How I Use Claude as a Writing Assistant (to actually improve my writing)
- 5 days ago
- 8 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
This article was written with the help of AI... sort of.
I hate reading AI-generated articles. I also think we'd be crazy not to use the technology that's being built right now, and I don't think that has to be a contradiction. As someone who's spent a lot of time writing with AI, I can tell you there's a right way and a wrong way to go about it, and most of what you see online is the wrong way.
So let me be upfront.
I use AI to help me write, and my writing is better for it. But, it does not write for me.
AI-generated text is clearly not good writing. We've all read the articles that are obviously just someone's copy-pasted ChatGPT conversation, and we're all tired of it. I'm not trying to defend that in any way.
Writing with AI, for me, is a deliberate choice, and I use it with three aims in mind:
I want to learn to use AI effectively (because, like it or not, it's here to stay, so you may as well get good at it)
I want to remain cognitively engaged in my work (because I'm not about to rot my brain and I actually care about what I write)
I want to learn how to write more effectively (because the UK education system failed me)
So with that in mind, here's the framework I use to improve my writing with AI, as well as 4 practical tips to make your life easier while you do so.
There's nothing more intimidating than a blank page
I usually start by brainstorming, jotting down ideas in no particular order, and then trying to tie them together into a cohesive introduction. What I usually find is that I've got about 6 different threads, 3 asides, and 1 and a half completely irrelevant points.
This is where prompt number 1 comes in. It varies based on what I already have written, but it will usually be along the lines of:
What is the most compelling idea here that I should use for my introduction? How can I rework this to effectively set up the rest of the post?
And the crucial part...
Explain why.
If you're not asking for an explanation, you're never going to learn.
Then it's time for a rewrite. Often, I'll just open a new window and start writing it again, but built around this refined idea. I'll then go through a few more passes on the new draft with some specific questions and things I want a second opinion on.
What do you think of the hook at the start of this intro? How is the pacing in this intro, am I losing the reader's attention? Based on this introduction, what would you expect from the rest of this blog post?
These are all things that I might not be able to see myself and would benefit from an outsider's perspective. In the absence of an outsider who is always ready to drop everything and help me with my problems, AI will do the trick.
Here's an example from when I was editing a draft for this very post:
I try to keep my questions fairly high-level and broad. I rarely ask it to suggest explicit changes, but rather broad strokes and overall shifts in the piece. Thanks, Claude!
Getting the Structure Right
When I have an idea for a blog post, I usually have a sense of the structure already. But that doesn't mean the structure is going to be any good.
There's usually a bit of back and forth where I set out all of the points I want to make, we dissect them, analyse them, and cull them down to a shortened list that supports each other and links together well.
Largely, this is just "Rubber Ducking"... the process of thinking out loud to gain clarity and deepen your understanding. It's a term from computer science where, by explaining your technical coding problem to an inanimate object, in this case a rubber duck, you oftentimes find that your problem magically solves itself. The added bonus, when we do this with AI, is that sometimes it will give us an original solution or a different perspective that we hadn't thought of, too.
Either way, I always like to make sure that I'm absolutely clear on the structure before I begin. It's quite difficult to guide things in the right direction when you don't know where you need them to end up.
Iterate and Improve
With a structure in place, I then carry on with the rest of the draft. There are usually a lot of iterations, suggesting ideas, trying different ways to phrase the point I'm making. But the goal is to help me articulate my point more effectively.
It's never up to the model to decide what the point should be.
One approach I've found particularly effective is stream-of-consciousness writing; just write whatever comes to mind.
It doesn't have to make any sense or even sound coherent. The sentences don't need to connect, flow, or even be remotely linked. The grammar can be as appalling as you like. Sometimes, I find I have the words but haven't yet decided what it is that I'm trying to say with them. In those cases, the brain-dump approach works best.
I'll then pass it into an AI model and get it to tidy things up, instructing it to:
Rewrite this piece using my own words. Make it sound more coherent and clear. Identify the main point I'm trying to make.
The words and ideas are still mine, but it's not my writing. The tidied-up version is just a more logical presentation of my own thoughts. I rarely use the output directly, and when I do, it's heavily edited. Once I can read it back and have it make sense, transforming it into a final draft becomes much easier.
Removing the Crutch
When I first started out, I'll confess, I used AI a bit too heavily. It hadn't quite established its place yet as the soulless slop generator that it is seen as today, and there were probably quite a few "It's not X, It's Y"'s, definitely some "quietly"'s, and the odd "separate the signal from the noise". But, as someone who didn't write, using AI was a way to get me started. And for that, I will always be grateful.
Over time, I've come to rely on it less and less to help me write. And the way I use it has changed. I started out getting it to directly rewrite and "make this shorter" and "make it more compelling" (whatever that means), but since finding my voice more, I've come to rely on it far less.
My questions now are far more about structure, flow, and how the piece is landing.
Is this being interpreted right? the reader going to lose interest at any point? What impression does this give about me as a writer? How am I coming across? Is this explanation clear enough, or could it be confusing?
Getting explanations is crucial. The more you get help identifying problems in your own work, the more easily you can fix them yourself next time.
So yes, while AI did help me write this, most of that help happened months or years ago.
A few bonus tips I've picked up along the way...
As promised, here are some practical tips.
1. "Fill in the Blanks."
When writing a draft, I often find that I can't find the right word or phrase. Instead of letting it interrupt my flow, I instead leave a marker like a triple underscore ___, and come back to it later. Some of these I'll be able to complete myself on the next pass, but often I find that asking an AI model to fill in the blanks is an effective time saver.
This doesn't just work for short words and phrases either, which brings me onto my next point...
2. "Actioning these Comments."
I write my pieces entirely in markdown. I find it to be pretty versatile, integrates well with many writing platforms, and is by far the most AI-friendly format. However, the biggest drawback I've found is how difficult it is to leave comments throughout your work.
My solution to this is to use square brackets [ ] to leave inline comments and instructions. For me, this is often something like [rephrase this ===sentence=== later], or [link this better with the point above].
Now I do action some of these myself, but when I get stuck, I find it helpful to have an AI model go through and suggest some changes for each of them. It makes it super easy for AI to find it since I rarely use square brackets otherwise, and you can make these comments as broad or as fine-grained as you like. It could be anything from [I don't think this paragraph fits here, cut it, rework it, or move it elsewhere], to [find another word for 'good', we've already used it 17 times.].
3. "Highlight your Changes."
If you're letting an AI loose on your drafts, it's often helpful to keep track of exactly what it's doing.
You'll need a markdown editor like Obsidian for this, but you can get an AI agent to edit your work directly and highlight any changes it makes. Simply instruct it to wrap any changes in a pair of === and Obsidian will turn highlight it for you.
E.g. ... Simply ===instruct=== it to wrap ...
This makes it much easier to keep track of what has changed, so you can make sure it's not doing anything crazy. It may tell you it's only changed one thing, but it wouldn't be the first time an AI agent has lied about what it actually did.
4. The Brand Voice Guide
Underpinning all of the advice you receive from an AI model about your draft is the Brand Voice Guide. This is a document that details some crucial contextual information about your writing that anyone (let alone an AI model) would need to offer constructive feedback.
It should contain:
Your platform and format,
Why you are writing and what you hope to achieve with it,
Who your audience is, what sort of problems they have, and how you hope to help them
The voice you want to write with. Are you a curious student who is learning alongside the reader, or an experienced teacher who writes with much more authority?
Your writing habits, things you often struggle with when writing, and things you often want help with,
Your syntax. As mentioned above, explaining that ___ are blanks to be filled in, and that [ ] are used for inline notes and comments that should be actioned will save you a lot of time from having to re-explain it each time.
Without this, the feedback will miss the mark, and you'll end up with a confused mess at the end that isn't quite sure what it is trying to be.
My approach isn't a shortcut to producing more content in less time. It's about using AI effectively as a tool for learning. It allows me to get feedback instantly and for free instead of waiting hours or days for an editor to get back to me. I would never have started writing if it weren't for AI. I write better now because of it, and I hope to continue to learn to write better using it.
AI didn't write this article. But it helped me write it better. And if you can make that distinction clear, your writing will only improve.