Writing made fun (well, almost)

A few weeks back, I came clean about not liking writing. I wish I did. Given how it directly impacts the quality of my life and the time I spend on it daily, it’d be pretty awesome if I actually enjoyed it.

Every now and then, I stumble upon an idea that's genuinely funny, and as I write it down, it makes me laugh. In those moments, I might even say I enjoy writing. At the very least, I’m not sitting there counting down the seconds, minutes, or words until I can stop.

Writing is good for me. Mentally, emotionally, psychologically, financially, relationally, and probably even spiritually. It helps me figure out how I feel, clarify what I think, and learn. It’s how I discover and build new ideas. It’s how I persuade, sell, and grow my influence. It’s how I inspire and motivate people, and how I help them make progress on things that matter to them.

So I write every day, with few exceptions.

But a few weeks back, in a moment of frustration, I decided to see if Chat-GPT could make writing suck less. Spoiler: it did. Ever since, it’s been my go-to writing partner.

I’ve barely tapped into its full potential, but what I’ve seen so far has been game-changing. It hasn't made me love writing, but it's definitely making it a lot less painful.

My favorite thing so far has been teaching it to write with my voice, tone, and style.

I prompted it like this:

“Hi. I want you to analyze the writing style, sentence structure, personality, and tone of voice of several examples of text that I will give you. After each time I give you an example, say 'Thank you. Give me more.' Do not tell me your analysis after each example. Wait until I say 'All done' to let you know I've finished giving you examples. Then please tell me your analysis of all the texts.”

Then I fed it a bunch of my writing samples.

When I finished, I used this prompt so I could refer back to what it learned in the future:

“Thank you, that's great. Can we give this style of writing a name so that you will remember it in the future? Let's call it RYAN 1.”

I started feeding it partial drafts, ideas, and even complete rough drafts, asking for suggestions or full rewrites in the voice of RYAN 1.

It’s not perfect, and everything it churns out needs some edits. But still, I’m stoked I gave it a real shot.

You might want to try it too.