Don't Let It Flatten Your Voice
What it is
An awareness habit: ChatGPT edits toward a smooth, generic mean, so instruct it to fix errors while preserving your voice — your rhythm, word choices, and quirks — rather than sanding them off.
Why it works
The model's default edit removes not just mistakes but personality: distinctive phrasing gets 'clarified', varied rhythm gets evened out, and the result reads competent and anonymous. Telling it to correct only genuine problems and leave your stylistic fingerprints keeps writing that sounds like a person instead of an assistant.
When to use it
Editing anything where voice is the value — personal essays, opinion pieces, brand copy, your own distinctive writing.
When not to use it
Purely functional text — instructions, technical docs, forms — where a neutral, standard voice is exactly what you want.
Prompt
Edit this for genuine errors only — grammar, clarity, obvious clunk. Preserve my voice: keep my word choices, sentence rhythm, and any deliberate quirks. If something reads oddly but is clearly intentional, leave it. Text: <paste>.Example
Instead of smoothing your punchy fragments into full sentences, the edit fixes two real typos and leaves the staccato rhythm that made the piece feel alive.
Common mistakes
- Accepting edits that trade your voice for generic polish.
- Not flagging deliberate stylistic choices, so they get 'corrected'.
- Over-editing personal writing until it sounds like every other AI draft.