How I edit AI writing

--> turns out it's actually not that hard

If you’ve got an AI to write your first draft then you will need to edit it.

At least if you don’t want it to sound a bit weird. And at least with this current generation of AIs.

The good news is that editing an AI-generated article or email is an order of magnitude simpler and quicker than creating one from scratch.

Now I’ve deliberately called this “How I edit AI writing” because your first draft might have different quirks to mine.

But in truth, it should be very simple to adapt my process to your situation because my process is - well - common sense really.

All you’re really going to do is read through the first draft and change anything that just feels off.

Now that might sound a bit woolly and difficult to implement in practice. But if you try it, you’ll find it’s pretty easy to do.

For my writing, with the samples I give Claude, it tends to write in an exaggerated version of my style. And the humour doesn’t always land. So my editing largely consists of either taking bits out, toning them down, or trying to make them a bit funnier.

For example, for the opening of the “beat your demon” newsletter I mentioned last time, Claude gave me:

Ever find yourself staring at a blank screen, desperately trying to conjure up an idea for your next newsletter? Yeah, me too. In fact, it happened to me just today.

As I read that back to myself the first sentence sounded great. But the second one didn’t quite sound like me.

So I just thought “How would I actually say that?”

And immediately it became:

“Ever find yourself staring at a blank screen, desperately trying to conjure up an idea for your next newsletter?

Me too. Like today.”

There are two changes there. Firstly putting the second sentence in its own paragraph introduces a pause. A second for your reader to actually contemplate the question in the opening sentence before you answer it.

And secondly, “Me too. Like today” is just a bit punchier. Like how I would speak. There’s a slightly resigned, eye-rolling quality to it.

Next, Claude said:

Picture this: I've had a busy day, been travelling a lot (trains, not planes - I'm not that fancy), and by the time I sat down to write this email, my brain was about as useful as a chocolate teapot. There I was, blinking at the cursor, wondering if I could get away with sending "sorry, brain empty, try again tomorrow" to all of you.

My edited version:

“I’ve had a busy day, been travelling a lot, and by the time I sat down to write this email, my brain was at a chocolate teapot level of usefulness.

For a while I wondered if I could get away with a "sorry, brain empty, try again tomorrow" email. But then it struck me, if I could beat this demon, I could share with you how to do it.”

Again I’ve split the paragraph up to introduce a pause and also give it more white space on the page.

I’ve cut out “Picture this:”. Not that I think there’s anything wrong with that phrase. It’s just not something I’d say if I was chatting to a friend.

And I cut out “(trains, not planes - I’m not that fancy)” as it felt like it was trying a little bit too hard to introduce humour where it wasn’t needed.

Next, I revised “my brain was about as useful as a chocolate teapot”.

I was happy to try to say something funny - but “about as useful as a chocolate teapot” is a bit hackneyed so I wanted to change it.

I could have replaced it with a completely different phrase meaning useless. And I’m sure Claude could have brainstormed some replacements for me.

But instead, I used a technique I find works pretty well in situations like this: turn a simile into a metaphor.

So instead of “about as useful as a chocolate teapot” I said “at a chocolate teapot level of usefuleness”.

Same analogy, but just a less common phrasing. Which makes it fresher and funnier.

I could also have said “completely chocolate teapotted” or “at chocolate teapot level 11” (which would have amused Spinal Tap fans).

With hindsight I suspect both of those are actually better than the phrase I used. But you get the point: turning a simile into a metaphor makes the phrasing less common - and so more interesting.

Next from Claude:

Here's the thing: if we can't come up with ideas for our emails quickly and easily, we end up not writing them at all. And that, my friend, is a problem. Because those emails? They're not just words floating in the digital ether. They're your chance to build relationships with potential clients, show off your expertise (in a good way, not a "look at me, I'm amazing" way), and become the person they think of when they need help.

Me:

“And it’s important to beat it.

Because if we can't come up with ideas for our emails quickly and easily, we usually end up not writing them at all.

And that’s a big problem. Because online, it’s those emails that allow you to build relationships with potential clients, show off your expertise (in a good way, not a "look at me, I'm amazing" way), and become top of mind for when they need help.”

Not a massive change.

My usual splitting up of paragraphs to add some variety (though maybe I could prompt Claude to do that in the first place).

Taking out the phrase “that, my friend” because, well, nobody says “that, my friend” to their actual friends.

I like the phrase “top of mind” so I used that instead of “the person they think of”.

Not a massive change as I say. But the tone just sounds a bit more like me.

And you’ll find this too as you go through an AI-generated. draft.

If you follow my prompting guides from last time you’ll be starting with something that isn’t too far off. And so your editing work just becomes tweaking it to sound right rather than major rewrites.

And that, my friends, is how I edit AI-generated writing. And that’s how I edit AI-generated writing.

My suggestion: try it yourself.

It’s only by trying that you get a proper sense of what your AI will do for a first draft and what you’ll need to do to fix it.

And it’s only by trying that you realise how simple it actually is.

- Ian