Want to Outsmart ChatGPT? Stop Writing For 4th Graders
Everything doesn’t have to be watered down
It’s quite likely ChatGPT writes better than you.
I see all these writers churning out pieces about ChatGPT and how they either hate it or love it. Most of those pieces don’t add anything to the conversation, but whatever, they’re trying to get noticed, I suppose.
I’ve seen a good deal of ChatGPT content, and as a writer, I’m not impressed. Trite phrases woven together with about as much life as a fish on a slab, and frankly, very easy to tell apart from human writing. I’ve already caught a couple of “influencers” in the act of AI-generated Medium pieces — make of that what you will. 🤷♀️
But ChatGPT does get one thing down pat — writing content that looks like the generic idea of what someone might imagine a piece of writing on XYZ topic to look like.
Which means all the old tenets about how to write well need to get a mega, mega refresh.
When we start out as a professional writer, it’s hammered into our heads that we must write at a 4th-grade level to get online readers. Keep it simple, keep it list-y, keep it keyword-y.
Which isn’t a bad idea in itself. But make that the driving force behind your writing, and what do you get?
