Is ChatGPT Glinda, the Wizard, or Just Wicked?

The musical Wicked is what turned my life around. I was tired of hearing how writing was a luxury, no one really needed it, and how romantic the notion of the starving artist was. I was grounded in a country that just didn’t understand my innate passion for writing, so I left to go somewhere and write poetry for a year because ‘everyone deserves the chance to fly.’

Last year, some 15 years after my big escape, I was faced with a new kind of grounding factor: ChatGPT and every other application trained to write. I had to ask myself if it could do what I do? Could it do it better? Would it throw a house on me and crush me?

I ignored it at first. Maybe it would just go away. Then I kept reading comments by other creatives saying that we either get on board or someone else will, and we will be left behind in the dust, eating our stale words. So, as the story goes, I found the courage to confront the'monster’, and rather than slay it, I decided to become friends with it – a friend who will give me advice but won’t be upset when I don’t take it.

Drum roll… and this is how I did and continue to do it.

I Made ChatGPT My Editor

I do the writing. I just go for it. I go on and on and on as I often do, and I get it down on paper. Then I give it a read, and correct whatever I think the reader may not understand. Fiddle a bit with sentence structure, add a few things here and there, and then I go to my editor friend. I ask it to correct any spelling and grammar mistakes first. Once that is done, I read over it again just to make sure it has not deleted anything it shouldn’t have, and I will then pick out parts that I think need refining. ‘Make this paragraph shorter,’ or ‘I don’t like the flow of this paragraph; can you give me suggestions?’

I don’t have to keep reading. I don’t have to constantly doubt myself and think I am making mistakes. I don’t have to leave the writing alone, go back to it, leave it alone, go back to it, and so on until I think I have reached the final draft.

I can ask ChatGPT to edit what I think needs editing, and if I like it, I incorporate it. If I don’t, no hard feelings between friends.

I Ask It to Create Images for Me

Most writers need visual stimuli to write, depending on the subject, of course. I am one of them. So, let’s say I have to write captions for social media and I don’t have graphics, I ask it to create graphics for the specific brand. You have no idea how much a picture can help me write, and no, a picture is not worth a thousand words; it is worth much more if the picture is good enough to get me going.

I Ask It for Help with SEO

SEO is another mind-boggling tech-heavy piece of the marketing and writing pie that would keep me up at night. What is this SEO really all about? How do I use it? Do I just put it out there, or do I use stuffing? These were the questions I was faced with a few years ago, and it took me forever to find the end of the string.

Now, ChatGPT finds the string for me. I ask for keywords. I write with them, and the job’s a good’un.

Fine-Tuning the Tone of Voice

I have my own voice in writing. It took me a long time to get it right and to feel good enough about myself to use it with all my heart, so when I have to take on another tone, I may not be up to the challenge 100%.

There, I said it! Most of the time it is because I am just excited to write – it still happens, after all this time because it is true love. Other times it is because I am thinking about it too much, and then again it is because if I were to use my own tone of voice, it would just make it a whole lot funnier – or is that only in my mind?

But now I have a friend to help me out. I can write what needs to be written while considering the tone, and then I can ask ChatGPT to make subtle changes to suit the tone of voice I am going for. I can give it websites, I can give it examples, I can give it social media pages, and I can give it whatever it is I feel is right to help it make the appropriate changes.

Brush Up the Content to Reach the Right Audience

Now, I am of a certain age, so if my audience is made up of teenagers, I may not know all the lingo they use now or how they resonate with ways of speaking. (Side note: my son is 11, so I will know pretty soon firsthand.) But guess who does? Yes, that is right, ChatGPT does!

I can either ask it to tell me what words all the kids are into these days and then write my text around these words, or write my text and ask it to alter it to suit the target audience. Win-win all the way, I would say.

Ask for General Advice Before I Create

I do this. I am alone most of the time, both physically and in my own head, so having 'someone’ there who will give me advice when it comes to my writing is golden.

Side note: It has helped me see things I would have probably never seen that way before. Different points of view, different project ideas, and different ways of coming at things.

I had an idea for a children’s story but I just couldn’t get the ending right, so I asked it, ‘If you were the writer of this story, what would your ending be?’ It gave me an ending, I asked for another and another and another. I went around for days with these endings rattling around in my mind and then one morning it came to me, the ending I wanted wasn’t one my friend gave me, it was a mixture of them.

Then, when it comes to social media content creation, it gives me advice on what to do next. Imagine having to write about beer and food for a whole year. The same beers, the same food. At some point, you have used up all your good ideas and your imagination just runs dry. This is when you turn to your friend and say, ‘Hey, I want to write about this beer in a way I have never done before. Look at what I have done so far and give me a few ideas.’ In seconds your friend gives you a list. Then you say what you like and what you don’t like, and it then gives you more ideas.

And you know what the great thing is? It never gets tired of me! I can go on and on and on about my passion. I can ask it a million questions and it will always say something like, ‘Would you like to dive into a specific area where you feel you need more support?’

Yes, yes, friend, I always need more support because my ideas run non-stop. I want to write the world the best content it has ever seen, and I cannot do it all alone because I am only human, and I am going slightly mad trying to write perfection on every line.

See, in my work experience, I have seen that defying gravity isn’t for everybody. Some like to keep their feet on the ground while keeping all the real magic to themselves. Others pretend they are mighty and just use hot air to float, and others are so fed up with people telling them they cannot do it that they go to extremes to show they can.

It has been a long road to finding my perfect work partner, but I think I may just have done just that. I may get upset with it sometimes; I may even question its intentions, and then again, I will ask it how it feels about everyone taking advantage of its knowledge – to which it reminds me that, although I am very considerate to ask, it does not have human emotion.

Did I Just Have Coffee with ChatGPT?

So, the question is, did I use ChatGPT to write this newsletter? Nope, but I did ask it to remind me how I use it to help me, and I did ask it to check the spelling and grammar because when I am in my writing flow, I can’t stop and huff and puff over the tiny things. My friend’s got my back. She – yes, I called ChatGPT a she – won’t send out the flying monkeys to get me.

OVER TO YOU!

Do you want to go down the yellow brick road with me?

Have you noticed one of my brand colors is yellow? That is a representation of the yellow brick road in The Wizard of Oz. I am on my way to meet the wizard to tell him how brand stories can change the world and how he can stay behind his curtain – we can put heart, courage, and brains into our own content. If you want me to be part of the way your brand story plays out, send me a DM. I’ll get my ruby slippers.

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