My Process for Writing Blog Posts

Including Tips on Using Generative Ais (GAIs)

Ever since the GAIs started helping us write, I've been bombarded with questions like, "How do you still manage to write your blog posts with all those AIs lurking around?"

Let's dive into my whimsical world of blogging, which is as organized as a sock drawer after laundry day.

• The Birth of an Idea: Ideas for posts pop-up from in-person meetings and Zoom calls with startup CEOs, board of directors’ meetings, or deciphering the enigma of gibberish at trade shows. And no, I don't pluck my ideas from the vast ocean of existing literature; they're all homegrown like the squashes, basil, and lettuce from Susana’s vegetable garden.

• The Master List: I keep a categorized list of blog ideas on every device I own. It looks something like this:

53. The Joy of Entrepreneurship: inspired by 3 AI startups (4/5)

In this case I know in my head the title needs some work. Think of it as a Michelin Guide but instead of leading to a great meal, it leads to my next blog post.

• Old-School Drafting: I start by scribbling down my thoughts with a fountain pen on actual paper. Why such ancient tools, you ask? Because nothing beats the smell of ink in the morning, and it makes me feel like a Founding Father.

• Digital Makeover: Once the paper draft survives my critical eye (and doesn't end up as a paper airplane), it gets input into Substack. This is where I play the role of a literary surgeon, tweaking and questioning every line. "Is this genius or just coffee-induced nonsense?" I ponder.

• AI to the Rescue: Only after the second draft do I let the AI monsters—ChatGPT, Claude 3, and Gemini— out of their cage to play. They help polish grammar, clarify complex thoughts, and even summarize things when I'm being too wordy. It's like Santa’s Delta Force of editorial elves.

Here are the prompts I use most often:

Condense the following paragraph:

Rewrite and rephrase the following sentence:

Fix the grammar in the following and make the text as clear and succinct as possible:

Add bullet points to the following paragraph:

Sometimes I politely add “Please fix the grammar…” Studies show you get better results if you are polite in the real- and GAI-world.

• Fact-Checking Extravaganza: Next, I dive into the depths of Google and sometimes sneak into the Harvard Business School library's stash (cheers, Jen!) to ensure my facts are as sturdy as a Lego castle.

• The Art Department: The second surge of fun occurs when I create the post's image appearing at the top of most posts. With tools like DALL-E and Stable Diffusion XL, I morph into an AI-assisted Picasso. Each creation is a digital masterpiece worthy of a fridge magnet.

• The Peanut Gallery Weighs-in: Before anything goes live, my draft undergoes at least one critic and preferably more “human” critics—thanks to my reader squad (Boz, Jero, Habib and Patrick and others), my technical reviewers (Hugo, Abhi and others), my marketing partners (Charlie and Kevin from the Guyer Group) and my proofreading prodigy daughter Ariel. They don't sugarcoat their feedback; they throw 100 MPH fast balls.

Writing a blog isn't just about slapping words together; it's an elaborate dance of ideas, technology, and old-school penmanship, wrapped in a warm tortilla of community feedback. Each post is a crafted potion designed to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses. Plus, it's a great way to focus the mind at 3:15 am.

What did you find most interesting about this post?

Image created by Microsoft Designer (DALL*E3)

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