See How Top Writers Use ChatGPT: 5 Real-Life Examples from OpenAI!

type

status

date

slug

summary

1.Editorial Feedback

Writing is a solitary activity, and writers often become so focused on their own perspective that they have trouble remaining critical of their own work. Traditionally, the role of an editor is to provide a new perspective and help writers improve their work. However, editors are not always readily available, and often they only offer suggestions on a finished manuscript.

In this regard, ChatGPT can serve as an immediate auxiliary tool to help writers provide feedback at every stage of writing. For example, screenwriter David Cornue regards ChatGPT as a 24/7 virtual "writer's studio" and uses ChatGPT to discuss storylines and solve narrative problems. He emphasizes that the role of ChatGPT is as a "story collaborator and evaluator" rather than a "story generator." He never lets AI rewrite scenes, but solves problems in the story through interactive feedback, maintaining his dominant position as a creator.

2. Find the Right Words

The sign of a good writer is the ability to find the most appropriate expression, but this process is often very time-consuming and laborious. Farhad Manjoo, a former New York Times columnist, mentioned that ChatGPT helped him improve his efficiency in finding precise vocabulary. He regards ChatGPT as a dynamic dictionary and analogy generator that not only provides vocabulary, but also provides more precise expression suggestions based on context. Manjoo emphasized that ChatGPT not only helps him find the right words, but also provides suggestions on creative expressions such as analogies, metaphors, and idioms, helping him express clearer and more interesting ideas when writing.

3. Reverse Interview

Most people are used to asking ChatGPT questions and getting answers, but writer Stew Fortier found that ChatGPT helped him more when he was the questioner. He called this approach a "reverse interview," where ChatGPT guided him through a series of insightful questions to express his thoughts. This process sparked his creativity and prompted him to more clearly articulate what he was thinking about.

Stew Fortier believes that AI is not intended to replace the creative process of writers, but can help writers break through creative bottlenecks and provide inspiration by asking questions and discovering creativity. He particularly emphasized that ChatGPT, as an "editor who is always by your side" without any criticism, is an effective tool to help writers improve their creative efficiency, especially in the non-creative part of writing (such as research and sorting out materials).

4. Comedy Writing

Humor may seem easy, but the research and preparation behind creating jokes is tedious. Comedy writer Sarah Rose Siskind said ChatGPT is very useful in comedy writing, especially when researching the background of jokes. She doesn't let ChatGPT generate complete jokes, but uses it to start creating dialogues. By interacting with ChatGPT, she is able to collect rich topic and background information, allowing her to focus more on creating the "funny point" of the joke.

Sarah mentioned that she often asks ChatGPT to help her set the context for her jokes. For example, when she was writing a satirical article about the show Shark Tank, she would ask ChatGPT, “What do people say on Shark Tank?” Through these conversations, she was able to find unique elements to exaggerate, making the jokes more creative and humorous.

5. Research and World Building

For writers, writing is not only about expressing what is known, but also about exploring new worlds and concepts through research. Writer Elle Griffin pointed out that the traditional research process often takes a lot of time and energy, and she used to get stuck in the endless flow of information on Google and Wikipedia. Now, ChatGPT speeds up her research process, provides instant answers, and helps her stimulate creativity. For example, when she imagined how humans would evolve in a million years, ChatGPT helped her find research on underwater life that inspired chapters in her novel.

Elle Griffin mentioned that ChatGPT not only helps her speed up the research process, but also provides her with some unexpected connections and discoveries, helping her build a more creative world.

Five Ways Professional Writers Use ChatGPT

We shared some examples of how writers use ChatGPT in their creative process.

Writers use ChatGPT as an idea-boosting partner, story consultant, research assistant, and editor to discuss ideas, find the right words, clarify thoughts, and get feedback on structure and flow.

📖

Writer:

ChatGPT:

Continue this conversation: https://chatgpt.com/share/73d30e70-a2cd-411a-9a41-a1dc40b85c4c

“The instinct is to say, ‘Oh, this thing just writes for us.’ But I can also prompt it to ask me questions. It can get me thinking by pulling ideas and insights out of me.” ——Stew Fortier, writer and founder

Here are five professional writers who use ChatGPT not to write for them, but as a tool to extend their own creativity.

Editorial Feedback

Writing is inherently solitary, and there’s a downside to that solitude: You become so caught up in your own perspective that it’s hard to be objective about your work. That’s why writers need editors — to provide a fresh perspective, to point out what’s working and what needs improvement.

However, editors aren’t always available, and even when they are, they only see the final draft. That’s where ChatGPT can help provide instant feedback and guidance, at every stage of the writing process.

Film and TV screenwriter David Cornue uses ChatGPT as a 24/7 writing team to help him develop story ideas and solve narrative problems. Here’s how he uses ChatGPT to get feedback on his scripts and storyboards:

Wordfinding

To write well, you need to find the right words. And there's a clear difference between a word that's almost right and one that conveys the meaning exactly. Flaubert called it "le mot juste" (the exact word). His advice: "Never settle for an approximation."

ChatGPT achieves what a dictionary cannot: it considers the sentence in which the word appears, providing detailed and relevant suggestions to help writers express their thoughts with absolute clarity.

This is how former New York Times columnist Farhad Manjoo uses ChatGPT for “word search”:

Reverse Interviewing

Most people think of ChatGPT as a question-and-answer machine: ask questions, get answers. But author and founder Stew Fortier has found that ChatGPT is most useful when you’re the one answering the questions. He calls it the “reverse interview” — a technique where ChatGPT guides users through a series of deep questions to uncover insights and prompt them to express their ideas more clearly.

Here’s how Stew unlocked his creativity with ChatGPT:

Comedy Writing

Good comedy may seem effortless, but writing jokes actually requires a lot of research. Humor relies on context, and as comedy writer Sarah Rose Siskind explains, “knock-knock jokes” don’t work precisely because they’re taken out of context. Sarah used ChatGPT to research joke structure, uncovering common themes and exaggerated observations so she could focus on the fun creative part: writing the punchlines.

Here’s how Sarah uses ChatGPT to gather material:

Watch Sarah demonstrate her joke-writing process

Research and Worldbuilding

Research is a writer’s gateway to new worlds. Writers are often advised to “write about what you know,” but as Tom Wolfe says, relying solely on firsthand experience can limit their creativity. In order to authentically portray people and places never seen before—real or fictional, past or future—writers must broaden their knowledge through research and reporting.

Yet the research process is often painfully slow, with writers digging through reams of material to find an elusive fact. Novelist and Substack writer Elle Griffin explains how ChatGPT speeds up the process and fuels her imagination, providing instant answers and inspiring unexpected connections and discoveries.

🔥

VPS on a Budget: Enjoy premium performance without breaking the bank