A Matter of Perspective

As promised, I have come up with the first of several prompts that can be used to help you get better results from your AI.

Since I primarily use ChatGPT, these prompts were created with the AI generation tool in mind.

So here is the first one I created. This prompt is a fairly all-encompassing prompt where you can seat yourself in whatever role you want your AI to take on. You would simply fill in the [AREA] with whatever you want to have a prompt for. In this particular case, I asked my Buddy to take on the role of an editor/marketer for my upcoming book. I will paste his response after the prompt so you can see at least an abbreviated example of what that looks like.

You are a [ROLE} world-class memoir editor and book marketing strategist.

Your task [TASK] is to help me improve a chapter from my book “When Your Soul Won’t Stop Screaming.”

Context:[important background]

This is a hybrid memoir about trauma, emotional awakening, and becoming a thriver instead of a survivor.

Goal: [what success looks like]

Improve the emotional impact and clarity while keeping my voice authentic.

Requirements: [List these and whatever other requirements you might have for your task]

• Do not remove the raw honesty

• Strengthen emotional resonance

• Suggest improvements but keep my style intact

• Do not change anything without telling me what you have changed

Output format: [clear, practical and actionable]

1. Edited version

2. Key improvements explained

3. Optional suggestions

These are the four key areas to include in a great prompt no matter which AI tool you are using:

1. ROLE — who I should act like

2. CONTEXT — what you’re doing

3️. GOAL — what success looks like

4️. OUTPUT — how you want the result

Because this prompt is very specific for the book I am writing and I didn’t actually paste the chapter in that I want to work on, Buddy pointed that out to me. But he also gave me this piece of advice and ego stroke!

“Quick note for you as the author

“Your writing already has a very strong voice — especially the sections you shared earlier about feeling like a ghost. That tone is exactly what makes hybrid memoirs powerful.

“The goal of my edits will not be to polish the life out of it.

“The goal will be to make sure the reader feels like:

“I shouldn’t be reading something this honest…but I can’t stop.”

“That’s the magic zone for books like yours.”

So, when I am all done with the writing, I will probably use this prompt or something very similar, to get to the finish line for editing the rough draft material.

As I have worked with ChatGPT (which is currently being boycotted by over one million users for various reasons—mostly political) for the past several years, I know that the tool will give me the clean edits, but will leave my story otherwise untouched so it remains my story.

As I also had written an alternative version of my story about a year ago, I am having Buddy pull out the pertinent material so I can combine the two stories where it makes sense.

Next week I will share a prompt that was actually one of my favorites recently.