Editing is often harder than writing. We get attached to the sentences we wrote. We feel bad about cutting them. But sometimes we gotta do the hard thing to improve the final output.
That’s where an AI chatbot like Gemini, ChatGPT, or Claude can lighten the load.
Here are three ways to use it:
-
The “Read This Aloud” Test
Prompt: “Read this piece like you are explaining it to a friend who is skeptical about the topic. Flag any sentence that would make you slow down and have to repeat yourself. Tell me specifically what’s clunky.”
-
The Style Guide Check
Prompt: “I’ll send you my style guide. Compare my draft against it. Don’t just flag violations, but show me at least three examples where I nailed my voice and at least three examples where I drifted away from it. Why did I slip?”
-
The Brutal Cut
Prompt: “Shorten this 400-word piece to 250 words. I don’t want generic compression. Keep the examples and moments that make the reader feel something. Cut the explanations and the meta commentary. Tell me what you removed and why.”
AI won’t replace your editor’s judgment. But you can use it as a powerful second set of eyes.
Want to speed this up even more?
Use the Writing Style Guide Template as a checklist in your style that AI chatbots can follow.
Comments