Elevate Your ChatGPT Game: Crafting an Effective Priming Prompt

This post is another in my continuing series of essays on building a toolchain for ChatGPT and other prompt-driven AI systems.

Are you ready to revolutionize your workflow with ChatGPT by creating a personalized toolchain and a library of power prompts that drive desired results?

In this essay, you will learn:

• The benefits of developing and curating a personalized and purpose-built priming prompt for setting the initial conditions for interaction with the AI system
• The various uses and subsequent elements of a priming prompt, including setting up your writing style, defining preset commands for common actions, and defining macros for ChatGPT to follow

In software development, an effective toolchain and environment setup are vital to productivity and effectiveness. This is also true when leveraging ChatGPT.

When building out a toolchain for prompt engineering, consider creating and curating a library of commonly used, highly effective prompts. These prompts can be utilized for one-shot interactions or chained together in sequence to evolve the working space of tokens being submitted into the language model.

An extension of this idea is the development and curation of a personalized and purpose-built priming prompt that can be developed and evolved over time. This first prompt sets the initial conditions for interaction with the AI system. Simply put, a priming prompt is the first command given to the AI and establishes the initial context for all subsequent text (in the case of a one-shot interaction) or future interactions in the case of chat/interactive systems (such as ChatGPT).

In practice, the interactions with ChatGPT might look like this:

1. Input your priming prompt as the first statement/command
2. Ask a question, give a command, and get the output.
3. Refine that output with subsequent prompts. Using short commands and macros.?
4. All the while, your priming prompt shapes the interaction via the prior context.

Key Prompt Engineering Principle: layer context and guidance to build a web of interacting concepts and directives from which your desired output can naturally emerge.??

What can you do with a priming prompt??

• Set up your writing style so that when ChatGPT emits output, it is closer to what you want and requires less rework.?
• Define preset commands for common actions; these are basically text expansions where you can have a short piece of text expand to something longer. For instance, in your priming prompt you can list all of the common prompts you have found helpful when interacting with ChatGPT.?
• Define macros; these are lists of distinct commands and patterns that ChatGPT should follow until you state otherwise.?

How well does this work? It is not perfect, as prompts are not deterministic programs, but using a toolchain like a priming prompt and a library of curated prompts will help you improve your prompt engineering over time and lead you to become more efficient in generating the desired output.

In my last post on this topic, I introduced the concept of a priming prompt similar to a .profile file you might use for configuring your terminal and command line. In the example at the top, there is a section that describes your writing style. Not everyone can easily or accurately describe their own writing style, especially with enough descriptiveness and precision to be effective.?

But, the more precise and specific you can make this section, the better your output will be, and the less editing you will have to do to get output useful for your purpose. So, the following will show you how to build a base version of those instructions to aid your future productivity and effectiveness using ChatGPT. For business writing, include any brand guidelines that describe your company's writing and communication style instead of your own. Noting it is useful to maintain multiple lists of writing styles to ensure that when you use ChatGPT or other GPT variants to help you write or improve your writing, you always start with a base context of guidance for the AI.

Noting it is useful to maintain multiple lists of writing styles to ensure that when you use ChatGPT or other GPT variants to help you write or improve your writing, you always start with a base context of guidance for the AI.

Key Prompt Engineering Principle: build and maintain a library of prompts that drive predictable desired outputs. Curate and experiment to find what works for your personal style and the AI you are working with.

Here are the instructions for generating your writing style rule set.

1. Find a representative example of your writing, something 500 to 1000 words long that sounds like you or the text you want to analyze or mimic.?
2. Open ChatGPT in your favorite browser.?
3. Type the following text prompt: "The text below in {} is a writing sample, please digest the sample into an abstract description of the writing style, including attributes such as formality, conciseness, persuasiveness, narrativity, exposition, poetry, satire, traditionality, personalness, activeness, simplicity, persuasiveness, descriptiveness, narrativity, exposition, poetry, satire, formality, informality, experimentalness, journalisticness, conciseness, detail, vividness, clarity, precision, flow, coherence, clarity, grammatical correctness, and structural soundness. This output should be a list with the header of "Here is my writing style, I want you to use this style when you write prose for me:" For each attribute, write an instruction starting with words like: Avoid, Use, Maintain, Demonstrate, Adopt, Provide, or Write. These instructions are intended to guide future writing to mimic the attributes of the writing sample, and they are to be written in affirmative language. Avoid referencing specific information from the writing sample. Write the description and only the description in a clear and concise manner as a numbered list. {writing sample}"?
4. Review the description generated by ChatGPT and make any necessary adjustments or changes. Remember you can ask it to make changes. You may also find you need to tinker around with the instructions given your specific writing sample.
5. Run this loop several times, use different tranches of sample text. Build up a series of descriptive statements, then pick and choose the most effective statements through experimentation.??
6. Save the description for future reference, and update your Priming Prompt.?

Further notes:

The exact detail of the prompts given above are required to get results that are similar to what I have found in testing these for my own use, and yours.?

While prompt engineering is more forgiving than regular programming (in some ways), it is stochastic in its results. I have found that as I build up “Prompts” I add each word sparingly as each serves a specific purpose, and each may predictably alter the output in a desired direction. Also note, shorter prompts often work better, so, if you choose to experiment with these prompts, and you should it is fun, keep them short and add new words/instructions incrementally as you experiment.?

In this specific example I have that a writing sample of 50-100 words may be sufficient for a basic analysis of the formality or informality of the tone, the simplicity or complexity of the vocabulary and sentence structure, and the presence or absence of certain literary devices such as satire or poetry. However, for a more thorough analysis of the persuasiveness, narrativity, or coherence of the writing, a writing sample of 100-200 words may be more appropriate.

For a comprehensive analysis of the tone and style of a piece of writing, including several attributes such as formality, informality, experimentation, journalism, conciseness, persuasiveness, narrativity, exposition, poetry, satire, traditionality, personalness, activeness, simplicity, persuasiveness, descriptiveness, narrativity, exposition, poetry, satire, formality, informality, experimentation, journalism, conciseness, detail, vividness, clarity, precision, flow, coherence, grammatical correctness, and structural soundness, a writing sample of 200 words or more may be necessary.

It is important to note that these are general guidelines, and the specific word count needed for an effective analysis of tone and style may vary depending on the complexity of the writing and the specific attributes being analyzed. More words may be helpful.?

As usual, YMMV. Good luck, and have fun!?

The prompt to help me do this:

Write me a detailed list of instructions with sample statements to execute for ChatGPT in to your writing style using ChatGTP for writing improvements using ChatGPT.