How to Make ChatGPT Sound Like You (Free Prompt)
Four steps to make ChatGPT write like you: have it interview you, keep your opinion, ban the AI habits and run the delete test. Free prompt included.
You deleted "delve" and the em dashes. Your posts can still read like AI. The fix isn't a longer list of banned words. It's giving ChatGPT what only you have: your story, your details and your opinion. Here are the four steps, plus a free prompt that does them for you.
Step 1: have ChatGPT interview you first
Before it writes a word, ask ChatGPT to ask you questions, one at a time:
- What are we writing, and who will read it?
- What actually happened?
- What's one detail only you would know: a number, a name, a place, something someone said?
- How did you feel about it?
Answer the way you'd tell a friend. Those details are what make writing sound like a person.
Step 2: give it your opinion, and tell it to keep it
AI softens everything. Tell it what you think and what you want the reader to do, then add: "Keep my opinion as strong as I gave it. Don't add 'on the other hand.'"
Step 3: ban the habits, not just the words
The giveaways today are patterns more than words. Ban these:
- Lines that announce importance: "this matters," "it's worth noting"
- Contrast setups: "it's not X, it's Y," "not just..."
- Teasers: "Here's why," "Here's the thing"
- Closing lines that sum up the lesson
See the longer list in words and phrases that make writing sound like AI.
Step 4: run the delete test
Go line by line. If you delete a phrase and the reader loses no fact, number, step or piece of the story, it stays deleted. Ask ChatGPT to do this pass itself before it shows you the draft.
Make it stick in every chat
Put a short version of these rules in ChatGPT's Custom Instructions (Settings, then Personalization) or in Claude's settings. Then every new chat starts with them. If a long chat starts slipping, type "check your instructions and run the delete test."
An honest note
None of this makes writing "undetectable," and I wouldn't trust a prompt that promises that. It makes ChatGPT write from your story, in plain words, so it sounds like you.
The free Sound Like You download has both pieces ready to paste: the full interview prompt for a post or email, and short custom instructions for ChatGPT and Claude.