AI Practices
Just as there are many different types of writing, so too are there many ways to work with AI based on the goal, audience, and use case of the text.
Using AI as a tool to supplement my writing and thinking—not to replace or outsource them—I tailor my approach according to what the text is trying to accomplish and why.
The more the writing demands that I sound like my unique, human self, the less AI will be involved.
For interpersonal writing with friends and family, I don’t use AI at all. I use my heart and my head, as nature intended. Same goes for things like poetry and prose, where raw emotions are the point.
For creative writing, where it’s meant to be my voice with the addition of an audience who might not personally know me—think blog posts, Substack articles, or that book I keep meaning to write—I use AI as a workshopping partner.
This means I’ll present it with the goal of the piece and any other relevant parameters, show it my drafts, and ask for objective feedback, which I may or may not accept. Objective meaning any blatant grammatical or typographical errors, or anywhere I might be missing the mark of my stated goal. The actual editing is done by me in a google doc. Claude works within a framework I've established for exactly this purpose.
For personal branding, I’m still at the creative wheel, while the workshopping goes deeper.
My process for personal branding, like my LinkedIn bio and this website, is much the same as for my creative writing, only with more extensive workshopping.
In these contexts, some semantic ablation is acceptable, given just how wordy and poetic I can be. It’s a tightrope walk to showcase my personality while staying punchy and brief! For these use cases, Claude helps me color inside the lines, while I maintain the final say in creativity and taste.
As we get into the more technical side of writing, AI takes on more writing work while I take on the role of orchestrator.
In technical writing, unlike creative and copywriting, rules are king. The aim is to be consistent and clear, and with that comes the very homogeneity at which LLMs largely excel.
It’s in this space where AI becomes the greatest boon for my work, allowing me to expedite laborious tasks like organizing and standardizing the writing, so that I can get to making sure knowledge is intuitively structured, concepts are effectively conveyed, workflows are properly validated, and information can get into the hands of the users who need it now, not later.
Tools like Atlassian’s Loom are able to entirely eliminate the tedious grunt work of documenting step-by-steps. With tools like Claude and ChatGPT, brain dumps become documentation as if by magic. And with my deep understanding of what makes technical writing work, I can focus on strategy and quality as I shape the end result.