How AI is Transforming How Freelancers Write

There’s almost no comparing what freelance writing was when I got started to what it is now that artificial intelligence is a tool we can use.

Back in my day, research consisted of identifying books and reputable online sources and writing consisted of synthesizing the information you found into a piece of writing that fulfilled the requirements of your assignment as insightfully, efficiently and succinctly as possible, which required skill.?

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Freelance writing still requires skill, but now, thanks to AI, the research and writing process can be significantly streamlined. This allows writers to move through certain steps of the writing process much faster, leaving them extra time to be more creative or add insight that they may have had to previously leave out due to deadline demands or other restrictions.??

Let me show you how the AI tool ChatGPT has transformed the way I conduct research and write content as a freelance writer, but before I do, let me state that using AI is up to the client. If they’re fine with it, cool. If not, it’s best to complete assignments what is quickly becoming the old-fashioned way.?

Conducting Research

Sometimes, before the research could even begin, I would spend hours getting more context on the topic I needed to write about. This included what felt like endless Internet searches and sometimes a ton of reading to get myself up to speed. After I felt I had a firm grasp on what I needed to write, the real research began. I’d look for popular articles and posts, search for additional information from reputable websites and scour the internet for any books or additional data or statistics I could find.???

Thanks to ChatGPT I can now get context in seconds with a single prompt asking ChatGPT to explain the topic’s background. A second prompt asking ChatGPT to give me a clickable list of sources in a table format also takes only seconds and, in my experiences, yields mostly high-level sources that can jumpstart my research which reduces the amount of time this part of the process takes significantly.?

Writing First, Second & Third Drafts

One of my least favorite things about the writing process is staring at a blank document and trying to figure out where to begin. It doesn’t happen all the time, but when it does, there’s an almost physical pain that comes along with it. It’s never fun. When this happened back in the day, I’d go back to those popular articles I used for research and analyze the first paragraphs to get some inspiration on how to start my own. Now, I create a complete first draft with ChatGPT.

To have ChatGPT generate a good first draft, I give it back some of the context it gave me about the topic I’m writing about but also tell it what I know about the audience the piece is for, including as much information about the readership or target demographic as I know. I complete the prompt by giving ChatGPT a word count and asking it to write a first draft and include a list of keywords and it generates output in seconds.?

I copy and paste the output onto a Google document and read through it carefully striking out parts I can’t use, which is most often more than half of the draft. As I rewrite the parts I can, my creative juices begin to flow, which helps me get done faster, and the results are a 100% authentic piece of content. When I’m done I add and stats and other relevant information I discovered in my research and with that, my second draft is complete in almost record time.?

As I work through my third draft, I revise even more, adding the brand’s voice and finding places where I can use case studies or stories to illustrate the points being made. For me, this is the fun part because it allows me to be more creative and include real life examples people can relate to or use for motivation or inspiration. When all that work is done, I self-edit and run my final draft through Grammarly to check my comma placement in particular, and I’m done.

AI has definitely transformed my writing process by making it more efficient, placing a wealth of information just a few keystrokes and clicks away, and giving me the ability to get the inspiration I need to accelerate the speed of my writing.??

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