Voice Matching: The AI Style Sheet
How to train AI to write in any voice—yours, your client's, or your favorite author's—using a simple style sheet technique.
"A well-dressed sentence walks down the page with a certain attitude."
— William Zinsser, author of On Writing Well
"What's the best AI-powered platform to convert an audio file into a well-written article, using my general style and voice?"
The question was posed in a tweet by a well-known internet influencer who leads a small fitness empire under his multi-million-dollar personal brand.
"@chdeist does this," replied a friend who was familiar with my system.
Minutes later, I was messaging back and forth with the e-celebrity, trying to balance my confidence in the system I'd developed with a desire not to blow the opportunity. After some back and forth, I offered a short demo.
It turned out the team thought they had already tried everything to mimic their boss's distinct voice, but none of the AI tools delivered what they promised. It always took hours of manual editing to get the tone just right. So my first assignment was framed as something of a longshot—an "experiment."
Ghostwriting + AI: A Match Made in Heaven
Before we get into the exact method, let's look at how Large Language Models perform at the simpler task of imitating a famous writer whose words are part of their training data.
When I prompt ChatGPT to "rewrite the previous paragraph like Shakespeare," I get:
Before we mimic voices new, Let us see how Models do, Imitating styles of writers of yore, Whose words in training data they explore.
Bravo!
It can also match styles ranging from confident to friendly to professional to casual. Just describe the tone you want in plain language. Let's try something more unique, like passive-aggressive:
"Oh, sure, these language models can apparently just magically create or change content into any tone you desire. Must be nice."
This ability to absorb the patterns and nuances of different styles makes AI an ideal tool for ghostwriters seeking to mimic a client's personal style.
Creating an AI Style Sheet
For well-known writing styles, like Shakespeare, simple instructions like "write in the style of William Shakespeare" are sufficient. The AI has comprehensive training on Shakespeare's entire collected works.
When dealing with individuals whose work is not in the AI's training data, the scenario changes. In these cases, providing specific writing samples is the best way to convey your desired style.
No matter how detailed or well-crafted your description may be, it will not capture the full nuances of a style in the same way that an example can.
Step 1: Gather Examples
Collect a few full-length articles or content samples that exemplify the style you want the AI to emulate. Look for samples that align with the:
Voice and tone
Diction and word choice
Sentence structure
General style
Claude can handle up to 500 pages, but 2-5 pages is enough. Beyond that, you'll slow down responses with little additional benefit.
Step 2: Analyze the Samples
Read through the samples closely, taking note of distinguishing features:
Word choice and vocabulary
Sentence length and complexity
Tone (serious or conversational? Sense of humor?)
How do you address your reader? Second person "you"? First-person plural "we"?
How often do you begin a new paragraph?
You can also outsource this step to Claude:
"Analyze this writing sample and identify the key stylistic elements: tone, vocabulary level, sentence structure, rhetorical devices, and any distinctive patterns or quirks."
Step 3: Compile into a Brief
Combine your examples and instructions into a PDF titled "[Name's] Style Sheet." Use headers and formatting to clearly delineate examples from instructions:
# [Name's] Style Sheet
## Voice & Tone Guidelines
- [Your observations and instructions]
## Sample 1: [Article Title]
[Full text of sample article]
## Sample 2: [Article Title]
[Full text of sample article]
## Words/Phrases to Avoid
- [List any pet peeves or brand guidelines]
Whenever you want to write in this style, just attach this PDF at the beginning of your drafting conversation with Claude.
The Result
When it came time to submit my draft for the client, I didn't know how it would be received. Would my attempt to imitate the voice be greeted with ridicule?
After a day or so, the feedback arrived: "This is Fantastic!!! I honestly wouldn't change a thing except the title."
Without AI, I could have provided a solid outline—a roadmap for turning the long transcript into punchy prose. But I would have struggled to mimic the nuances of the client's voice. With AI, I could get a close style match for most of the text and then apply my "human touch" to identify when the voice was off—and fix it.
This post is adapted from "Commanding the Page" (2023).