10 Rules I Follow Writing with AI

I was thrilled, excited, and honestly amazed when I first tried AI in November 2022.

It quickly became a gamechanger tool for translation from English to Norwegian.

What used to take months now took a fraction of the time.

AI gave me a workable first draft,

and then I could step in to edit and fine-tune the text.

At the same time, as a writer, I was miffed and unsure:

How do I use this AI without crossing into plagiarism?

In the beginning, we thought AI was separate from us.

Now, in recent months, it has become clear: It is part of how we write.

In fact, AI is our speechwriter.

Just like politicians have a team of people behind their words,

now so do we.

And we don’t accuse the politician of plagiarism,

we assume they have support.

So whether it’s ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, or

another tool, we’ve all got a speechwriter handy.

But while AI can sound polished, most of us can spot it from a mile away.

It’s wordy, repetitive, and loaded with giveaway phrases like symphony, tapestry, and consider this.

Early on, in our office, we kept an AI-word dictionary.

Ironically, I used to love the words like symphony and tapestry, but now they have been overused by AI and feel tainted.

Nevertheless, AI saves time.

It’s the speechwriter I used to be for CEOs and politicians,

but it needs to be trained.

I recommend uploading your content and having it draw from your real voice.

When used right, it becomes a powerful editing partner.

Now, I no longer use Grammarly, but have ChatGPT edit for me.

Here are the 10 rules I follow to keep it real and keep it mine:

1. Start with your thoughts and ideas. AI should respond to an idea, not create it. Anchor your writing moments, a question, an emotion, or an event/experience.

2. Own the first draft or the final edit. Let AI help you brainstorm or clean up. Not both.

3. Never let AI finish your sentences. Autocomplete is where authenticity goes to die. If it sounds too polished, it probably sounds like everyone else.

4. Treat AI like your speechwriter, not a servant. Give it context. Set your tone. Share your intention. A speechwriter will reflect your ideas and stories, so let AI do the same.

5. Watch for the “dead eyes” effect. If your content feels flat, it probably is. Read it out loud. If it doesn’t sound like you, rework it until it does.

6. Keep your quirks. Your sentence fragments. Your unexpected turns. Your metaphors that make sense to you. Don’t let AI polish them out. You way with words is your signature.

7. Break grammar if it serves the message. AI loves grammar rules. Real writing loves rhythm, tension, and truth.

8. Make AI do the boring stuff. Let it structure, outline, reformat, summarize. Save your energy for the meaning, nuance, and originality.

9. Fact-check like a skeptic. AI hallucinates. It makes stuff up. You are the editor, the fact checker and filter. Trust your gut, verify everything.

10. Ask: Would I say this out loud? If the answer is no, it needs work. If it doesn’t sound like something you'd say in a conversation, go back and rework until it does.