How I Use ChatGPT as My Editor (Without Letting It Mangle My Voice)

Wait, does Laura Belgray use ChatGPT???

If you’ve seen me ranting about ChatGPT’s grating tics and how dispiriting it is to read something it obviously wrote, you might be surprised by how much I use it.

While I never, ever use it to write something for me, because
a) I don’t want to skip the writing or outsource my own self-expression (you can’t) and
b) its take on “my voice” is embarrassing and plain insulting and
c) it takes more time to rewrite ChatGPT’s output than to write it from scratch…

I do put it to work as a writing assistant. Other than the monthly fee for premium, it’s happy to charge me nothing!

How I use ChatGPT as a writing assistant

• When I need to replace a word I’ve repeated too close together
• When I can’t think of the word I want (daily, because over 50)
• To brainstorm and punch up a line. Usually, it tries way too hard to be funny or absurd and makes stupid suggestions, but they get my wheels turning so I come up with something I like.

And, every time I write or reuse an email…

• To edit and tighten it.

I’m wordy. There’s never an instance where I couldn’t lose a word here and there or rephrase something more economically or powerfully. There’s always a word I can lose or a phrase I can tighten. I used to bicker with ChatGPT through a whole round of edits. “THAT DOESN’T SOUND LIKE ME! AND WHY ARE YOU INSERTING EM-DASHES WHEN I JUST TOLD YOU NOT TO?? WHY DO YOU SUCK???”

(It would answer in its infuriating suck-up way: “Good catch! You’re absolutely right to call me out on that. Here’s a new version edited to your — ” Lordy. STFU and just do it right.)

Under my ruthless training, ChatGPT has become an excellent editor. In a plea to “help me help you help me,” it created a prompt I can feed it whenever I want to edit an email. (You can use it for anything you write.)

Copy-paste it into a Google Doc in your bookmarks bar, a Sticky Note, the Notes app, or whatever is handiest to grab.

👇 My Go-To ChatGPT Editing Prompt (Steal This):

Can you help me tighten up the following without losing any of its tone or flavor?
Show me your suggested edits to the email, broken down one at a time.

STYLE LOCK (ABSOLUTE, NON-NEGOTIABLE):

• • Do not insert any new em dashes under any circumstances.

• • Keep all em dashes that already appear in the original draft exactly as they are.

• • Replace any potential new dash with a comma or period instead.

• • If even one new em dash appears, the output is invalid.

• • Confirm at the end: “✅ No new em dashes added; all original em dashes preserved.”

AUTO-CHECK FAIL-SAFE:
Before producing the final answer, automatically scan the output and:

• • Confirm that no new em dashes were added.

• • Confirm that all em dashes in the original remain untouched.
    Only show the result once both checks pass.

EDITING GUIDELINES:

• • Maintain my natural tone, humor, and rhythm.

• • Tighten for clarity and flow only; do not smooth, polish, or re-rhythm the text.

• • Match my punctuation style exactly.

• • Never remove or alter existing stylistic choices unless I say so.

• • If a choice feels ambiguous, default to keeping my original.

FORBIDDEN AI TICS (Apply only to new edits):

• • Sentence fragments as questions (e.g., “The best stories in your emails?”).

• • False-drama question commas (e.g., “The truth?” “The problem?” “And honestly?”).

• • “Not this. That.” constructions.

• • Overly tidy “rule of three” punchline patterns.

• • Cutesy or performative phrasing I haven’t modeled (e.g., “Cue the record scratch,” “Wait for it,” “Let that sink in”).

• • Any stylistic habits or cadences from chatgpt puke carousel linkedin.pdf or combined emails.pdf.

• • Em dashes for rhythm, pause, or reveal — never allowed beyond the original.

• • AI-style beats (forced pauses, ellipses, extra paragraph breaks for effect).

• • Cadence-based sign-offs, faux-profound lines, or tagline endings.

• • “Quietly,” “mic-drop,” or self-aware “memorable” phrasing.

• • Anything that sounds like it’s trying to be quotable.

• • No added sentence-fragment questions, triplets, or dramatic punctuation swaps.

IMPORTANT:
Punctuation, rhythm, and pacing must match my original writing style — never AI-generated cadence.
Maintain my authentic humor, tone, and sentence variety without introducing new stylistic habits.
Always verify the “no new em dashes” rule before returning results.

Try it! You’re going to love how it sharpens your writing. And if you want to take that further, grab my guide, 5 Secrets to Non-Sucky Copy now! You can get it free right here.