Why I’m Sharing All the ChatGPT Prompts I Use at the End of Each Blog

Published in

𝐀𝐈 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐤𝐬.𝐢𝐨

9 min readJun 20, 2023

Midjourney Prompt: **Drawing on a cave wall:: [quill and ink, typewriter, computer]**

I don’t know about you, but I love getting a “behind-the-scenes” look at people’s creative processes.

When I first started out in content and copywriting, I followed Nicki Krawczyk’s blog FilthyRichWriter, where she’d reveal her “secrets”. They were great for helping me to start out and helped me to develop my own creative style.

Bob Bly was another freelance copywriter who wrote a ton of e-books revealing his processes and technique. His resources also helped me a lot in the early days.

We all stand on the shoulders of giants — as they say.

Despite being 6 foot 5 inches, I’m nowhere near being a giant in the writing world yet!

But over the past few months, I’ve become obsessed with coming up with novel ways to use AI as a creative assistant (not a writer replacement — I hasten to add!). In fact, I don’t think AI can replace us, but we do need to adapt to it.

Sharing ALL of My ChatGPT Prompts…

I’ve made a radical decision.

From now on, rather than keep them to myself, I’ll include a list of all the prompts that I use while writing each blog post.

Hopefully, this will give you an insight into how I’m using tools like ChatGPT to aid my creative process.

For instance — the list of all the prompts I used in the creation of this blog post will be included at the bottom, so scroll down if you want to check them out.

You may be asking yourself why I’m freely giving away this information rather than hoarding it for myself. Good question.

Why would I want to give away all my best prompts and let others use them?

For in-depth answers to that question — read on.

1. Competition isn’t bad

Maybe I’m wrong, but — I don’t think that good writers (who have better than average skills) need to compete with each other as much as they think.

There’s plenty of room for skilled writers. The demand for written internet content is growing — with little sign of it slowing down.

Even with AI on the scene, I think there will be a shortage of expert content writers who have good prompting skills, as well as writing skills, capable of creating content and copy that stands out from the rest.

This quote from a 2021 Forbes article still holds true –

“Businesses don’t necessarily need more content, they need better content that actually performs.”

In a sea of AI-generated mediocrity, good writers who are using AI creatively and wisely will stand out.

2. Authenticity, honesty, and transparency

I’m not going to lie and pretend that I’m not using AI to assist my writing process.

Like it or not, AI writing tools are here to stay. We can either bury our heads in the sand and act like technology Luddites. Or we can adapt to AI and work out how to use it creatively. I prefer the latter.

Lying and pretending I’m not using it wouldn’t sit well with my own values and ethics. Secondly, I think that in this brave new world, authentic and honest writing is going to stand out a mile from stuff that has just been churned out by an AI tool, with minimal human intervention.

Straight-outta-AI content is like McDonalds food (or worse, if that’s even possible). Human-written content, created with AI assistance will be fine haute-cuisine.

I’m all in favour of using AI as a creative ASSISTANT. But not as a creative REPLACEMENT.

As you’ll see from my prompts below, I never use AI to generate text that I just copy and paste into any of my blog posts or creative writing.

I use it to brainstorm ideas, carry out research (market research and factual research), to critique my writing, and to occasionally tidy up clunky grammar or flow.

When I’m writing technical content and copy for my clients, I sometimes use ChatGPT to create bits of boiler-plate text, but then I edit and craft it into something original and unique. This is a big value-add.

2. Writing evolves. Evolve with it.

It’s time for writers to evolve — again.

Yes, that’s right — when you think about it, writing has never been a static process.

Ever since the first caveman picked up a chunk of charcoal and became the first interior designer — writing has evolved continuously.

From cave markings to heiroglyphs, to quill and ink, to the printing press, to the typewriter, to computers — writing has never stood still.

AI and ChatGPT are just the next step in that process of evolution.

After all, writing is about putting down in words our own thoughts, ideas, and feelings onto the page.

Even technical writing (if you want it to be engaging) has to have a human touch and creativity. AI can’t produce that alone — without human direction it simply regurgitates or rehashes what’s already out there. It will always give you the highest probability output. True creativity is often a low probability output, but one that still manages to work.

3. Reciprocity — give to get back

Ever noticed how people respond to you much more positively when you’re giving of your time and effort?

It makes sense. When someone goes out of their way to help me, I feel compelled to help them in return. That’s the principle of reciprocity. As you give to the world, it gives back to you.

When I share my prompts and AI insights, I like to think that I’m helping the wider community of writers, especially here on Medium. I also like to think that, at some point, I’ll get that love back in spades (go on — give me a clap — you know you want to!!!)

It’s all about adopting a growth mindset rather than a fixed one. Abundance over scarcity. There is an abundance of ideas and creativity, which brings me onto my next point…

4. Creativity is infinite

Creativity isn’t a finite element. It’s infinite.

The seed of an idea for a blog post rarely comes from ChatGPT. Even when I’m brainstorming, there still needs to be an OG prompt from me.

The overall theme, idea, or title comes to me organically. It often comes from conversations I have with people, books I’ve read, videos I’ve watched — things I’ve experienced IRL.

Then I use ChatGPT to expand on that idea, research different angles, different directions, tangents, etc. Then I use my own judgement, intuition, and creativity to turn that research into something engaging. I’ll often add in my own experiences and opinions.

That kind of creativity is infinite. So why would I worry about other people getting ideas from my prompts or processes?

Go ahead, use them to your heart’s content. Swipe away — I’ll be using different ones tomorrow anyway — there’s no limit to what we can do with this technology!

As long as we combine it with our intuition and communication skills, AI will be the ultimate productivity tool, helping us to give birth to a new wave of creativity that will be quite unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.

5. Collaborative creativity

I’m hoping that by sharing my ideas and processes, other writers will do the same. If we all share our ideas with each other and combine forces, just imagine the innovation that will result from that.

We can all learn from each other, gain new insights, and improve the way we do things. The future is bright for writers who take an open, growth-focused mindset.

Collaborative creativity is the way forward. When we merge our different perspectives, ideas, concepts and creative breakthroughs, wonderful things will happen.

This already happens in most creative pursuits. When a new TV series is made — “Breaking Bad” for example — the original creator doesn’t do all the creative parts. Vince Gilligan didn’t single-handedly write every episode. He led a team of writers who collaborated on the narrative arc and character development of the series.

We can view AI in the same way. It’s just a new member of our writing team.

Meet your new writing team mate, ChatGPT — they’re not very creative or intuitive, but they’re fairly reliable (although you need to fact-check their work). Oh, and they’re relentless (do neural networks ever sleep… or dream of electric sheep???)

If we all work together and find ways to use this tool to our advantage — everyone will benefit. Let’s do it together! I urge others to share their prompts and processes so we can all learn from each other.

ChatGPT prompts used for this blog post:

So, here’s the big reveal…

The backstage pass…

All the prompts I used while writing this blog!

The prompts are all listed in the order that I used them.

The bits in <> brackets are extracts of my writing that I pasted into ChatGPT. The bits in [] brackets are sections of ChatGPT generated text that I used to reprompt it. Oh, and I also used Bing assistant to find the external links included in this blog, so I’ll include the prompts I used to find those.

Prompts for ChatGPT GPT-4 Engine

Please take on the persona of a blog brainstorming assistant. Whilst in this mode, you will begin each response with the text [BLOG:]. I am going to write a blog post with the working title: <Why I’m going to list every ChatGPT I use in each blog> . The overall idea of the blog is <From now on, at the end of each blog post I write, I’ll list all the prompts that I used to create it verbatim. The reason for this is that I think the type of writing that will stand out in the new-normal are those that display honesty, authenticity, transparency. Also, I believe in reciprocity — as I give to the world, so the world will give to me. That’s why I’m not afraid of sharing the creative ways I’m using ChatGPT, as creativity isn’t a finite resource — it’s unlimited. Hoarding my prompts for my own personal use buys into a scarcity or fixed mindset — I prefer to adopt an abundance or growth mindset.> I want you to help me brainstorm ideas on how to make this blog post interesting and engaging for the target audience — other writers, bloggers, freelance writers, and anyone interested in using AI writing tools in general. Start by giving me a list of ideas on how I can develop this into a blog. Don’t be afraid to synthesise ideas from other areas that are not related to writing or AI and be creative — think outside of the box.
Please critique this title and intro: <PASTED TITLE & INTRO>
Please expand on ideas for this section: [The Evolution of Writing Tools: Draw a parallel between the evolution of writing tools, from the first cave drawings to the quill and ink, typewriter, computer, and now AI. This could serve to highlight that using AI is merely the next step in this evolutionary process.]
Please give some ideas for this section: 3. Reciprocity — give to get back
Please give me some ideas to expand this section: 5. Innovate through openness — I’m hoping that by sharing my ideas and processes, other writers will do the same. If we all share our ideas with each other and combine forces, just imagine the innovation that will result from that. We can all learn from each other, gain new insights, and improve the way we do things. The future is bright for writers who take an open, growth-focussed mindset.
Please give an example of this in real life: Collaborative Creativity: Delve into how an open exchange of ideas can lead to unexpected collaborations. When different perspectives converge, unique concepts and creative breakthroughs often emerge.
Please critique this blog post <PASTED ENTIRE FIRST DRAFT>
Please give me ten ideas to use as the main image for this blog post. For each, write a prompt that I can put into an AI image generator.

Prompts for ChatGPT GPT-3.5 Engine

What did cavemen use to make cave paintings
Who wrote Breaking Bad and did they use a team of writers?

Prompts for Bing assistant

Is demand for written internet content growing?
Please find some stats or articles to back this up: Even with AI on the scene, I think there will be a shortage of expert content writers who have good prompting skills, as well as writing skills, capable of creating content and copy that stands out from the rest.

DALL-E image generator prompt

Draw an image of a hand drawing on a cave wall. The cave drawing will have a quill and ink, typewriter and computer.