Teach AI What You Never Want It to Say
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AI Writing Assistance · Find Your Voice · Public Lesson 32
AI needs more than examples of what you like. If you keep cutting the same phrases, inflated claims, or overly polished tone from your drafts, turn those edits into clear writing rules. Your corrections are evidence of your voice.
The goal is not to ban every phrase someone on the internet calls “AI writing.” It is to teach your assistant which habits do not belong in your project—and what to do instead.
Start with the edits you actually make
Positive instructions such as “sound natural” or “write in my voice” are useful starting points, but they are open to interpretation. A stronger system begins with something you can point to: an AI draft, your revision, and your reason for changing it.
Look for repeated patterns: stock openings, exaggerated adjectives, sales language, unwanted transitions, extra-long introductions, or a tone that talks down to your readers. Identify patterns rather than treating one unusual word as proof of a problem.
A before-and-after example
Imagine you are writing a practical lesson for creators. You ask AI for an introduction and receive this:
“In today’s ever-evolving creative landscape, it is important to discover innovative ways to elevate your storytelling to the next level.”
“If your AI drafts keep sounding like advertisements, save three lines you cut. Those edits can become writing rules for your next draft.”
The second version gives the reader a problem and a useful action. It does not just swap one fashionable phrase for another.
- Evidence
- I removed the vague opening and promotional wording from the draft.
- Rule
- Do not open practical lessons with broad statements about the times we live in or unsupported promises of transformation.
- Preferred behavior
- Begin with the reader’s real problem, a specific observation, or the first useful step.
- Scope
- Apply this to educational articles. Do not silently alter a quotation or a fictional character’s deliberate speech pattern.
Important: Do not mistake a personal preference for a universal rule. A phrase may be useful in a fictional voice, a verified quote, or a brand name. Your style guide should say when the restriction applies.
Build a negative style guide in four parts
Include an original passage and your corrected version. AI should know what you changed.
Specify the actual issue: vague hype, repetition, weak structure, or an unsuitable tone.
Tell AI what to write instead, not only what to avoid.
Say where the rule applies and when an exception is reasonable.
Keep the rules short enough to use. Ten well-supported instructions will usually be easier to test and update than a page of disconnected prohibitions.
Copy this prompt to teach AI your writing rules
Paste the prompt below with a few of your own before-and-after edits. If you have only one example, ask AI to identify a possible rule, not claim it has fully learned your voice.
Act as my writing editor. Build a negative style guide using ONLY the editing evidence I provide. Project: [what I am writing] Audience: [who I am writing for] Approved examples: [paste 3–5 before-and-after edits, with brief reasons] For each recurring pattern, provide: 1. Evidence: the exact wording or structural habit I changed. 2. Avoid: a specific rule about what not to do. 3. Instead: the behavior I prefer. 4. Scope: where the rule applies and reasonable exceptions. Do not invent preferences I have not demonstrated. Do not turn a single edit into an absolute rule without labeling it tentative. Separate factual accuracy rules from style preferences. Preserve quotations, required terminology, character dialogue and intentional voice. Keep the guide concise and clear enough to check against future drafts. Then revise one sample paragraph using the guide. Explain which rules you applied and flag anything that still requires my decision.
After you approve the guide, save it alongside your project brief. Paste or attach it when you begin a new writing session; do not assume every AI tool will automatically remember the instructions.
Test the rules before you trust them
A five-minute exercise
- Find three edits you made to AI-generated writing.
- For each, write one sentence explaining what felt wrong.
- Use the prompt above to draft three to five candidate rules.
- Ask AI to revise a fresh paragraph using those rules.
- Check whether the new passage sounds more like you without losing useful facts, clarity, or personality.
If a rule makes the writing worse, narrow it. Your goal is a usable editorial standard, not a growing list of forbidden words.
Keep writing style separate from project facts
“Do not use exaggerated sales language” is a style rule. “The main character’s brother lives in Toronto” is a project fact. “This claim requires a source” is an evidence rule. All three may belong in your working knowledge, but they should not be mixed into one blacklist.
That distinction matters most in books, scripts, recurring articles, client writing, and long-form projects. You need both a reliable source of truth and an editable style guide. One helps prevent factual drift; the other helps the writing sound like it belongs to you.
If you want to formalize the wider system, the previous lesson on creating an editorial constitution explains how those rules work together.
What to save from this lesson
- Your original and approved passages, dated or versioned.
- A short list of negative rules supported by your own edits.
- A preferred alternative for each rule.
- Exceptions for quoted material, deliberate character voice, and project-specific terminology.
- A sample revision that passes your review.
Review the list when the project changes. Your rules should support your decisions, not replace them.
Where to go next
The free AI Writing & Story Development Library covers more ways to work with AI while keeping human direction first.
If your training access includes Find Your Voice, continue into the Voice Foundation Template to build the deeper record for your project. That lesson may require you to sign in.
New to the learning paths? Read How to Use Jack Righteous Creator Training.
Jack Righteous principle: AI can suggest how to write. You decide what sounds like you, what gets corrected, and which rules belong in the final work.
