How I Write Personal Content With AI

No-BS advice from a writer who's written over 500,000+ words with it

When ChatGPT first rolled out, I was more than a skeptic.

Heck, I was an "AI-hater". I wrote articles on Medium advocating that AI will never replace human writers.

I hated the content so much that I nicknamed it "CrapGPT".

I was stupid.

Today, I use AI every day to write faster.

Let's see how:

Never Use AI To “Brainstorm” Ideas

I like to think of AI as growing ten extra arms from your body. (Weird mental image, I know.)

These extra limbs don't make decisions for you or come up with brilliant ideas. They just help you write faster.

Most people use AI to brainstorm ideas. This is stupid and terrible. Simply because all the ideas that you're going to get out of AI are generic ideas everyone else is using.

I start with my own ideas and my own outlines.

I also give it my specific context, my specific stories, my specific ways of thinking about

Only then, do I let AI help me write the shitty first draft on my behalf.

Think of AI as having a ghostwriter for the price of two happy meals.

But please, start with your ideas.

Why Your AI Content Sounds Like Sh*t

If you want AI-written content that doesn't smell like generic garbage, you need a style.

I fed AI with three articles I'd written and asked it to analyze my style. It identified my quirks, my sentence structures, and my vocabulary choices.

For example, my writing has a lot of:

• Short, punchy sentences

• Personal stories

• Occasional swearing

• Oddball metaphors

Without a style, your content will sound like the guy next door who downloaded the same prompt as you in an X giveaway.

You can then reuse these samples in each one of your conversations or simply craft a master prompt out of it.

Don't have a unique style yet? Mimic a writer you enjoy. Your own particularity will emerge with practice.

The Secret Is in the Prompt (Most People Get This Wrong)

Most people don't know how to prompt AI. And that's why their output sucks.

They write: "Write an article about AI writing."

They are lazy and stick to 20-word prompts. Or do some copy/paste of a prompt they've downloaded on the internet.

Then they wonder why the result reads like a Wikipedia entry written by a hungover college freshman.

Here's a prompt that actually works:

Write an introduction about how I was skeptical about AI writing at first. I called it "CrapGPT" in my newsletters. But then my mentor challenged me to look closer, and I realized it wasn't the AI that sucked — it was my approach.

Use short, punchy sentences. Include some mild swearing. Make it conversational, like I'm talking to a friend over coffee.

See what I did there? I gave the AI:

• A specific section to write (just the intro)

• My personal story and perspective

• Style guidelines

• Tone instructions

The reason most people get garbage from AI is simple: garbage in = garbage out.

First Drafts Will Still Be Shitty (But Faster)

I have back pain.

I can't sit for more than 2 hours straight at a desk.

The first draft is the hardest part of writing. And I'd spend a lot of time writing my first draft and wrestling with my keyboard.

You struggle with:

• Writer's block

• Perfectionism

• Imposter syndrome

• Typos all over the place

AI can help you speed this up.

Before AI, first drafts would take me somewhere from 20-30 minutes staring at the screen, typing, deleting, and questioning my life choices.

Now, I can do it in less than 5.

Never Skip This Step

Once you have your AI draft, the real work begins.

This is where you inject your humanity back into the text. It's what separates good AI writing from the garbage flooding the internet.

Here's my editing checklist:

1. Add your stories (AI can't make these up)

2. Include your unique insights

3. Cut the corporate-speak and jargon

4. Add some personality quirks

5. Make sure the transitions feel natural

For example, in a recent article about writing with AI, the draft included:

"Using AI can save time and increase productivity."

I changed it to:

"AI doesn't just save time—it saves mental bandwidth. Before AI, I'd finish a solid writing morning with my brain feeling like overcooked spaghetti. Now? I wrap up my writing and still have enough mental energy to not want to throw my laptop out the window."

Don't be lazy. Take a few extra minutes and edit what AI gave you.

How AI Can Help You Write Better Content (It’s Not What You Think)

AI isn't always about saving time.

Before using AI in writing my articles, I was still able to actually get these out in roughly 45 minutes. But here's the main difference: it's about saving mental bandwidth.

When I prompt AI with my initial thoughts, I get instant feedback. Within seconds, I can see if my ideas hold water or not.

This rapid feedback loop gives me more room to think about my ideas.

When I'm writing sales pages, I spend most of my time on the big idea behind the product. AI allows me to quickly expand on that concept and see if it has legs.

For example, if I have three different angles for a course I'm selling, I'll prompt AI to flesh out each approach. Within minutes, I can see which angle makes the most sense and which ones fall flat.

That instant feedback lets me know whether I'm on the right track before I invest hours developing a concept that ultimately won't connect with my audience.

Before AI, I'd spend days fully developing each angle only to realize later that two of them were duds. Now I can expand on ideas quickly and follow the winners.

Before AI, I would have spent days writing all three sections fully before realizing one was clearly superior.

Content creation is not a game of time—but a game of bandwidth.

And in my book, everything that saves me bandwidth is worth its weight in gold (or at least in overpriced AI software subscriptions).

PS: Did you notice? I said "How to write with AI." Because it's a collaborative task.