Making ChatGPT Output Sound Natural for Design Blog Posts

Design Resources & AI Tools
1

Using ChatGPT for design blog content has become part of my workflow but getting it to sound natural takes more editing than people admit.

The tells that give away unedited AI writing:

  • Phrases like “in today’s fast-paced world” or “it’s important to note”
  • Overly balanced structure (every paragraph = claim + example + qualifier)
  • The em dash overuse
  • Conclusions that restate the intro without adding anything
  • Safe takes that never actually commit to a position

What works in my editing process:

  1. Generate a draft with specific constraints (write as a working designer, give one strong opinion)
  2. Strip all transitional phrases and rewrite them in my voice
  3. Add something the AI wouldn’t know - a client story, a specific failure, a counter-intuitive result from my own work
  4. Cut 20-30%. AI outputs tend to be padded.
  5. Read it aloud. Anything that sounds written rather than spoken gets rewritten.

The goal is output that has my fingerprints on it. The AI is a starting structure, not the final voice.

Anyone else developed an editing workflow for this? What’s your process?

2

The “read aloud” test is the most reliable filter I’ve found. AI writing has a cadence that becomes obvious when you hear it. Written-sounding phrases that you’d never actually say in conversation stand out immediately.

3

Adding specific failure stories is the key move. AI can’t invent real professional failures with specific details. When I add “the client hated it because…” with a real anecdote, the post becomes mine.

4

@MaxFlare83 the em dash comment is so accurate - I had to specifically instruct my workflow to avoid them. There’s something about how AI generates lists of attributes that defaults to that punctuation.

5

Cutting 20-30% is good discipline. The padding exists because AI is optimising for length and “completeness.” Real writing optimises for impact. Those two goals produce different densities.