Full transcript
0:00Look, AI is not going to magically turn
0:02you into a great writer. But what it
0:04will do is make great writers absolutely
0:07terrifyingly awesome. The people who
0:10already think deeply, who already care
0:12about the craft, those are the people
0:14who are going to get to strap on an
0:16exoskeleton into their brain essentially
0:18using AI. My name is Jason. I wrote 14
0:21books the traditional way and then I
0:23spent 3 years over at Kindlepreneur
0:24teaching people how to write and publish
0:26books before going full-time on this
0:28channel. So, I've lived on both sides.
0:30There's the grind-it-out, no AI, stare
0:32at a blank page world and then this new
0:35world where AI can type almost as fast
0:37as you can think if you use it
0:39correctly. In this video, I'm going to
0:40give you 11 specific ways to use AI to
0:43become a better writer. Five of these
0:46are going to be on how you can get AI to
0:49write better and six are going to be
0:51ways to use AI to make your writing
0:53better. The goal is simple. We want the
0:56AI to do the heavy lifting, but the
0:57human stays in charge of the thinking
1:00and the art. Let's start with making AI
1:03less dumb. Number one, give AI one job
1:06at a time. Most people talk to AI like
1:09it's some magical intern who can do
1:10everything in one shot. Like come up
1:12with an idea, structure it, write it,
1:14and polish it. That's how you get
1:16generic, mushy, and middle-of-the-road
1:19slop. Instead, we want to treat AI like
1:22a specialist. In one phase, it's only
1:24helping you generate ideas. In another,
1:26it's only organizing what you've already
1:28said into a structure. And in another,
1:30it's only tightening sentences and
1:32cutting fluff. When the model has one
1:34clear job, it stops trying to be clever
1:36and starts being precise. This is why I
1:39use automation so I can have one step
1:41for everything. The strategy is to have
1:43one brain for one task. Break your
1:45process into stages and assign AI
1:47exactly one stage at a time. Number two,
1:50stop dumping your whole manuscript into
1:52the AI and instead give it structured
1:54context. So, what I mean by this is that
1:57yes, technically some tools will let you
1:59paste in huge amounts of text, even your
2:01whole book if you want, even a whole
2:03series. And yes, that's usually a bad
2:05idea for two reasons. When you overload
2:08it with text, it has to average across
2:10everything, and so you dilute the prompt
2:13overall, you dilute what matters, and
2:15you burn a ton of tokens and money for
2:17very fuzzy understanding on the AI's
2:19part. Instead, you want to summarize and
2:22structure. For a book, write short
2:24summaries of each chapter. And yes, you
2:27can use AI to help you make these
2:28summaries. Summarize what happens, who
2:30changes, what promises you made to the
2:31reader, etc. And when you need AI's help
2:34with a new chapter, you give it those
2:36summaries instead of the full text of
2:38everything. Think of it like bringing a
2:39friend up to speed. You don't read them
2:42your whole manuscript. You say, "Okay,
2:44in chapter one, X happens, and in
2:46chapter two, Y happens." You want AI
2:48operating off of that same kind of
2:50concise overview, so it can actually
2:52reason about the story instead of
2:53drowning in raw text. Number three is to
2:56test different models instead of being
2:58married to one brand. Most writers pick
3:01one tool and assume it's the best
3:03because it's either popular like
3:05ChatGPT, maybe they think because it's
3:07expensive it'll be the best one like
3:09Claude, or perhaps someone on YouTube
3:11said it's the best, but different models
3:13have different personalities and they're
3:15better for different things. Some are
3:16more chatty and creative, some are more
3:18logical and structured, some are way
3:21cheaper and 90% as good for a specific
3:23task like writing prose for instance. In
3:26fact, I've found that a smaller, cheaper
3:27model like what AI has put out can
3:30sometimes give you prose that feels
3:32cleaner and less AI-ish than the
3:34big-name one like Claude. The strategic
3:37move is to run small experiments, take
3:39the same small task and compare outputs
3:41across models. Ask which one feels
3:44closest to how I would have done it.
3:46Then match the tool to the task. And
3:48this is what I do literally with every
3:50automation I build. I take every single
3:52step and I test it across about a dozen
3:54different models to see which output for
3:56that specific step I like the best. And
3:59I'm constantly going between different
4:00models and different model providers.
4:02So, you might have one that is your
4:04go-to for structure, another for your
4:06prose, another for a more like technical
4:08cleanup. You don't need to be loyal to
4:10any one particular brand. You just need
4:11the right tool for the right job. Number
4:13four, refuse to let AI be better than
4:16you are. If you never develop your own
4:18taste and your own understanding of
4:20structure, your own storytelling
4:21instincts essentially, AI will outpace
4:24you. If you do develop these things and
4:26you add AI on top, you will outpace
4:29everyone else. AI magnifies what's
4:32already there. And if your skill is low,
4:34AI just lets you create more low-quality
4:36content faster. If your skill is high,
4:39AI lets you express that skill at a much
4:41higher volume. So, the rule is to use AI
4:44to accelerate your learning and output,
4:46never to avoid learning and output.
4:49Every time you reach for AI, ask, "Am I
4:51using this to skip thinking or to get
4:53more at bats with my thinking?" If you
4:55hold that line, AI becomes a force
4:57multiplier. If you cross it, AI quietly
4:59replaces you. Number five, build a
5:01living style guide so AI can actually
5:04sound like you. When you tell tell the
5:06AI to just write in my style, it has no
5:08idea what that means. You have to teach
5:10it. And so, instead you want to treat
5:12your voice like something that you can
5:13document. You do that by picking a
5:15handful of your best pieces. So, this
5:17could be chapters you've written, emails
5:19you've written, even blog posts. Study
5:21them for patterns, and you can use AI to
5:24also do this analysis for you, but make
5:26sure you are heavily involved in this
5:28process. You want to know like how long
5:30your sentences usually are, how often
5:32you crack jokes, how formal or casual
5:34you are, whether you lean on stories or
5:36pure explanation, uh whether there are
5:39specific phrases you love uh or phrases
5:42you don't love. And you turn all of
5:44those observations into a list of rules
5:46and a style guide. Then, whenever you
5:48use AI, you anchor it in that guide as
5:51well as samples of your writing to sort
5:53of demonstrate what your what that guide
5:56is meant to to show. You're basically
5:58saying, "Before you start typing, this
6:01is the persona that you're adopting."
6:02So, over time, as you evolve, you update
6:04the guide and it grows alongside you. As
6:06a result, AI stops sounding like generic
6:09internet voice and starts sounding a lot
6:11more like you on a good day. By the way,
6:13if you made it this far into the video,
6:14you might be a good fit for the Story
6:16Hacker membership. Link down below to
6:17get started. So, let's go into part two
6:21of this video where we're going to talk
6:22about how to use the AI to improve your
6:24writing instead of improving the AI's
6:26writing. Cuz now we we need to flip it.
6:29So far, we've been making AI better.
6:31Now, we're going to make you better
6:32using AI as a coach, mirror, or training
6:35partner. So, tip number six is to use AI
6:39as your interviewer to kill writer's
6:41block. Most people think that they have
6:43an idea problem. And they actually
6:44don't. They have more of an extraction
6:46problem. Your ideas are there, but they
6:48might not just be top of mind for you.
6:50So, when you're just staring at a blank
6:51page, you're asking your brain to decide
6:54what matters, structure it, phrase it
6:56beautifully, all at once. And of course,
6:58that's going to cause you to freeze.
6:59This is where AI becomes your
7:01interviewer. You tell it what you're
7:03trying to write about. You let it ask
7:04you a series of smart and targeted
7:06questions, and you answer them one by
7:08one the way you'd answer a curious
7:10friend. You stop worrying about perfect
7:12phrasing, and you just talk. So, this
7:14might be stories that you'd forgotten
7:16that come up or opinions you didn't know
7:18you had on the surface, or connections
7:20between ideas that appear because you're
7:23in conversation and not isolation. And
7:25when you're stumped, you can look at the
7:26examples of how other people might
7:28answer and react to them. Or you can ask
7:31the AI to give you examples, and usually
7:32when it gives you options, you can say,
7:34"No, that's not it. Here's what I
7:36actually think." That "No, here's what I
7:38really mean" moment is often where your
7:41real voice is showing up. Cuz remember,
7:43you're not asking AI to write for you,
7:45you're using it to pull the book that's
7:47already in your head into the open. So,
7:49number seven is to let AI critique you,
7:52but of course never abdicate judgment.
7:54AI is great at spotting certain
7:56problems. For instance, repetition or
7:58overly long tangled sentences or
8:00confusing transitions. It can also do a
8:03decent job at spotting obvious clichés.
8:06And used well, it's like having a very
8:08fast, slightly nitpicky editor sitting
8:10next to you. But you do have to remember
8:12that it doesn't know your long-term
8:14vision, it doesn't know your readers the
8:16way that you do or at least the way you
8:18should do. It doesn't care about
8:19preserving your unique quirks. So, when
8:22you use it to critique your writing,
8:23you're not saying tell me what's right
8:25and wrong, you're saying show me things
8:27that I might want to look at. Then you
8:29sort that feedback into buckets, things
8:32like okay, yes, this is a real clarity
8:34or pacing issue that I should look into
8:36or that's not quite right, but it's
8:37pointing at something useful or that
8:40suggestion would make my writing more
8:42generic, so pass.
8:44Uh essentially, you want to think of it
8:45like watching a game tape if you're an
8:47athlete. The footage doesn't tell you
8:49who you are, it just shows you what
8:50happened so you can make better
8:52decisions next time. You remain the
8:54coach and AI is just another camera
8:56angle. Number eight is to treat AI like
8:58a writing tutor and not a ghostwriter
9:01because there's a big difference between
9:03AI do my homework and AI show me what I
9:05did wrong and how to fix it. The first
9:07one makes you dumber and more dependent
9:09over time. The second one accelerates
9:11your learning like crazy. As a tutor, AI
9:14can help you break down why a passage
9:16from a great author works. It can
9:18compare your writing to that passage and
9:20highlight the concrete differences. It
9:22can suggest specific micro exercises to
9:24practice the skills that you're missing.
9:26Instead of randomly writing and hoping
9:28you get better, you're actually doing
9:29deliberate practice with AI as your
9:32coach. Focused repetition, doing
9:34dialogue exercises, scene transitions,
9:37description, pacing, etc.
9:39Gives you immediate feedback on each
9:41rep. And the goal is not to end the
9:43session with perfect pages. The goal is
9:45to end the session as a better writer
9:47who can produce more good pages tomorrow
9:49and next week and next year. Number
9:52nine, use AI as your outlining and
9:55reverse outlining partner. Organizing
9:57ideas into coherent structure is where a
9:58lot of people get stuck. They can write
10:00decent paragraphs, they just don't know
10:02how to turn a big pile of thoughts into
10:04a book. AI can help from both
10:06directions. So first, there's the
10:08outlining. You can collect all your
10:10ideas and stories and concepts in one
10:12place, then you have AI explore
10:14different ways of arranging them into a
10:16logical progression. And you end up with
10:18several possible outlines. Maybe one
10:20that starts with your personal story,
10:22one that starts with the reader's
10:23problem, one that's purely
10:25chronological, and you can decide
10:27exactly what that would look like
10:28because when you're using AI, you
10:30essentially are choosing between options
10:33instead of just staring at chaos. Then
10:35there's reverse outlining. This is when
10:37you feed in a chapter from a book you
10:38admire or one of your own, and AI breaks
10:41it down into its underlying structure.
10:44What each part is doing for the reader.
10:46And with when you do this, patterns
10:47start to pop out. You might learn how
10:49long the setup is before something
10:51happens, how often tension strikes, how
10:54they enter and exit scenes. And once you
10:56see those patterns, they're kind of hard
10:58to unsee. You start building them into
11:01your own work on purpose instead of by
11:03accident. And this actually leads me
11:05into tip number 10, which is to tear
11:08down comparison books and competitor
11:10books without copying them. When you're
11:12writing in a specific genre, there are a
11:14few unspoken rules. There's expectations
11:16about pace and tone. There are tropes
11:19that readers expect to see, and if they
11:21don't, they will leave you bad reviews.
11:22There's types of twists that feel kind
11:24of satisfying, and normally you'd have
11:26to read tons of books and slowly piece
11:28that together. But with AI, you You
11:30shortcut a lot of that analysis. You can
11:32take a successful book in your genre,
11:34you can have AI walk you through like
11:37what's happening in each chapter, what
11:38changes, what's promised, what's paid
11:41off, etc. It pulls out recurring
11:43patterns in plot, character arcs,
11:45emotional beats. And the important part
11:47here is that you're not trying to copy
11:49their plot. You're instead learning the
11:51grammar of the genre. It's like a
11:52musician learning chord progressions.
11:55Lots of songs use the same basic chords,
11:57but they sound completely different
11:59because of melody and rhythm and lyrics.
12:01So, you can do the same thing with
12:03story. You understand the core moves
12:05that make readers in that genre happy,
12:07and then you invent your own version of
12:08those moves with new characters,
12:10settings, and details. And that brings
12:12me to tip number 11, last one, use AI as
12:15a brutal beta reader panel. But do it
12:18carefully. Most writers either get no
12:20feedback, or they get feedback that's
12:22too vague to be useful. AI can simulate
12:25room full of readers with different
12:26attitudes. A die-hard fan of your genre
12:29who notices every trope, for instance,
12:31or a casual reader who gets bored
12:33easily, or a harsh critic who lives to
12:35find flaws. You can ask each of these
12:37voices to react to your chapter. This
12:39allows you to understand where they get
12:41bored, where they were confused, what
12:43moments really landed, what would make
12:44them excited to keep reading, etc. Now,
12:47of course, if you can, get real human
12:49beta readers, but they need to be beta
12:51readers that love your genre already so
12:53they can give you accurate feedback. And
12:55you need to have enough of them that you
12:57can start to see the trends. Most
12:59authors, especially when they are
13:00starting out, don't have that. They
13:02don't have the resources to find those
13:04people. And so, having AI stand in for
13:07that is great. If you ask for brutal
13:09feedback, AI will always find something
13:12wrong, no matter how good your chapters
13:14is, and that's the role because that's
13:16the role you're giving it. So, you want
13:17to be careful that you're not taking
13:19everything it says absolutely literally,
13:21but it can absolutely be a great tool to
13:24give you an idea of where you are
13:26falling short. You want to treat this as
13:28a generator of possible problems to
13:30investigate, a way to see your writing
13:32from multiple angles, a tool to sharpen
13:34your own editorial instinct, but you
13:37remain the person who decides if this is
13:39a real issue or if it's just nitpicking
13:42that wouldn't actually make my book any
13:44better. AI is not the enemy of writers.
13:47What kills writers is avoiding hard
13:48thinking, outsourcing judgment, and
13:50hoping a tool will save them from doing
13:52the reps. If you use AI the way we just
13:55walked through, including narrowing your
13:57jobs, structuring your context, getting
13:59feedback, all of these things, then AI
14:01becomes the thing that lets you do more
14:03reps faster without losing yourself in
14:06the process. And if you want to see
14:08exactly how all of this fits into a
14:09start-to-finish system, here's your next
14:11step. I've put together a full course
14:13video here on YouTube that walks through
14:15my entire process. And in that process,
14:18AI does the typing, the human does the
14:20thinking. So, if you're thinking, "Okay,
14:22Jason, these 11 ideas are great, but how
14:24do I string them together into a real
14:25workflow that gets me from zero to
14:27published?" That's exactly what this
14:29full course video is for. So, click over
14:31to that next, watch it, take notes, and
14:33then pick one small part to implement
14:35this week. And I'll see you in the next
14:37video.