edits until you are happy with the draft. This step is crucial to fine-tune ChatGPT’s writing. You’ll be refining and molding its output to align more closely with your style.

Step 7: Feed the Final Draft Back into ChatGPT

After you’ve polished the draft, feed it back into ChatGPT. This step helps the AI understand the revisions you’ve made and further refines its understanding of your style.

Step 8: Continually Refine Over Time

Training ChatGPT is an ongoing process. Continue to co-author articles or documents over time by repeating steps 5 to 7 with new writing prompts and topics. The more you do this, the better ChatGPT becomes at mimicking your writing style.

Next week, I’ll discuss how I’ve used this and other hacks to partially automate my broader writing process. This includes, how I’ve started to solve the problem of how to find time to write when I feel inspired, rather than waiting for a week before I find enough time to sit down and write, which, of course, was my normal mode of operation before adopting this new strategy.

Follow me on LinkedIn if you want to be sure to see when that is published.

#AI #Productivity #FutureofWork #WritingTips