Day 14 – Become A Quicker, Better Writer – 30 Day AI Challenge 2024

Welcome to the 2024 Edition of the #30DayAIChallenge. This year, we’ll be focusing on making Generative AI more accessible for all. So follow along and give each challenge a try yourself, plus share your own thoughts and experiments with a community of like-minded learners and tinkerers!*

Week 2‘s theme is “The Fast and the Curious: AI Drift“, focused on productivity and designed to help speed up tasks, plus reduce time spent on the mundane, both at work and home.

Today’s Challenge: Level Up On Your Writing Skills!

Writing is an essential skill, whether for personal blogs, academic essays, professional reports or even daily email correspondence. It requires creativity, clarity, and, often, a significant amount of time. Today’s AI Challenge invites you to explore how Generative AI can transform your writing process, making it quicker and better.

Beginner’s Guide:

AI writing tools have revolutionized the way we approach writing. For beginners, here are a few steps to start enhancing your writing with Gen AI:

1. Choose the Right Tool: Start with AI writing assistants like OpenAI’s ChatGPT (or other GenAI chatbot) for multi-purpose writing, Grammarly, Hemingway, Jasper (for business & marketing) or Sudowrite (for fiction). These tools offer a range of functionalities from generating content ideas to grammar and style suggestions.
2. Set Clear Objectives: Define what you want to achieve with your writing. Is it an engaging blog post, a concise report, or creative storytelling? Your objective will guide how you use AI.
3. Start Small: Use AI to generate outlines or ideas for your topic. It’s a great way to overcome writer’s block and structure your thoughts.
4. Refine and Edit: Use AI for editing and refining your draft. Look for suggestions on clarity, tone, and conciseness. Remember, AI is a tool to augment your skills, not replace them.
5. Learn from Feedback: Many AI tools provide readability scores and other metrics. Use these to learn and improve over time.

A Few Easy Challenges To Start With:

• The Boring Email Challenge: Take a dull but necessary email (meeting update, announcement, etc.) and to use your favourite GenAI chatbot or tool to turn it into something more engaging, or even humorous if appropriate for the context.
• Rewrite the Classics Challenge: Take a famous passage (poem, speech, short story), and use GenAI to transform it into a) a tweet, b) business jargon, c) a text to your best friend.
• The Elevator Pitch Challenge: Start with a long-winded, technical description of a product/service. Then task GenAI with making it a compelling, concise elevator pitch.

For our example, I’ll take the first challenge and run with it…here’s the original, somewhat lengthy and passive aggressive email:

…and there’s the rewritten email, using ChatGPT:

Here’s another example, comparing output from different AI chatbots:

Who Wrote It Best? 12 Chatbots, 1 Awkward Love Letter

Advanced Exploration:

For those more experienced with AI writing tools, delve deeper into customization and creative uses:

1. Tailor AI to Your Style: Advanced tools allow you to customize writing style, tone, and format. Experiment with settings to best match your unique voice.
2. Combine Multiple Tools: Leverage different AI tools for various stages of writing—idea generation, drafting, and editing. Combining strengths of each tool can yield superior results.
3. Explore AI for Research: Use AI to quickly summarize research papers or find relevant data. It can significantly speed up your writing process by making research more efficient.
4. Creative Writing with AI: Experiment with AI for storytelling, poetry, or even scriptwriting. Challenge AI with prompts and use the output as a creative catalyst.

A Couple Of Examples:

If you are working on a longer term project or want to ensure your style and objectives stay consistent, you can either use Custom Instructions inside of ChatGPT…or just create a custom GPT to always use (see example below). This ensures that when you start any new conversations, the chatbot remembers your instructions and gives you exactly what you want.

Or you can simply use other amazing custom GPTs others have created, from the GPT store. Here are some examples:

Here’s another, bonus, advanced example:

AI Life Hacks – Creating PowerPoint Presentations and Videos in a snap using Custom GPTs

Concluding Thoughts:

The combination of AI and writing opens up new horizons for writers of all levels. From streamlining the research process to refining the final draft, AI tools can significantly enhance both the quality and speed of writing. As AI technology continues to evolve, the potential for personalized and creative writing assistance seems boundless.

Remember, the goal is not to replace the human touch in writing but to complement it with AI’s capabilities, making the writing process more enjoyable and efficient. In my extensive testing over the past year, I’ve found that you almost always get the best results with some iterative refinement and when you combine great AI drafts with your own experience, style and creativity!

If you give any of the above tools or challenges a try, leave a comment and share your experience! If you’re using other platforms to post, please tag your Facebook, Twitter / X or LinkedIn post with #30DayAIChallenge so others can find it too.

Till tomorrow…

*Please note: Participation in the 30 Day AI Challenge is at your own discretion and responsibility. Always ensure that no sensitive personal information, confidential, or proprietary company data is shared. Adhere to all applicable local laws and company policies. Enjoy exploring AI responsibly!