GPT prompt ultimate guide: Using the underlying principle to craft your own prompt

Why I establish this ultimate prompt customization guide

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been learning prompt tips from random threads and posts. However, it’s really difficult for me to grasp a full picture of each use case (e.g., Marketing, SEO, data analysis, etc.). So I decided to come up with a more sustainable solution, try to build a thought process on prompt customization. Essentially, it’s as simple as dissecting your daily routine and turning them into automatable processes.

In this article, we will explore how to create a personalized “content writing prompt” effectively.

A step-by-step guide to setting your own assistant

Learn from Others & Dissect the Workflow

Before we start to create a customized content writing prompt, we might want to research how a blog post is created. Use Google or GPT to look for step-by-step guide blog posts to get a gist of the blog post creation workflow, analyze the approach and try to identify the key elements that make the blog post output effective.

I came up with a high-level approach, which we will be demonstrating how to customize the content writing prompt by double clicking into each of these steps,

• Setting the Role & Pick a Topic
• Frame the Input & the Output
• Constructing the Content
• Fine Tune your Style & Enrich the Copy
• Think Critically & Conclude the Article
• Promote the Article in an Effective Way

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Setting the Role & Pick a Topic

First, once you have a better understanding of what the high-level workflow looks like, it's time to break down the process of content creation into manageable steps. This will make it easier to create a prompt that aligns with your goals and daily routine. Let’s start off by assigning a role to the assistant and have it come up with some ideas,

• Role play: Assistant, you are a {role} that is an expert in {subject}.
• Idea brainstorm: Provide a list of ideas for {types_of_content} about {subject}, covering topics like {topic_1}, {topic_2}, {topic_3}.

?? This allows the model to recognize the direction where we’re heading and also gives you a short list of topics to select from.

Frame the Input & the Output

Once you pick a topic, it’s time to define the desired outcomes. Set specific goals for each task. For example, frame the input elements that you want to embed into the article, who is your audience, what is the style, how many paragraphs, and word counts. The tip here is to think about what are the ingredients of your article and what would be the portion size of the output,

• Provide direction: Your task is to write a {types_of_content} for {topic}.
• Prepare the source: These are the key elements you will consider to write in the article, {element_1}, {element_2}, {element_3}.
• Specify the style: You will be {creativity_level}, the tone will be {adjective}, and your writing style will be catering to a {audience}.
• Frame the output: The article should come in {number} chapters, max at {word_count} words.

?? The model sometimes might take the first liner to execute the task, so remember to use the following prompt to pause the workflow before outlining & drafting the content

• Summarize the task & do not start to draft the copy until further instruction, understood?

?? This allows the model to download the context, frame the input & output in advance.

Constructing the Content

Now that we’ve given the context & framed the task, we can start to ask the assistant to do the groundwork. To create a well-structured article, it's important to start by outlining your main points and framing the topic from a particular angle. Validate if the article outline fulfills your need and fine-tune before the model starts to craft the article.

• Create article outline: Create an article outline based on the above context, the outline should follow this sequential order, {topic} introduction, {main_points} as the main points, analyze from an {angle} perspective, and conclude {final_thoughts}.

?? Remember to fine-tune the outline if the topics it includes does not align with the desired structure

• Draft the content (First draft): Now start to draft the article based on the above context. Remember, the article should come in {number} chapters, max at {word_count} words. Split up the article into {number} chapters and put the chapter heading in this format ##Heading
• Draft the content (Second touch): Rewrite the paragraph under {heading} by applying mechanisms of {writing_tips}.

?? This instruction will help you outline the structure of the article. You can fine-tune the detail or orders of the outline as well as complete the drafting for your outlined thoughts.

Fine Tune your Style & Enrich the Copy

To fine-tune your writing style and enrich the copy, there are various techniques you can apply to make your content more engaging and appealing to your audience. By expanding, shortening, rewriting, adding quotes, and selecting the right layout, you can improve the overall quality of your writing and enhance the reading experience for your audience. Some prompt example below,

• Expand the content: Expand the paragraph under {heading} by including {new_persepective}.
• Shorten the content: Shorten the paragraph under {heading} by removing {bullet_points} or {sentences}.
• Rewrite the content: Rewrite the paragraph under {heading} to be more {adjective}.
• Add quote: Place a catchy quote for the paragraph under {heading}.
• Select layout: Structure the paragraph under {heading} by using {format}.

??? The use cases are quite common in your daily routine, we either add, remove, replace, or fix the display format to improve reader experience.

Think Critically & Conclude the Article

Usually, you might want to conclude the article yourself, but you can also rely on the model to challenge the article and summarize points that haven't been addressed by this article. If you prefer a more structured conclusion, you can also include your perspectives.

• Challenge idea: Challenge the article and summarize points that haven't been addressed by this article in bullet points
• Conclude: Conclude the article by including these perspectives, {perspective_1}, {perspective_2}, {perspective_3}.

?? This example works particularly well when you mix and shift the conclusion by bringing different perspectives.?

Promote the Article in an Effective Way

You've made it this far to draft the article, so you don't want to miss out on the opportunity to draw readers' attention. You might want to consider SEO tips & come up with a tagline to increase user clicks.

• Enhance SEO: Assistant, you are an expert in SEO. Rewrite the article to embed SEO wording.
• Titling: Write a few tagline options for this article.

Conclusion

Customizing your own content writing prompt can be a challenging task. However, by breaking down the process into manageable steps, it can become much more accessible. The key to success lies in understanding your daily routine, identifying the crucial elements of the task, and providing specific instructions to the model.

From this task, I've realized that the most important takeaway is not about learning new prompts. It's about discovering the underlying principles of how I can work better with AI. This involves understanding my work more deeply, breaking down tasks into granular steps, and finding ways to outsource those steps, whenever possible.

During the prompt customization process, I noticed that the fundamental principles of work remain the same. You still need to determine what's required, build a process around it, and, most importantly, communicate effectively. Keeping this in mind can help you navigate the challenges as AI gradually takes over content writing, project planning, and even people management.

Feel free to check the cheat sheet for reference.