Be Real: How to Use AI Writing Tools and Stay Authentic

Once you've read one ChatGPT article, it feels like you've read them all. The phrase "Let's dive in" is forever tainted, and the cheesy metaphors are a dead giveaway that you're reading AI-generated content. In this blog, I'd like to talk about my experience using AI writing tools in my own blog. I'll go over different methods I've tried, their pros and cons, and how I'm using AI to write now. My aim is to share my experience in a way that helps you keep your authentic voice so that you don't come across as just another AI blog writer.

If you’re like me, you've probably experimented with AI at some point and realized that while it can help you pump out blogs quickly, it also removes that human element from your content that it used to have. So why would anyone want to use AI-generated content in their blog? Firstly, it saves time and effort! But don't be fooled! Saving too much time and effort will tank not only the quality of your work but your reputation too! Now, I get it. When ChatGPT first came out, I did what most other people did: "ChatGPT, write me a blog about xyz." Then maybe you do a little proofreading, ask it to make some changes, and post it to your blog. Suddenly, producing new content is so easy that you're able to keep up with publishing a blog a day! Woohoo, right? Not really.

The obvious downside to this approach is what I mentioned in the first sentence of this blog. The cheesy metaphors and the overuse of phrases like "Let's dive in." If you're not a subject matter expert, or lazy, it's really easy to put out either inaccurate or misleading information. Many times, when reviewing AI-generated content, I’ve found much more efficient ways to achieve the same results when I’m trying to produce more technical guides. Additionally, people are tired of reading content generated by AI. They want something from a real person who’s an actual subject matter expert! They want something authentic. So what’s the solution? That’s right—it’s time to ditch AI-generated content!

AI-Generated Content vs. Human-Generated Content

Have you ever read a blog and thought, "This was for sure wrtten by AI"? People don’t want to read an article they feel like was created by an empethic robot. They can easily prompt an LLM to do that themselves. They’re looking for your unique human touch and expertise. When you’re discussing a subject you have years of experience in, there’s so much nuance you can add to your content that AI could never capture. That’s what people crave! They want to hear about your personal experiences. What are some of the real joys and pitfalls you’ve encountered along your journey? Have you run into an issue that’s caused you trouble more than once? It’s anecdotes like these that provide real value and build your authenticity. The brand is you. Sure, AI can pull the facts together, but it’s not living your life or walking in your shoes. It can't bring in that experience or those weird anecdotes that makes your work stand out. You just can’t fake those kinds of things. They have to come from you.

That’s the difference between AI-generated content and human-generated content. But just because it’s human-generated content doesn’t mean that AI can’t play a role in making your life easier. After realizing this, my next evolution was to write human-generated content that was AI-edited. This approach was better but still not perfect. So how can we use AI as a tool to help with our writing without letting it take over and drown out our voice?

Using AI To Edit Your Human-Generated Content

The first way I improved my terrible AI blog-writing workflow was to train a ChatGPT conversation on ALL of my blogs that I wrote before ChatGPT ever came out so that it could understand my “voice” as an author better. Then I would write the rough draft, let whatever I was thinking come out, give that to ChatGPT, and have it turn my loose rough draft into a bonafide blog. This was much better than before. Now I was able to capture my own experiences, nuance, and opinions and have ChatGPT use my “style” to turn it into a final draft blog. This definitely takes more effort, but being able to turn a 30-45 minute-long freewriting session into a final draft blog ready to publish is still a huge win and time saver! Plus, there’s this air of consistency in my blogs now that wasn’t there before.

However, it still wasn’t perfect. Getting comments like, “This feels very LLM generated” on my blog, Why Writing Your Own Tools is More Important Than You Think, really hurt. I took time out of my day to write my honest opinions about writing your own tools and the benefits and even drawbacks that come with it. Regardless of being edited by ChatGPT, that blog still reflects how I feel about the topic. However, it seems like my approach had put a stain on my reputation and damaged my authority as an author. That hurt. But sometimes, experiencing that kind of hurt is exactly what you need! So yes, it was something I wrote, edited by AI trained to sound like me, but it was obvious that the end product still didn't sound like me. The fact was, I was still trying to take a shortcut to the top, and people noticed. Having your real experience and nuance reduced to “This feels very LLM generated” is not a good feeling. So what’s a blogger, author, or content creator to do?

It’s time to stop being lazy!

Do I Still Use AI?

Yes, I do! However, I’m no longer letting AI write or rewrite my content anymore. Not only am I doing my followers and fans a disservice by giving my voice as an author over to AI, but I’m also doing myself a disservice by not continuing to hone my craft and writing style. Writing is a huge passion of mine. If I give that passion away to AI to do for me, what’s to stop me from giving away my other passions to AI? Should I let AI play and write music for me? Should I let AI skateboard for me? No! What makes passions so beautiful is that the joy doesn’t come from the end product, it comes from the process! If I let AI write my blogs for me, what joy do I get out of writing blogs? And for what? I want to build something real and authentic that means a lot, not just to me, but to other people as well. I want to find the joy in this blog and my writing as I go along. I’m not in this game for cheap tricks, and I’m not doing this so I can build some kind of cash cow where one day I’ll sit on the beach and sip on margaritas every day. I want to build something meaningful that lasts, and I’m in this for the long haul.

Using AI Moving Forward

So what’s my plan for using AI in my content generation moving forward? First of all, AI is great at grammar and spelling, which I’m very bad at. If programmers were good at spelling, we wouldn’t have invented spell check! So I plan to use AI to grammar-check my work. Additionally, there are three other key areas where I plan to use AI when it comes to content creation:

1. Feedback: Bugging friends to pre-read my blogs and give me good feedback isn’t feasible, and I can’t afford to pay people to do that for me. So having something I can ask, “Is this good?” or “What are some ideas for improving xyz?” is very nice. Then I can take that feedback and apply my own voice when implementing it.
2. Research: AI and LLMs are great research tools! I can have them do Google searches for me and summarize articles and videos I find through my own searches, helping me get the most meaningful data I need to create whatever blog I’m working on.
3. Blog banner creation: Let’s face it, MidJourney is cool. I love using it, and I plan to continue using it to create banners for my blogs moving forward.

Now, will I be able to produce a blog a day anymore? Not really. However, while the quantity of my blogs will go down, the quality and authenticity of my blogs will rise! I’m really looking forward to creating higher-quality content for you all than ever before. No more shortcuts, no more cheap tricks. Just me. :)

So what about you? How have AI writing tools shaped your writing? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Join The Community

If you like what you’ve read, love to code, and are a fan of Linux, open source, and building your own projects, you’d probably have a great time in my Discord community, The Developers Lounge! We’re a rapidly growing community with lots of great people with a diverse set of skills among us. I’m super active in here, and we have a ton of cool people just waiting to chat. So what are you waiting for? Hop on in!