How To Make ChatGPT Write Like a Human: 44 Proven Prompts

ChatGPT is pretty damn useful for a lot of things, but if you’ve found getting ChatGPT to write like a human to be the technical equivalent of hitting your head against a wall, you’re far from alone. 

To help you squeeze some humanity from this stubbornly robotic chatbot, I’ve experimented, researched, and ultimately come up with 15 proven tactics (and 44 highly effective prompt ideas) for getting ChatGPT to write like a human. 

Best AI Writing Tools To Write Like A Human

ChatGPT is free, but it’s a real pain to glue together a bunch of different prompts to squeeze out human-like writing.

If you want to skip the pain and effort, I’ve found some truly advanced AI writing tools you can use to write amazing human-like content quickly.

Here are my top recommendations:

1. Use GPT-4

Before I get into the prompts, I have to mention this one crucial thing…

If you want ChatGPT to write like a human, you need to use the GPT-4 model. 

GPT-4 is a significant upgrade from its predecessor, GPT-3.5, and has shown a marked improvement in mimicking human communication style. 

Even with the best prompts, GPT-3.5’s ability to output something worthy of the label “human” is passable at best. 

There are currently three ways you can access GPT-4:

• ChatGPT Plus Subscription: You can upgrade your ChatGPT account to ChatGPT Plus and gain access to GPT-4 and the ChatGPT plug-ins. 
• OpenAI API Access: You can get access the GPT-4 API via the OpenAI platform. It costs money each time you use it, but it may be cheaper than ChatGPT Plus depending on your use case.
• AI Writing Tools: There are also various AI writing tools built on GPT-4 that you can subscribe to. These tools leverage the power of GPT-4 to help you with your writing tasks.

If you’re averse to complexity and want a solution that doesn’t fluctuate in price like an API, I recommend just getting ChatGPT Plus. 

👉See more: How To Train ChatGPT To Write Like You

2. Ask It To Write Like A Famous Writer

One of the coolest features of ChatGPT is its ability to mimic the writing style of famous authors. 

Imagine having the eloquence of Jane Austen, the wit of Mark Twain, or the imaginative storytelling of J.K. Rowling at your fingertips. 

To do this, you need to provide specific prompts to ChatGPT. 

For example, you could say, “Write a short story in the style of Ernest Hemingway” or “Write a marketing email in the style of Seth Godin.” The more specific you are with your prompt, the better ChatGPT can tailor its responses.

I’ve found this method to be effective in producing human-like text. It’s like having a team of famous writers at your disposal, ready to lend their unique voices to your writing tasks.

Here are some examples of prompts you could use:

• “Write a blog post about the benefits of exercise in the style of Malcolm Gladwell.”
• “Write a love letter in the style of Nicholas Sparks.”
• “Write a persuasive sales pitch in the style of Gary Halbert.”

My personal recommendation:

To make it even more effective, you can ask the model to pretend it actually is one of these people. 

Sam Altman — the CEO of OpenAI — has said they specifically trained the GPT-4 model to allow for this kind of personality mirroring. 

Here’s how you might structure this type of prompt:

👉See more: How To Write a Thesis With ChatGPT

3. Ask It To Vary Sentence Length

If you look at a typical ChatGPT response, you’ll notice the sentences tend to be around the same length. 

There’s no rhythm or cadence to the writing.

Humans usually don’t write like that. They use short sentences interspersed with longer sentences. A knowing eye can easily discern between human-written text and default ChatGPT output. 

To get a more human-like response with varied sentence length, simply ask ChatGPT to vary sentence length in your prompt. This will prompt ChatGPT to produce a mix of short, medium, and long sentences, creating a more human-like rhythm in the text.

An example:

“Write a product description for a new smartphone, and vary the length of your sentences to ensure a more human-like output.”

The resulting output might look something like this:

“Meet our latest smartphone. It’s a powerhouse of technology packed into a sleek design. With its crystal-clear display, you’ll feel like you’re holding the future in your hands. It’s more than just a phone. It’s your personal assistant, your entertainment hub, and your gateway to the world.”

Notice how the mix of sentence lengths makes the description more engaging and enjoyable to read. 

👉 See more: How To Make ChatGPT Undetectable: TurnItIn, GPTZero + More

4. Be Specific in Your Prompts

ChatGPT is a powerful tool, but it’s not a mind reader. The more specific you are with your prompts, the better the AI can understand what you’re asking for. 

Think of it like giving directions.

If you tell someone “Yeah, go about a half mile and then make a left at the light,” they could easily make a wrong turn and end up completely lost. 

But let’s say you tell them “Go a quarter mile and you’ll see a Shell gas station. Go three lights past that, and make a left at the fourth light. You’ll see a blue house with purple doors when you make the turn.” Those are much more specific and easier to follow. 

If someone got lost with those directions, they’re either blind or incapable of following complex instructions effectively (*cough* GPT-3.5 and its tendency to stop writing halfway though the response *cough*). 

Okay, let’s apply this to a ChatGPT prompt. 

Instead of saying, “Write a blog post,” you could say, “Write a 500-word blog post about the benefits of meditation for stress relief, aimed at working professionals.”

This gives ChatGPT a clear understanding of the topic, the length, the target audience, and the purpose of the text.

Even though adding specificity takes more time upfront, it will ultimately improve the quality of the output and cut down on the time you need to spend editing and re-prompting. 

5. Ask It To Incorporate Humor

Humor is a quintessential part of human communication. It can make a text more engaging, relatable, and enjoyable to read. And yes, ChatGPT can be funny too… if you tell it to be, that is. 

Remember, humor can be subjective, and what one person finds funny, another might not. Experiment with different types of humor and see what works best for your text.

6. Ask It To Use Analogies

Using analogies in writing is like using a map while traveling. 

Just as a map helps you navigate unfamiliar terrain by relating it to landmarks and paths you understand, an analogy helps your reader understand a complex or unfamiliar concept by relating it to something they already know. 

Yes, I did just use an analogy to describe analogies. (If you’d like to sue me, don’t use ChatGPT as your lawyer.)

In all seriousness, analogies are a powerful tool in writing. 

They can make complex concepts easier to understand, make your text more engaging, and add a layer of creativity to your writing. 

And most importantly, they’re something humans love to use when they write. 

Sometimes the analogy it comes up with will suck. If that happens, just reprompt it until you get something you’re satisfied with. 

7. Create a Detailed Outline 

ChatGPT is great at generating text, but it can be even better when given a detailed outline to work from. This gives it a set of boundaries to use when creating the text, and it ensures that it only includes content you’ve decided should be in the piece. 

Without these guardrails, ChatGPT can go off into the weeds pretty easily. 

Believe it or not, much of this piece was created with the help of ChatGPT. 

I created a very detailed outline – partially informed by my own knowledge, and partially with the help of ChatGPT and a few useful research plugins like WebPilot and VoxScript – and then had ChatGPT turn that outline into the structure of the blog post you’re reading. 

After it was finished, I went in and added my own twist on things – most of the stuff that’s making you laugh (or cringe) was added by me after ChatGPT was finished.

ChatGPT can massively speed up the outlining process. Here’s a quick example:

Here are a few prompts to get you going: 

8. Ask It To Cut Down on the Fluff

While ChatGPT can generate impressive amounts of text, not all of it is always necessary. Sometimes, less is more. 

You can ask ChatGPT to be more concise and less like a pile of wool blankets with a follow-up prompt designed to remove extraneous language. 

This can result in a more focused and impactful text. It’s like trimming the fat from a piece of meat. What you’re left with is the juicy, flavorful part that really satisfies. 

Not that I would know – I’m a lifelong vegetarian. But ChatGPT thought that was a good analogy, so I’m going to leave it in. 

Here’s an example of a fluffy paragraph…

And here’s an example of how ChatGPT condensed that into something more reasonable:

9. Use the Iterative Approach

One of the great things about ChatGPT is that you can interact with it in real-time, refining your prompts based on its responses. This iterative approach can lead to increasingly better results. 

For example, if you’re not satisfied with ChatGPT’s first attempt at a blog post, you can ask it to revise certain parts, add more detail, or change the tone. Each iteration brings you closer to the text you want.

10. Ask It to Self-Edit

ChatGPT is not just a writer, it can also be an editor.

You can ask the AI to review and edit its own work by saying something like, “Review the text for any grammatical errors” or “Revise the text to make it more engaging.”

This can result in a more polished and refined text. It’s like having a built-in proofreader and editor, ready to help you improve your writing at any time.

(Credit to Matt Schubert for this, who in turn credited some anonymous AI newsletter… gotta love the internet!)

The reason this work is because ChatGPT operates by generating one single word at a time based on all of the words it has generated before it (and all of the context provided to it previously). 

By giving it an opportunity to reflect on everything it has said, it can find flaws it didn’t notice during the initial generation. 

13. Use Open-Ended Prompts

While open-ended prompts don’t directly encourage more creative and human-like responses from ChatGPT, they can give you ideas for more specific elements to add to your outline.

Instead of asking the AI to list facts or provide straightforward answers, you can ask it to brainstorm ideas, tell a story, or speculate about hypothetical scenarios.

14. Ask for Different Perspectives

Asking ChatGPT to consider different perspectives can result in more nuanced and human-like responses. 

This can result in a richer and more diverse text, as the AI generates responses that reflect the different viewpoints. It’s like having a panel of experts, each with their own unique perspective, contributing to your text.

15. Ask it to Explain its Reasoning

ChatGPT doesn’t just generate text; it’s also a very powerful reasoning engine. 

Taking advantage of this and asking ChatGPT to explain itself can make the AI’s responses more transparent and understandable, which is particularly useful for complex or technical topics.

This can often result in more human-like responses, as you can ask it to add elements of its reasoning to the original output, thereby providing a more nuanced and complex piece of text. 

16. Add Your Own Flair

While ChatGPT can output some terrific stuff with the right prompting, I’ve never been able to get it to perfectly mirror my particular style of writing. 

Maybe that’s because ChatGPT has trouble mimicking human imagination. Or maybe it’s because ChatGPT recognizes my jokes are stupid and corny, and refuses to associate with them. Hard to say. 

I’m sure future GPT models will be more capable of this, but for now, one of the best ways to humanize your ChatGPT output is simply adding your own human input to the text. 

So after you’ve implemented all of the techniques I’ve discussed to get ChatGPT to provide the most human-like output possible, you should take the time to add your own personality and language preferences. I do this with every piece of content I make, and it really enhances the quality. 

17. Put It All Together 

The power of ChatGPT lies not in using one or two of these strategies, but in combining them to create a symphony of human-like text. Each tip is like a musical note, and when played together, they create a beautiful melody.

So, let’s put it all together. Here’s a comprehensive prompt that incorporates all of these strategies:

Of course, this is a massive prompt, and you may not need all of these elements for your specific use case. 

Final Thoughts

I hope this was helpful! If you have any suggestions for other ways to make ChatGPT sound more like a human, let me know in the comments.

FAQ

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