I’ve always wanted to be a writer. Not the writer that publishes a book, but someone who can think through writing.

Reading simpler language made me realize I didn’t have any restrictions holding me back as I was equally familiar with the word choice I was consuming. I didn’t struggle with ideas for writing — I struggled with sentence constructions and rhythms I enjoy when I realized can be resolved using LLMs. LLMs can become a learning tool for my deficiencies.

With the help of LLMs and a few pointers I've been able to write more freely unabated and I hope these are helpful for writers, particularly non-fiction writers, that are starting at ground zero.

Write like you talk. Sure, you’re going to have a lot of punchy notes and fillers words but those can be corrected later.

Stop yourself from rereading. When I write, I often have a tendency to go back and read chunks while I’m waiting for my next thought or point to emerge. Or I’ve made a point, and I don’t know how to proceed to the next one. Maintain writing and rereading as separate activities. It also doubles as a way you save time you could have spent writing more.

Optimize for maximum idea creation. If I’m stuck in the writing process, go back to the core argument of this blog post was trying to refute and pretend you’re speaking to a friend and make those points again. Did you find something you missed out? Try the steel-man argument — what is the unique insight most reasonable people will argue against? What life experience triggered you to write on this topic? Did you observe something in the wild? The point is to create content, not quality content as the editing process allows for those refinements. First bulk, then cut.

Separate your writing from your editing process. I didn’t quite think of the ideation phase and the editing phase engaging two different parts of your brain hemisphere. Not only should they be done separately, ideally they’re done in separate physical spaces and times of the day to allow your internals to realize these are separate activities.

If forming structure is difficult, write in bullet points. As an engineer, I often think of building a system as largely critical user experiences and then building out pieces of the system as high level modular functions — and then have LLMs write these detailed functions that are largely syntactical and are something LLMs are fairly good at today. Similarly, once you jot down your bullet points — take each one at a time and expand your thoughts on them, see if you can find connected thoughts between those points where one flow from one to the next. They might not exist and that is okay. In fact assume they won’t exist as you don’t want the added subconscious pressure in the writing phrase.

I’m still learning elements on style but here are some tips I’ve picked up reading some books on writing. Remove all adjectives and see if it clarifies or simplifies your writing. Convert active to passive voice — this hammer to the nail isn’t a simple change — you might have to rewrite and rephrase nearby [statements]. I’m not so sure that’s a perfect word choice so I’ll drop the [placeholders] around phrases or words I feel need revisiting.

Once you’ve dropped all your thoughts and arguments onto a page, LLMs are your swiss army knife. Ask it to help you find better word choices for the [brackets] in this given context. What is redundant? Have it recommend punctuation changes and why it recommends doing so. It’s about learning how to fish as you fish. Learning to write as you write. The best place to learn is in the context of your own work.

Ask LLMs how many arguments have been made and if any are not clear enough require more analogies or background. Ask it to distill what it learnt from your post in a single sentence and verify if it matches your original title. This helps ensure your writing achieves its intended purpose and maintains focus throughout.

If you’ve written enough modular content as modular streams of thoughts, it could potentially aid in help restructure and reshuffle your writing.

If you've written enough modular content, LLMs can serve as structural advisors. They can help restructure and reshuffle your writing, ensuring ideas flow naturally from one to the next.

Beyond basic editing, LLMs can enhance your creative process. They can generate single-line titles, suggest alternative ways to express ideas, or help develop compelling analogies that strengthen your arguments and do mundane work as citing your sources into your footnotes. The goal isn't to replace your voice but to refine and amplify it.

And there you have it. My simple guide to writing.

Attached is a brief snippet of how to engage with LLMs to help you in your editing process.