How to Make AI Write Like You, Not Like AI

A better prompt won't make AI sound like you. (A prompt is simply what you type to the AI.) Buy a prompt pack, and the drafts still arrive in a stranger's voice. You get a line about our fast-paced world, three bullet points and a question at the end.

AI writes like everyone because it has never read you. Show it your own words, and then keep hold of the pen.

This takes an hour, once. After that, the newsletter, the LinkedIn post, the video script and the weekly email to your team all start out closer to you.

Gather ten things you wrote

Describing your voice teaches the AI nothing, but examples do.

Collect ten pieces you wrote before you used AI, and pick ones that sound like you.

• Five you're proud of, such as the email a friend forwarded on, or the message someone called "so you".
• Three that fell flat, each with a note on why.
• Two that were never meant for an audience, such as a long WhatsApp rant, or the inside of a birthday card.

The flat ones show what you'd never do, and half of a voice is the things you refuse to say.

Your rant will teach the AI more than anything you polished for an audience, because nobody puts on a show in a WhatsApp at midnight.

Ask for a description, then correct it

Paste the ten pieces in, with their labels. Ask the AI to describe how you write before it tries to sound like you.

These are ten things I wrote. The ones marked "flat" didn't work, and I've said why. Describe how I write. Cover sentence length, how I open, how I end, the words and phrases I reach for, what I never do, and how I handle humour and seriousness. Quote my own lines as evidence. Then list five things an AI would usually do that I would never do. Don't write anything in my voice yet.

Read the result as if it described a colleague, and expect a line or two to flatter you.

The AI might call you warm and chatty, when you know you're blunt and a bit dry. Cross out every untrue line and write in the true one, because if you leave a flattering line in, every draft will flatter you back.

Save it as a Skill with two rules

Turn the corrected description into a standing instruction, which Claude and ChatGPT both call a Skill. A Skill is a saved set of rules the AI reads before doing one particular job for you.

A Project would work too, but a Skill suits "write like me" better, because you can use a Skill from any chat.

Turn my corrected voice description into a set of writing instructions I can reuse. Include the five things to never do. Add two rules. First, before writing anything, ask me what the piece is for and who it's to. Second, after writing, end with "What would you change?" Also add this. Never invent a story, a statistic or an opinion I haven't given you.

Those two rules matter more than the description. The first rule makes the AI ask what the piece is for, so there's no guessing. The second rule hands the draft back with a question, instead of calling the draft finished.

Without those rules, you've built a content machine that happens to have your accent.

Save the Skill as "My voice".

Send a draft to someone who knows you

Ask for a 150-word post in your voice, on something you have an opinion about. Send the post, without saying who wrote it, to someone who knows how you write, and ask them one question, "Does this sound like me?"

Usually the answer is "mostly". Ask what gave it away, and add that to the never-do list. After two or three rounds, the drafts get close.

The Skill copies the surface, which means your rhythm and your word choice. But the Skill can't copy having been there. An opinion has to come from you, and so does the thing you noticed on the train.

Leave those out, and the draft is an empty shell.

Change a line in every draft

Nothing goes out without your edit, because people recognise you by the one line you'd have written differently. Find that line and write it.

If you can't find one, write the whole next piece yourself, starting from a blank page. That keeps your voice alive and the instructions honest.

Drafts drift, and over the weeks they slide back towards sounding like everyone else. So re-read the instructions once a month and tighten the never-do list.

Some guides end with "now generate a month of content", but I won't tell you to do that.

A month of posts you didn't think about will sound like you and say nothing. So use the Skill on pieces you already have something to say about, one at a time. Let the Skill save you from the blank page, while what's worth saying stays your call.

Before Sunday, find the ten pieces. Put the longest WhatsApp you ever sent at the top of the pile.