Tips For Writers Using AI

I recently wrote up a list of what I call “AI tells” to help authors see how the AI they have used to help them in their writing has inserted its own “voice” and thus removed their own. My hope was that authors who feel they must use AI somehow in their process of writing can at least recognize the AI patterns and have an opportunity to reinsert some of their own voice back into their manuscript.

Since most new authors are coming up in this age of AI it seems inevitable they will be using it in some capacity to “help” them get their writing going. It is easy, quick, and fairly seamless. The problem is that from inside that process they don’t see all the other writing that AI is doing for others as well, so they don’t see how it looks and sounds the same. Instead, the content is their own, they feel it is their own words, and that their own voice has simply been enhanced. It must feel kind of magical.

It is a mystery ahead of us to see whether the AI writing tools will somehow find a way to create more variety, but even if they do, that still prevents someone from accessing the real magic of finding their own voice. I cannot imagine how this will all unfold (or I don’t want to imagine it). I only know that in this moment I would like to provide what little clarity I have so far from my encounters with AI writing.

My preference would be to edit real human writing. What I enjoy doing is helping people unlock their own voice, find ways to articulate their own organic wisdom and unique clarity, so they can offer that to the world. There is a kind of spiritual process that can be accessed in the struggle and effort required to find words to even partially convey something from the human mind and heart. I hope to be able to continue helping people engage in that process.

In any case, what follows is my list of AI patterns for anyone interested in understanding those a bit more. It is relevant to the year 2025-2026, and who knows how this list might change over the next several months. If I find more “tells” I may offer a new updated version of this.

May all beings be happy and free!

2025-2026 List of AI Stylistic Tells

These patterns have been showing up whether the text is fully written by, developed by, rewritten by, or edited by AI. Although at first sight this might look like “good writing” and may be free of grammatical mistakes, may even seem clear and cogent, or an author may feel it does represent what they want to say, it becomes rapidly boring, tasteless, unimaginative, even plastic and cold. Here are some of the patterns I’ve noticed so far.

1: The over-use of negative comparisons such as “not this but that” or “it wasn’t this, it was that,” etc. This is a legitimate technique but when overused it stops being effective and just sounds repetitive. REMEDY: Try just saying what something is rather than what it is not.

2: Excessive use of three adjectives or adjectival phrases. REMEDY: Think about which adjective or phrase is most descriptive. Come up with a more accurate one if you haven’t quite found it yet. Sometimes it’s ok to include more than one or two, but it is usually not necessary. You could also find another way to express what you are saying without just using a bunch of adjectives.

3: Overuse of certain kinds of words and limited vocabulary. You’d be surprised how every single manuscript I’ve read on a wide variety of subjects all use “whisper” “changes the air” “something shifted” “breathe or breath” and other similar words and phrases over and over and over. REMEDY: Find another way to say what you mean, use more distinct words, or consider not even using that phrase—it may just be AI “word salad,” meaning it doesn’t really say anything necessary, but it just looks or sounds like it’s “well-said.”

4: A distinctive pithy rhythm and tone. It often feels both “spiritual” and “therapeutic” in its style. REMEDY: Consider what you really think or feel about the thing you are saying. Let yourself be more raw. Use more ordinary and authentic language as you would if you were talking to a good friend or someone else you trust. Then you can refine it from there. Our writing voice, like our speaking voice, contains its own distinct nuances of tone and we speak with different rythms and patterns depending on what we are communcating. Trust that your voice is good enough and its uniqueness is what will make it enjoyable to read.

5: Over-dependence on cliches and catch phrases. REMEDY: Replace these or just take them out. Keep your language personal and intimate as mentioned above.

6: Excessive use of lists (of people, things, ideas, etc.). Sometimes these are bulleted or numbered, but are often just broken up into short lines. REMEDY: Go over all your lists or list-like phrasings and determine which ones are actually useful. Do you need every single bullet point in them? As with adjectives, think about what elements in this list are really essential and which ones you can get rid of. Any list that can be reworded as a sentence or paragraph and reduced to the essential elements and point, do so.

7. Excessive use of commas. There are almost no black and white rules about how to use commas. AI uses far too many. Think of a comma as a pause. When there are too many commas it chops up the flow. Sometimes that’s a nice effect, but not all the way through the whole time! REMEDY: Read a sentence aloud to yourself and think about if you really need a pause where the comma is. If there is a conjunction such as or, but, or and, you often don’t need a comma at all. But sometimes you might want the extra pause. Additionally, sometimes a comma is needed to make sure the sentence means what you want it to mean, so consider if the comma adds clarity or not.

8. Only using short phrases, short sentences, and short paragraphs. It sounds nice at first, feels digestible. It may even seem to be a uniquely expressive style if you haven’t been introduced to it before. But the same pattern repeated over and over loses its power for emphasis and expression and bulldozes over other, more nuanced and varied approaches to phrasing. This is a technique that may come from the the AIs scraping from transcripts of performative resources (videos, podcasts, TED talks, etc.) in which short and pithy may be useful for keeping an audience’s attention. REMEDY: See if you can combine those short phrases into something longer while keeping it clear. A natural rhythm that changes between shorter sentences (which are great for emphasis) and longer more flowing sentences (which may include parentheticals, or other smaller phrases, yet still continues to flow through a fuller idea) helps keep the reader’s attention and feels more genuine. Don’t be afraid of long paragraphs or long sentences—if the meaning is clear, readers are perfectly capable of following them!

9. Too many headings and short sections. This is similar to the above problem, and again seems to arise as a side effect of youtube videos and TED talks being a major source of AI style at this point. But that style isn’t really effective for full length books. REMEDY: Take them out, consolidate. Use the language itself to create transitions between sections, rather than resorting to subheadings.