Long form content using AI PART 1
The first method for generating long form written content using AI is using ChatGPT as a co-writer.
Sitting and staring at a blank screen with a blinking cursor is the worst.
I should know - I have to do it daily!
Writing when we are prompted however is much simpler. It's more structured and the process is broken down into individual steps.
Think about when you did exams - there were easy to answer short questions and then the dreaded "essay" questions. Pages and pages of blank space for you to fill in from scratch. Terrifying!
We're going to convert writing long from a scary essay question into more manageable short form questions.
Here's the prompt
Act as a writing coach.
I am writing a long form content piece on [subject]
The sections are:
-hook
-intro paragraph
-main body
-outro
For the hook make 5 suggestions
Link the intro paragraph to the hook
For the body suggest 3-5 main points, based on the hook and intro
For each section sequentially walk me through the writing process steps by i) providing suggestions, ii) having me write notes iii) confirming the text
Show each section one at a time. Do not show me all the sections. Wait for my input before moving on to the next section.
Prompt Output:
This prompt will step by step walk you through the process of drafting the long form article.
For each step it'll generate some suggestions. You'll guide ChatGPT about which you like and will then be asked for your notes on how to alter and personalise the writing.
Once you are happy ChatGPT will move onto the next section, using info from earlier sections for consistency.
All you need to do is provide notes - don't worry too much about drafting whole paragraphs.
Continue through the process until ChatGPT outputs your complete long form article.
Because you've "co-authored" the piece it will be far less generic than if you had simply said "write a long form content piece on [subject]"
Premium Prompt - Tone Match
Without additional context ChatGPT's style will be generic.
Whilst we can nudge it on style and tone of voice, ideally we don't want to be doing this every time we work on a long form piece.
Instead we want to use ChatGPT's Custom Instructions to lock in our style.
Custom Instructions are additional instructions that are appended to all our requests.
One basic one I use for example is to ask ChatGPT to match my British English rather than American English.
Instead of having to specify this to ChatGPT everytime I start prompting this instruction is "hardcoded" in and always applied.
To best match your tone of voice you have two options.
One is to copy/paste a writing sample into custom instructions along with
This is a writing sample. In your responses emulate the style, tone of voice, vocabulary usage and structure of my written language.
[copy/paste writing sample(s)]The second is to use this prompt
Please read the writing samples that I will provide you and draft guidelines on my style, tone of voice, vocabulary usage and structure.
These guidelines will be used in ChatGPT Custom Instructions to emulate my language later - therefore generate the guidelines according to ChatGPT's Custom Instructions' best practices.
Each time I give you a sample revise the last guidelines you produced accordingly and ask if I have any more writing samples. Then feed in writing examples. The prompt is set up to accept multiple examples and to each time make revisions to the guidelines. This allows you to upload multiple samples.
Once you are happy with the description of your writing style go ahead and copy paste the output into Custom Instructions.
My recommendation is to try both methods one at a time. For each method add the Custom Instructions then use the co-writing prompt we covered above. Then compare the outputs and decide which one you prefer - this is subjective to you.
Pulling it together
That’s the first of a handful of techniques I’m going to be showing you covered. I recommend over the course of this guide testing what works best for you, combining and refining to suit your needs.
A reminder of what we’re covering this week
Part 1: Co-writing using ChatGPT
Part 2: Format/Framework Matrix
Part 3: Expansive writing
Part 4: Niche-jacking
Part 5: Personal GPT writing agentSee you tomorrow Prompt Entrepreneur!
Until then, keep PROMPTING!
Kyle