Top Ten Moves for Writers in 2024
With the advent of automated, pro-level writing a fait acompli with the emergence of AI writers like ChatGPT and similar, scribes of all stripes have a simple choice:
*Acknowledge that machines can now do what they do and make smart moves to deal with that new reality
*Plunge their heads ostrich-like into the sand and hope against hope that this new reality will somehow go away
If you’re decidedly un-ostrich-like, here are the top ten moves you can make in the Brave New World of AI Writing that will best protect your writing career:
*Get Over The Fact That a Machine Can Do What You Do: Yes, in the olden days, it was rather wonderful to be blessed with a talent for writing that seemed — in some ways — a bit magical.
Unfortunately, those days are gone. ChatGPT and similar automated writers have proved that AI can write as well as most writers — and in some cases, write better than others.
Even more harrowing: ChatGPT has a track record for getting ever more adept and sophisticated.
Granted, it hurts that writing seems so much less ethereal now that automated writers are among us.
But it’s today’s reality.
*Future-Proof Your Writing Career By Becoming an AI Expert: We’re fast approaching the day when writers and editors unacquainted with AI writing will find themselves galloping towards the same fate as over-the-hill horses:
Glue factory, here I come.
Yes, that’s harsh.
But from a publisher’s perspective, it’s the writing on the wall.
With ChatGPT and similar, publishers now have an AI-automated writing tool that — in many cases — enables one writer on their staff to do the work of at least five writers.
Sure, most publishers will probably do the right thing and ultimately bid a tearful goodbye to the four writers on their staffs who shunned AI writing tools and now have no idea how the technology works.
And publishers may even take some time to wax nostalgic for the days when words were finely wrought by human hands — or at least for as long as it takes to see how their shower of pink slips is transformed into a blizzard of green at the bank.
Fortunately, for writers, there’s a silver lining in all this: You still have a chance to decide if you want to protect your job by becoming an AI expert where you work.
*Don’t Fall for the Myths of the Naysayers: Once you start focusing on AI writing, you’ll probably find there are more than a few writers out there attempting to trivialize automated writing as an over-hyped toy.
Don’t fall for it.
Generally, most of the extreme criticism seems to come from writers who react emotionally to the idea of automated writing — rather than from dispassionate writing pros who have worked closely with the tech and have the confidence to evaluate AI writing objectively.
Myths you’ll see about AI writing include:
*AI Writing Does Not Work, I Tried it Myself
*Try One AI Writing Tool — You’ve Tried Them All
*AI Writing Will Never Produce Creative Prose
To which I would respond:
No.
No.
And no again.
Essentially: ChatGPT alone — among more than 100+ apps that also offer automated writing — is currently seeing 100 million users at its Web site every week.
Meanwhile, Microsoft alone has invested an estimated $13 billion dollars in the maker of ChatGPT, OpenAI.
Plus, billions more have been invested in similar AI writing tools trotted-out by the Big Tech giants and venture capitalists.
Essentially: ChatGPT — and tech like it — has set the world’s hair-on-fire with its ability to write about virtually anything.
It’s seriously innovative.
And it’s undoubtedly proven.
*Subscribe to ChatGPT Immediately — It’s the Benchmark: Currently, ChatGPT is the industry standard bearer when it comes to AI writing.
So you’ll want to subscribe to its $20/month version ASAP.
Yes, ChatGPT is facing formidable competition from Google, Facebook’s parent company Meta — as well as 100+ other AI writing providers.
But for now, ChatGPT is the best AI writer overall — not to mention a household name across the globe.
In a phrase, put ChatGPT in your toolkit and you’ll be able to make sense of what’s going in AI writing for the foreseeable future.
Plus, you’ll also be able to see how ChatGPT compares with all the alternative AI writers that are clamoring for your attention.
(I’m not an affiliate marketer for ChatGPT.)
*Master the Prompt, Master ChatGPT: Writers who have mastered ChatGPT and similar AI writing tools have realized that becoming a pro with the tech takes more than a quick spin.
Instead, they’ve discovered that AI writing is a lot like riding a bicycle: If you simply jump on a bike with no practice, there’s a chance you’ll be kissing sidewalk in no time.
So instead of climbing aboard ChatGPT half-cocked, these writers have taken the time to learn how to:
*Use just the right words
*Use just the right techniques
to get exactly what they’re looking for from ChatGPT.
It’s a technique known as ChatGPT prompting.
And it’s something you can learn from scores of videos on YouTube that show you how — or these top five free courses in prompt engineering.
The especially good news here: Once you master how to prompt ChatGPT, you can also use the same approach to operate other AI writers that use tech similar to ChatGPT.
Those include some of today’s most popular AI writers, including Jasper, CopyAI and Rytr.
You can also jumpstart your knowledge of prompts by using an AI-writing, prompt-generating tool like AIPRM .
Plus, once you get the hang of AIPRM’s approach, you’ll probably want to go beyond its tools to hyper-personalize your prompts to ensure you get precisely what you want.
*Create Your Own Custom Version of ChatGPT: Lucky you: You’ve decided to get serious about ChatGPT when the tech now includes a tool you can use to create a custom version of ChatGPT.
For example, using a tool dubbed ‘GPT Builder” — included with the $20/month version of ChatGPT — you can upload into ChatGPT numerous articles, marketing copy, short stories, novels and/or similar copy you’ve written — and then create a custom version of ChatGPT that writes in your style.
Or, you can use GPT Builder to program ChatGPT to also automatically access — and interact with — your emails, your calendar, your Notion account — or any number of other apps.
Bottom line: Customization of ChatGPT is to a large degree only limited by your imagination.
For a great video tutorial on how to get started customizing ChatGPT with GPT Builder, check-out Corrie Who Writes’ easy, step-by-step guide.
*Monitor ChatGPT’s Competitors Very Closely: Despite ChatGPT’s commanding lead in the marketplace, the good news for AI writing aficionados is that the AI writer is facing extremely stiff competition from 50+ companies — including Google, Meta and Amazon.
Fortunately — at least from the consumer’s perspective — they’re all looking to eat ChatGPT’s lunch.
In fact, these companies are so serious about besting ChatGPT, they’ve banded together in an official association dubbed ‘The AI Alliance.’
Their goal: To share their AI research with one another so that together, they can accelerate the development of AI writing and similar technology — and ultimately leave proprietary research companies like ChatGPT in the rearview mirror.
For consumers, this play by the likes of Google, Meta and Amazon will most likely lead to ever-more features and upgrades from ChatGPT as it fights to stay ahead of its competitors.
And it will also mean that at any moment, a ChatGPT competitor could suddenly lunge ahead with an AI writer that leaves ChatGPT in the dust.
Follow all the wrangling and most likely you won’t be caught short by the sometimes blindingly fast developments that are continually changing the AI writing space.
Instead, when appropriate, you’ll able to jump to a superior-performing tool that pops-up on the scene in a heartbeat.
Plus, by staying current on AI tech, you’ll also be able to discern the difference between a competitor that truly has developed AI writing technology that’s better than ChatGPT’s — and one that’s simply blowing smoke.
*Keep an Eye On Niche Market Tools, Too: Given that the AI writing tool market is already intensely crowded, a number of toolmakers have come-out with AI writers that are specially designed for niche markets.
Many AI writing tools, for example, have been configured for writers who are looking for help optimizing their writing for discovery by the search engines (SEO).
Meanwhile, other niche AI writers specialize in fiction writing, academic writing, job ad writing, resume writing, legal writing, medical writing and more.
Essentially: If you can imagine another writing genre that would benefit from its own, specially designed automated writing tool, you can be pretty much assured that a niche AI writer already exists for that genre — or that a tool for that writing genre will emerge shortly.
*Gobble-Up Superior Quality, AI Writing Video Tutorials: You can significantly reduce the ramp-up time you need to achieve prowess with AI writing by dipping into the wide array of how-to videos on AI writing currently available on YouTube.
A good place to start are videos from Corrie Who Writes — an AI content specialist.
Corrie has a reputation for delivering extremely thoughtful, extremely inquisitive and extremely helpful step-by-step tutorials on AI writing.
*Stay Close to Breaking News and Analysis on AI Writing: One of the most invigorating aspects of AI writing is that the tech is morphing and improving at an often breakneck pace.
One of the easiest ways to make sense of it all is with RobotWritersAI.com.
It’s a free, weekly — and objective — publication that focuses solely on how AI is automating writing.
And it’s designed to help writers — and others who rely heavily on writing in their jobs — to protect their careers by staying current on the latest news and analysis in AI writing.
Essentially: Click to RobotWritersAI.com every Monday and you’ll get a quick update on all the news and analysis on an AI tech that is significantly impacting your job right now — and promising to bring a sea change to writing long-term.
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–Joe Dysart is editor of RobotWritersAI.com and a tech journalist with 20+ years experience. His work has appeared in 150+ publications, including The New York Times and the Financial Times of London.