I write for a living and I use AI every single day. But that doesn't mean that I use AI to write. I've loved the art of writing long before artificial intelligence was available for use by the general public, so the idea of using it to do what I've enjoyed doing for decades really doesn't make sense to me.
But I have found that some of the best ways to use AI do support making my writing in general — just not generating the actual words. Instead, I use it before I write, while I'm researching and after I've finished a draft. Sometimes I use it when I know something isn't working but can't quite figure out why.
Using AI has become my writing partner as if I was in a writers' room. Since I work remotely, leaning on it has become a way to ask unlimited questions, including annoying ones, that might otherwise annoy an actual human writer.
If you write for work, school or just yourself, and have questioned whether to use an AI humanizer to make your AI writing less detectable, scrap your process. Here are seven ways I'd use ChatGPT to make the process easier without asking it to write a single sentence for you.
1. Pressure-test your idea before you start
One of my favorite things to do with ChatGPT happens before I've written anything. I'll explain what I want to write about and then ask it to poke holes in the idea. I'll give AI my "big idea" and ask what it thinks. Now that ChatGPT is less people-pleasing, it actually tells me when my ideas aren't as great as I think they are. And when the ideas don't have legs, AI offers suggestions to help make them work.
Prompt to try: I'm thinking about writing an article for my Substack arguing that [idea]. Don't help me write it. Tell me what's weak about the premise, what I'm assuming and what a skeptical reader might push back on.
The important part here is telling ChatGPT what you don't want.
Ask "What do you think of this idea?" and there's a decent chance you'll get an enthusiastic response about why it's interesting. Asking it specifically to find problems tends to produce something much more useful.
You might ignore half of what it says. That's fine. The point isn't to let ChatGPT decide whether your idea is good. It's to uncover the questions you need to answer before you start writing.
2. Find the questions you haven't thought to ask
This is one of the most useful ways I've found to use AI for research. Once I know the basics of a subject, I'll tell ChatGPT what I've learned and ask what I'm missing.
Prompt to try: Here's what I know about [topic]. What questions would you want answered before you felt like you fully understood this story? Don't answer the questions. Just tell me what I should investigate.
That last instruction makes the biggest difference for me every time.
AI models can confidently give you an answer when what you really need is a research direction. I don't necessarily want ChatGPT telling me the answer. I want it pointing at the hole.
This can be particularly useful before an interview or before sending out a pitch to a publisher who might publish your book. You can give ChatGPT the questions you've already prepared and ask what you haven't asked.
I've had moments where one of those suggestions made me realize there was a much more interesting story sitting underneath the one I thought I was reporting.
3. Use AI to understand your research, not replace it
There's a huge difference between using ChatGPT as a source and using it to help you understand your sources.
I wouldn't cite ChatGPT for an important factual claim. I will absolutely use it when I'm staring at technical documentation and thinking, "What on earth does this mean?" Or, if I hear a "fact" that I'm questioning, I will ask ChatGPT to find the source.
Prompt to try: [I'll paste in the relevant material and ask questions about it] Explain this to me like I'm intelligent but completely new to this subject. Stick only to the information I've provided. Tell me if my question can't be answered from it.
Then I go back to the original material. This is especially useful when you're entering an unfamiliar subject and don't yet know the vocabulary. Once you understand a little about something, be it a historical event or a gadget, you suddenly know what to search for, who to talk to and what questions to ask.
The important part is that ChatGPT hasn't done the research for you. It has helped you get better at doing the research yourself.
4. Ask ChatGPT to disagree with you
This might be my favorite one. AI assistants have a tendency to be agreeable. That's nice when you're chatting with them. It's considerably less useful when you're trying to figure out whether an argument holds up.
So don't ask: Does my argument make sense?
Prompt to try: Make the strongest possible argument against my position. What evidence or reasoning would someone use to challenge it?
You can go further:
Assume you're a skeptical editor/publisher/manager/professor who doesn't think this story/presentation/essay should be published. Make the case against it.
Now you have something to respond to.
Maybe ChatGPT's objections are terrible. Maybe you've already addressed them. Or maybe it identifies the exact thing that's been bothering you about the piece but you couldn't put your finger on. Either way, you've forced yourself to defend the argument rather than simply asking an AI to validate it.
5. Ask where your draft gets boring
To be fair, I usually know when something is getting boring. But there are a lot of questions you can ask AI to avoid boring your audience. Once I've written something, I don't necessarily want ChatGPT to rewrite it.
Sometimes I just want to know where it drags.
Prompt to try: Read this as an impatient reader. Tell me the three places where you're most likely to stop reading. Don't rewrite anything. Explain why you lost interest.
I love this because it separates diagnosis from treatment.
ChatGPT can tell you that you've spent four paragraphs explaining something the reader probably understood after two. It can point out that the opening moves slowly or that an interesting idea appears halfway through the article when it probably deserves more attention.
But then you fix it. That means the voice, rhythm and decisions stay yours. AI simply acted as an editor.
6. Let ChatGPT find your bad habits
Every writer has bad habits. I know mine is using "because" a little too often. I also often use the same transitions. But whether it's that every third paragraph starts with "But" or you have a favorite word that appears 14 times in 800 words, it's not always obvious. After you've been starting at the same draft for an hour or days, those things become invisible.
This is where AI is fantastic.
Prompt to try: Don't rewrite this. Analyze my writing habits. Look for repeated words, phrases, sentence structures, unnecessary qualifiers, clichés and patterns I'm relying on too often.
You can even make this more useful over time by giving ChatGPT several pieces you've written and asking what patterns appear across all of them. Some of the feedback will be subjective. You don't have to accept it.
But once someone, even an AI someone, points out that you've used the same phrase six times, it's very difficult to unsee it.
7. Give your finished draft one last interrogation
This is the step I'd do immediately before considering something finished. Don't ask ChatGPT to polish the draft. Don't ask it to "make this better." Ask it to interrogate it.
Prompt to try: Act as a skeptical final editor. Don't rewrite anything. Identify factual claims I should verify, assumptions I'm making, contradictions or inconsistencies, places where I haven't supported my argument and questions a reader may still have when they finish.
For something important, I'd make the instruction even stricter:
Don't tell me what's good about the piece. I'm only interested in potential problems.
Then work through the response yourself. ChatGPT might flag something that doesn't need fixing or it could misunderstand your argument, it's just a way to have another "set of eyes" take a pass at your work.
Bottom line: AI doesn't have to be the writer
There's an understandable fear around using AI for writing: If I hand too much of the process to ChatGPT, at what point does the writing stop being mine? My solution is simply to not hand over the actual writing to AI at all.
Instead, use it as a supportive writing partner. Use AI to question your premise, poke holes in your research, disagree with you and find the paragraph where you started rambling and point out that you've used "actually" nine times.
Then close the chatbot and fix those things yourself. Because the best use I've found for ChatGPT isn't asking it what I should say, but how to question what I've said to make the final draft worth publishing.
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