You’d Never Guess ChatGPT Wrote This

The best way to make your writing sound human is to avoid using ChatGPT.

The second-best way to make your writing sound human is to teach ChatGPT your writing style.

Why? Writing has been around way before AI. There are different writing styles, so using certain words, phrases, or em dashes shouldn’t be a valid proof that a text was written with AI. However, if a writer you’ve followed for ages suddenly sounds nothing like themselves, that’s a red flag.

The solution isn’t to copy/paste a prompt to make your AI writing sound human. You’ll just end up sounding like other writers.

The solution is to make ChatGPT sound like you. Here’s how to do it.

Step 1: Define Your Unique Voice

Before you even open up ChatGPT, take a moment to step back and define your personal writing style.

Let’s see a few key questions about how you write:

• Tone: Are you friendly and conversational, formal and direct, poetic, or maybe a little sarcastic?

• Sentence structure: Do you tend to write short, punchy sentences, or do you prefer longer, more fluid ones with lots of clauses and metaphors?

• Word choice: Do you use complex vocabulary or keep things simple?

• Spoken vs written: Do you write the way you speak, or is your writing more polished than how you talk in everyday conversations?

Thinking through these questions will help you uncover what makes your writing style unique.

Next, gather a few writing samples that reflect your voice. Pick a few real examples. It can be from an email, newsletter, blog, etc.

Step 2: Introduce Your Style to ChatGPT

In this step, we’ll show ChatGPT what your writing actually looks like. Instead of just saying “Write like me” and hoping for the best, you’ll give the model clear guidance right in the chat.

Start a new conversation and paste or upload your writing samples. You can say something like:

Here are some samples of my writing. Analyze my tone, sentence structure, and word choice and describe my writing style.

Once it responds, review its description and see if it feels accurate to you. If something feels off, you can clarify or correct it. It’s a quick, back-and-forth process that helps ChatGPT lock in your style more accurately.

Step 3: Write Prompts with Personality

With your writing style now defined, the next step is to craft prompts that reflect your voice and personality.

This part is especially important if you want to get high-quality results. If you write something like, “Summarize our team’s meeting notes,” or “Write a blog post about time management in a friendly tone,” the output will probably sound flat and generic.

The key is to be specific. Here’s an example:

Generic prompt:

Write a professional internal email announcing a new project management tool.

What you’ll likely get: “Dear team, I hope you’re doing well. I’m pleased to announce that we’re implementing a new project management tool…”

It’s technically fine, but it might not sound like something you'd actually say to your team.

Personalized prompt (based on steps 1 and 2):

Write an internal email to my team announcing that we’re adopting a new project management tool. Follow the points below:

1. The tone should be [relaxed and friendly]

2. Start with a light joke about Monday mornings

3. Explain what the tool is, what it’s for, and how we’ll start using it [without using technical jargon]

In the prompt above, 1 is the tone, 2 is a personal touch, and 3 is the word choice.

Here’s another example:

Generic prompt:

Summarize the key points from today’s client meeting.

Personalized prompt

Summarize today’s client meeting following the points below:

1. Use a [clear and informal] tone

2. Highlight the [two main decisions we made]

3. Include a [quick, funny note about the Zoom glitch]

4. Keep it [short enough for an email]

The more specific you are, the better your results. Clear direction about tone, word choice, and personality traits helps ChatGPT write in a way that feels true to you.

Step 4: Use Custom Instructions to Keep Your Style Consistent

You might be wondering if you need to repeat your writing style prompts every time you start a new chat with ChatGPT. The answer is no.

ChatGPT includes a Custom Instructions feature that allows you to guide how it responds based on your goals and preferences. This makes it easier to maintain the right tone and approach across conversations without losing flexibility.

Here’s an example of how you can fill out your custom instructions.

My writing style is [clear and direct], with a [slightly conversational tone]. I use [short, structured sentences] and prefer [everyday words over technical jargon].

I usually write in a way that [sounds natural when spoken], especially when explaining complex topics. Include a [touch of dry humor or casual phrasing] when appropriate.

Once saved, ChatGPT will apply this tone by default in its responses.

You can also take advantage of ChatGPT’s memory feature. This lets the model remember certain preferences across sessions. For instance, you can say:

Remember that I prefer a formal tone with a bit of wit now and then.

That information will be stored, so you won’t have to repeat it every time you start a new conversation.

Step 5: Test, Refine, and Stay in Control

Even with everything set up, ChatGPT won’t perfectly capture your voice every time. It can’t read your mind, and occasionally it might produce something that doesn’t quite sound like you. If a draft feels too stiff or too wordy, don’t hesitate to point it out and ask for a revision.

Usually, I make the refinements myself, but sometimes I let ChatGPT refine it:

This [insert your section here] feels too wordy and formal. Can you make it more direct, closer to my usual tone?

There are some things you’d have to refine once, while others take a much longer process.

The vocabulary is something you have to refine many times (until ChatGPT learns what words you like and don’t like):

• Vocabulary: Do the words sound like something you’d say? Say you never use the words “furthermore” and “evident.” If ChatGPT writes, “Furthermore, it is evident that the results were satisfactory,” you can tell ChatGPT to exclude such words from its vocabulary

Other small details just need to be reminded of once:

• Punctuation: Do you follow all punctuation rules? Do you like using em dashes, commas, and colons?

• Contractions: Do you prefer writing with contractions like don’t, can’t, and it’s, or do you avoid them in favor of a more formal tone?

Remember, the goal isn’t to outsource your entire writing voice. It’s about letting the AI handle some of the heavy lifting or help you brainstorm.