10 Ways AI Can Inspire Your Writing Without Doing It For You

AI has its fans and it has it’s haters.

Typically, like most things in life, when you go too far one way or the other it leads to some very biased thinking.

On the fans side, you get those people that think AI makes everything better and life would be the worst if it wasn’t around.

On the haters side, you get the purists that think using anything AI is blasphemous and they make it almost a religion to hate it irrationally.

As with most things, AI requires a balance when approaching it.

Let’s be real, if you lose your job to AI, it comes down to two reasons: either you weren’t very good at your job, or your boss/company are a bunch of cheap bastards that aren’t very smart.

If it’s for the first reason, then get good is all I can say.

If it’s for the second reason, you had a crappy job with crappy leadership and you clearly have the talent to do it on your own without the crutch of their resources.

Regardless of what the fans or haters say, though, AI is a game-changer for the solopreneur, especially as a writing assistant.

You’ll notice I said ASSISTANT.

Letting AI do the work for you is ultimately counter-productive.

You learn nothing, you gain no valuable insight, the voice isn’t yours, and you’re a cheater. End of story.

But here are 10 ways you can use it to assist you in making your writing better and help it sing.

1. Headline Optimization
   Just input a draft headline and ask the AI to suggest variations that are more attention-grabbing, SEO-friendly, or better target your intended audience. This is useful because it can actually help you learn how to craft the headlines that drive traffic and engagement yourself.
2. Use It as a Research Assistant
   You can outline the topic you’re writing about and the AI can suggest relevant sources, key facts, and some of the latest studies that may be beneficial. Not only can this save you time and ensure information is the article is accurate and up-to-date, but again, you’re using it to educate yourself.
3. Clarifying the Intention of Your Article
   You can describe your main argument or point to an AI and it can help you refine and clarify the piece, ensuring that it’s compelling and straightforward, a crucial aspect of non-fiction writing.
4. Argument Structure Review
   You can input your article’s outline and the AI can analyze it for logical flow and the strength of the argument. It can suggest ways to improve the cohesion of the piece and make the argument more persuasive.
5. Quote Suggestions
   Based on your article’s theme, the AI can suggest relevant quotes from experts, historical figures, or pieces of literature, which can be used to add authority and depth to your article.
6. Fact-Checking
   You can input statements or facts, and the AI can check their accuracy against trusted databases and sources, helping to uphold the integrity of your article.
7. Style and Tone Adjustment
   Based on your input, the AI can suggest adjustments to match the writing style and tone of a publication’s audience, telling you whether it may need to be more formal, technical, conversational, or accessible.
8. Counterpoint Introduction
   To enhance your critical thinking on a subject, AI can play the part of Devil’s Advocate perfectly, suggesting counterarguments or other perspectives on the article’s topic. This can help you address those viewpoints and strengthen your own argument.
9. Summary Generation
   Once you’ve completed an article, AI can generate a concise summary which can be used as an abstract or blurb, helping to quickly convey the essence of the article to readers.
10. Engagement Metrics Prediction
    AI is amazing at analyzing the performance of previous articles based on metrics to determine what type of topics, structures, or styles you’ve used have engage readers the most. It can be very helpful in suggesting ways to replicate this success for future articles.

There are some important caveats to all of this…

• Never copy/paste the output of an AI. Edit it to fit your needs and audience. This also gives you some valuable editing experience which will make your writing sing in the future.
• Don’t just trust the sources AI research hands to you. Verify the sources and make sure it’s legitimate information.
• Always remember that AI is a tool, and if you use tools correctly, they can be of great use. But you can’t use a hammer to turn a screw.

All in all, I’m a big fan of what AI can do.

I’m also realistic about what it can’t and shouldn’t do.

I think it’s an amazingly helpful innovation that will only get better as time goes on, but it will always need the guidance of humanity to create the best outcomes.

For writers in particular, I think it’s a fantastic innovation as long as it’s used correctly and not abused.

What are your thoughts on AI? I would love to hear them.

Thanks for reading!

Hi, I'm Joe. I help creators share their unique voices simply and effectively. Here's how I can help you:

• Join my newsletter.
• Get 1 email every week.
• Access multiple actionable links.
• Learn focus, clarity, efficiency, & consistency.
• Profit.