Refining: Editing & Finishing Touches
Polish your draft with hooks, calls to action, smooth transitions, and three techniques to make AI-assisted writing sound more human.
"The sculptor arrives at his end by taking away what is superfluous."
— Michelangelo
Michelangelo believed that within every solid block of marble he carved was a masterpiece waiting to be revealed. His famous "Prisoners"—half-finished sculptures that appear trapped in the stone—convey a sense of potential and the all-too-human struggle toward perfection.
At this stage, our working draft is like these Prisoners. The essence is visible, yet it awaits a few final taps of the chisel to bring its final shape into sharp relief.
This chapter focuses on those finishing touches that will refine your writing and add clarity and definition to the rough edges.
Bookends: Hooks and Calls to Action
British advertising tycoon David Ogilvy used to say that a copywriting team should dedicate at least half the time they spend on a campaign brainstorming the opening hook alone. After all, it's the most-read part of any copy and your best chance to get the reader's attention.
An effective hook combines an element of surprise with the promise of value. I tend to wait until the end of the writing process to craft my hook—after I've already immersed myself in the topic and explored it from various angles.
Here's a prompt to get the creative juices flowing:
"You are a senior editor at [publication]. I'm attaching my draft article. Please suggest 5 different opening hooks that would grab a reader's attention. Consider: surprising statistics, provocative questions, vivid scenes, contrarian statements, or personal anecdotes."
You can also create a "swipe file"—a collection of the most effective hooks you come across. Attach this to your prompt as examples of the narrative punch you're aiming for.
The Call to Action
If you've done your job, the reader will reach the conclusion with a new perspective. You will have earned their trust. Now, what will you do with that trust in the final words?
In modern, digital writing, the conclusion has one purpose: propelling readers to clear action.
Your call to action should align with your content strategy:
Inviting readers to join a newsletter for ongoing dialogue
Suggesting the next article to read, to go deeper into the topic
Encouraging readers to share the content with others
Registering for an upcoming event on the topic
Scheduling a consultation for tailored advice
The hook grabbed their attention; your CTA will harness that focus, turning it into momentum that benefits both the reader and your goals.
Refining Edits: Smoothing Transitions & Eliminating Redundancies
With our hook and call to action in place, we can turn our AI assistant's eye to identifying awkward transitions, redundancies, and gaps in the logical flow.
Begin a new chat, provide the full draft, and ask:
"Please review this draft for: (1) verbose sentences that could be tightened, (2) redundant phrases, (3) overly long sentences, and (4) overuse of adverbs and adjectives. For each issue, quote the original and suggest a revision."
Pro tip: If you assign too many tasks at once, it dilutes the focus. A broad prompt can help identify the most glaring errors, but a series of more specific prompts will provide better results.
For smoothing transitions specifically:
"Review this draft and identify any awkward transitions between paragraphs or sections. For each, suggest a revised transition that improves flow."
For eliminating redundancies:
"Find any sentences that express the same idea twice or contain redundant phrases. Quote each instance and suggest how to combine or eliminate."
Humanizing Touches
In the course of writing, I've often asked myself whether it's possible to use AI to make your writing sound more human. I believe that it is.
Here are three prompts to make your writing sound less robotic:
1. Vary Sentence Length
One drawback of drafting with AI is that its sentences tend to have uniform length and, thus, a dull, mechanical cadence. The best writing has a rhythmic quality, alternating between longer, descriptive sentences and shorter, punchier phrases for emphasis.
"Analyze this draft for sentence length variety. Identify passages where sentences are too uniform in length. For each, suggest revisions that alternate between short punchy sentences and longer flowing ones."
You can also include this guidance in your style sheet so that varied sentence length is "baked in" to the drafting process.
2. Visual Examples
This prompt identifies vague areas that could be boosted by a personal anecdote, analogy, or visual example:
"Review this draft and identify any abstract or conceptual passages that could benefit from a concrete example, personal anecdote, or visual analogy. For each, suggest the type of example that would make it more vivid."
3. Mimicking the Greats
Prompt AI to rewrite dry passages in the style of your favorite authors:
"Rewrite the following passage in the style of [Author Name], preserving the core meaning while adding their characteristic voice and techniques."
Certain authors will be more useful than others for your brand of writing:
Marketing: David Ogilvy, Alex Hormozi
Medicine: Dr. Atul Gawande
Literary nonfiction: Michael Pollan, Malcolm Gladwell
Humor: Dave Barry
Just remember to use these as suggestions. Don't replace the original text with the AI's exact output—use it as inspiration and borrow bits and pieces, while leaving your original phrasing mostly intact.
The CODER Summary
In reworking a transcript into an article, we followed these steps:
Captured our ideas within a single transcript, serving as the raw "source material"
Organized the source material by breaking it down into smaller components and mapping it out
Distilled the central "point" within a logical, reassembled outline
Expressed these distilled ideas in prose in our preferred style
Refined the text, filling in gaps, crafting hooks, and creating smooth transitions
You now have everything you need to implement this system with your own source material. Regardless of the length and format of the final output, the creative process of transforming a complex web of ideas into a clear narrative follows this same progression.
This post is adapted from "Commanding the Page" (2023).