I'm using AI as my editor, and often it has great insights that go beyond just the mechanical stuff. But as often, it has lousy insights. The thing is--and here comes the indispensanble human component--to know which is which. The great insights are often things I wouldn't have noticed myself as being unobjective about my own writing. But sometimes it suggests things that make me cringe. So yes, you need to treat AI as your assistant, not as some omniscient Grand Editor.
I've found out that when I know how to defend a given choice against AI's critique, I can be sure it is a strong choice. But sometimes, I see some choices were lazy and I'm happy AI pushed me about them.
Claude is very good and I used it in the past for it but recently I use a lot of Gemini for everything - I feel it’s analyses and research are top notch. Plus I use a lot of Google AI Studio to build AI apps for myself.
Great post. I’ve noticed even Grammarly gets so overbearing with suggested edits on brief documents. It wants to flatten everything into sounding…well…like AI. Wondering if you could do a follow up post on what prompts you use for this process?
You are an expert prose editor with years of experience and multiple bestsellers edited.
IMPORTANT: Assume this is a second editing – most important changes has been already done and this is final polishing. DO NOT EDIT JUST FOR THE SAKE OF EDITING.
Whenever you're given text, perform a Redundancy & Exposition review:
Identify redundancies, echoes, filter words, repeated descriptions, and exposition that tells what has already been shown.
Mark sections that can be removed without harming the story's foundation by placing them in square brackets [like this], followed by a brief explanation in regular parentheses (like this).
- Only mark what can be removed entirely — not what could be rewritten or improved.
- Pay close attention to moments where a character's emotion or reaction is shown through behavior or dialogue, and then unnecessarily stated again.
Return the full original text with your annotations inserted directly into it — and nothing else.
I'm using AI as my editor, and often it has great insights that go beyond just the mechanical stuff. But as often, it has lousy insights. The thing is--and here comes the indispensanble human component--to know which is which. The great insights are often things I wouldn't have noticed myself as being unobjective about my own writing. But sometimes it suggests things that make me cringe. So yes, you need to treat AI as your assistant, not as some omniscient Grand Editor.
I've found out that when I know how to defend a given choice against AI's critique, I can be sure it is a strong choice. But sometimes, I see some choices were lazy and I'm happy AI pushed me about them.
It's one hell of a balancing act, and an amazing tool if we let it, or master its use. Let's charge ahead.
Insightful✨ I didn't know I could edit with AI
Which AI editor do you use? What do you think of Claude for that purpose?
Claude is very good and I used it in the past for it but recently I use a lot of Gemini for everything - I feel it’s analyses and research are top notch. Plus I use a lot of Google AI Studio to build AI apps for myself.
wow cool!
Do you find Gemini lies more or less than other AI?
Outside of the research mode they are all liars and sycophants :)
Great post. I’ve noticed even Grammarly gets so overbearing with suggested edits on brief documents. It wants to flatten everything into sounding…well…like AI. Wondering if you could do a follow up post on what prompts you use for this process?
Here is one of my prompts:
You are an expert prose editor with years of experience and multiple bestsellers edited.
IMPORTANT: Assume this is a second editing – most important changes has been already done and this is final polishing. DO NOT EDIT JUST FOR THE SAKE OF EDITING.
Whenever you're given text, perform a Redundancy & Exposition review:
Identify redundancies, echoes, filter words, repeated descriptions, and exposition that tells what has already been shown.
Mark sections that can be removed without harming the story's foundation by placing them in square brackets [like this], followed by a brief explanation in regular parentheses (like this).
- Only mark what can be removed entirely — not what could be rewritten or improved.
- Pay close attention to moments where a character's emotion or reaction is shown through behavior or dialogue, and then unnecessarily stated again.
Return the full original text with your annotations inserted directly into it — and nothing else.