VOLUME 23, ISSUE 8 – AUGUST 2024
THIS MONTH’S MENU:
I. A.I. & THE WRONG QUESTION
Small-Biz Writing Coach: Not “Should I Use It?” But HOW & WHEN
II. ARE YOU SELF-EDITING?
Writing Coach Serves Up Free Editing Software
III: AN AI “CLASH OF THE TITANS”!
Two Veteran Copywriters Take Sides on Chat-GPT
I. A.I. & THE WRONG QUESTION
Small-Biz Writing Coach: Not “Should I Use It?” But HOW & WHEN
Great clarifying piece on A.I.—from Ed Gandia—friend, colleague, small-business writing coach, and regular contributor to the E-PUB. Ed’s done a TON of seriously productive experimenting with A.I., so listen up!
Hey, writers! The “all-or-nothing” conversation we’re having about A.I. is a false dichotomy—and not very productive.
Most AI conversations focus on whether or not to use A.I. to write your draft. But, the answer to that is almost always “No.” A much better question?
“Should I use A.I. as part of my workflow—and if so,
where and how exactly?”
Because, frankly, the possibilities are incredible, and the details about how and where to leverage A.I. in the process are fascinating.
Here’s just a partial list of where I use it in my content-creation process:
1) Ideation/brainstorming
2) Outlining/organizing ideas
3) Wordsmithing (this one has been immensely helpful!)
4) Headline creation (better headline options and I can them mix/match)
5) Title creation (book titles, white paper titles, etc.)
6) Synthesis—huge!! (Go here to see what Ed means…)
7) Analyzing data, feedback, trends
8) Stress-testing concepts/ideas (having it play devil’s advocate)
9) Generating creative solutions to tough problems (or at least kickstarting the process)
Yes, you have to work carefully and patiently with these tools, give them background and guidance, and be prepared to have a back-and-forth conversation with them.
Don’t expect magic from a single, simple prompt. And don’t expect to be able to outsource your thinking. YOU are still in the driver’s seat. In fact, you must become a better thinker to get the most out these tools.
When deployed intelligently and diligently, A.I. can make a meaningful difference in:
> The quality of our work
> The enjoyment of the process
> Our creative output
> Our writing productivity
II. ARE YOU SELF-EDITING?
Writing Coach Serves Up Free Editing Software
Great suggestion for free editing software from Daphne Gray-Grant, a former newspaper editor who coaches writers and editors worldwide.
Sign up for her free weekly newsletter, Power Writing, here.
Any professional writer knows how important it is to craft copy that’s engaging, persuasive, and free of errors. Yet, even with 40 years of writing/editing experience, I never try to do that work all by myself.
I use editing software called ProWritingAid. Here’s how it works:
I paste my text into the screen editor and hit the “summary” button. In 10-30 seconds, it gives me scores for grammar, spelling, and style.
The style analysis is particularly useful, providing various readability scores, such as Flesh-Kincaid and the Coleman-Liao Index. I always aim for grade 6 to 9 readability, even if I’m writing for Ph.D. audiences? Why?
Because no one HAS to read my work, I want to make reading easy for my audience.
PWA also highlights passive verbs, hidden verbs, adverbs, and offers suggestions for word elimination or rephrasing.
I pay special attention to transitions, repeated phrases, clichés, redundancies, and vague words. I usually make changes directly in my MS Word document using PWA’s advice.
One feature I ignore is the “sticky writing” measure. It highlights sentences the software deems hard to read. I’ve found that metric to be wrong-headed and I like being able to use my own judgment over that of an algorithm.
COST: Free for analyzing 500 words at a time. Fee-based Premium plans let you breeze by the 500-word limit (and for less than Grammarly’s annual fee).
NOTE: I’m not a reseller, so if you decide to buy it, I won’t make a cent.
III: AN AI “CLASH OF THE TITANS”!
Two Veteran Copywriters Take Sides on Chat-GPT
On May 15, 2024, two copywriting heavyweights, Bob Bly and Nick Usborne, faced off in a debate on AI—“Writing Copy with Chat GPT”—that showcased two very different opinions on this ubiquitous subject.
In Bob’s promo about the event (read it here), he wrote:
I hate anything to do with AI writing. Especially the copywriting industry’s current love affair with ChatGPT, which I find absolutely pukatatious.
On the other hand, my old friend, superstar copywriter Nick Usborne, sings the praises of using AI to take your copywriting—and your copywriting career—to the next level.
Well, I think Nick is full of beans, and in our upcoming online debate, I plan on tearing him…and AI copywriting…apart. Of course, he intends to do the same to me and “old-school,” human-only writing.
Well, the 90-minute event happened, sparks flew, a lot of great info and insights were shared, and I got permission to share the Zoom recording with you.
Go here, and use passcode *7SSKQl$ to access the program (the letter after Q is a lower-case L).