Agents are great at many things, but their writing is still lackluster. Their language can be verbose, their words are repetitive, and their format is riddled with red flags that scream "AI slop". To effectively use AI agents for writing, you need to create a workflow that maintains your original voice and thought, but allows for the agents to make suggestions to improve your writing. Or, you can be okay with the AI slop! Not every writing task requires original thought. Sometimes writing is a means for documenting an idea, or perhaps even to provide context to future AI agents. Both are valid writing use cases. Since their requirements differ, they each deserve their own dedicated workflow. # Writing *with* Agents - AI Writing for Improvement If you're presenting an original idea or writing for an audience that is expected to fully read and comprehend your content, you should be the one driving the writing. It should go without saying, but you should give writing the piece the same amount of attention as you want your readers to give. If AI shouldn't write for you, then what can it do? I use AI to help brainstorm, find sources / references, adjust the structure and flow, and other general improvements related to voice and helping ensure the writing achieves its original objectives. To ensure a consistently positive experience I've create a workflow with a mixture of reusable and custom components I setup for each writing project (getting these pieces in place is something AI can also help with). ## Prepare Your AI for Writing ### Define Your Voice At this point, we all know the AI-isms. And -- honestly -- this is the load-bearing part (get it?). You want your writing to sound like *you*. While we won't let AI write for us, it is sure to make suggestions. We can use a `VOICE.md` file to guide your helper on how your writing should sound. You can place the `VOICE.md` in the global folder for your agent, so it can access it across all projects. Then, you can reference it in any of your writing-related skills or while you prompt. You can check out my [[Voice Extraction Skill]]. Mine automatically scans my site's repository for writing to consider, so you'll need to tune it to make it your own. ### Create a CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md for Your Writing Project The VOICE.md is your agent's global guide. The AGENTS.md / CLAUDE.md (from here one collectively referenced as AGENTS.md for brevity) is what your agent will reference for your specific project. You'll want to keep it short to preserve context. I keep the following key points in mine, which I like to adapt from writing project to writing project: - **A project overview** - the consistent facts about what you write about that is should know in every message - **Who holds the pen** - to keep with your theme on writing ownership, I always dictate that I am the writer - **Locations for key context** - link to other documents that contain key context such as you VOICE.md and editing rules ## During the Writing Process Here is where you need to truly tune AI to your preferred writing style. forbid the model from encouragement, and then be hypervigilant about praise. - [How To Write With An LLM — A Final Ward](https://sockpuppet.org/blog/2026/09/17/how-to-write-with-an-llm/) - - You’re overusing (or, if you’re taking the LLM’s word for everything, maybe underusing) passive voice, nominalizing your verbs or burying their action, and repeating the same turns of phrase or word choices. - You’ve got “very” and “unfortunately” and “really” and “actually” sprinkled all over the draft like sawdust stuck to the work bench. - There are almost certainly 2-3 paragraphs that you can quickly move somewhere else in the piece that instantly improve clarity (these are really, actually, very satisfying edits). Aspects: - Brainstorming topics - Finding sources and refernces - Structure and flow - General Improvements - Need to get more specific - Image suggestions ## Post-writing Cleanup Update this: [[Blog Publishing Checklist]] - add formatting rule on .md text # Other Tips and Tricks Create an Obsidian plug-in to make it a better editor?: _“We’re going to build a **writing workshopping tool**. First get the bones up. Python, HTMX for interactions, SQLite backend, Tailwind frontend, use a local build not the CDN. Really excellent prose editor, Notion-style. Support highlighting (we’re going to do editing passes). Do Genius-style sidebar commentary to match highlighted things. Make sure we can tick forward and back through suggestions. Multiple documents, track revisions, allow user to flag major revisions. Get me this far and then I’ll tell you what I really want.”_ ## Best Models To Use ## Watermarking - Writing Workflows - Cross-cutting: - Iterative humanizer use - Markdown linting - [Markdown Script](https://gwern.net/about#markdown-checker) - Grammarly integration? probably not - Writing Style - [[Writing Effectively]] - [About This Website · Gwern.net](https://gwern.net/about#writing-checklist) - Weekly coaching on improving my writing style based on my various writing sources - Create a specific skill for creating pages on AI terms that can be consumable by laymans [There are no lossless transformations of natural-language text – Sophie Alpert](https://sophiebits.com/2026/06/25/there-are-no-lossless-transformations-of-natural-language-text?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email) [How to Set Up ChatGPT to Write in Your Voice \| Rundown Guides](https://app.therundown.ai/guides/how-to-set-up-chatgpt-to-write-in-your-voice?utm_source=www.therundown.ai&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=cursor-s-origin-hits-github-on-its-worst-day&_bhlid=28b06c102412a94d6db081b7e72edc77b1e5e524) Write a ~/VOICE.md Setup a recurring pipeline to compare my voice to people I respect: - Simon Willison - Joel Spolsky - [Kathy Sierra](https://web.archive.org/web/20070503012853/http://headrush.typepad.com/), [Terence Eden](https://shkspr.mobi/blog/), and [Raymond Chen](https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/) - Look at some of the inspiration blogs listed on my website - [Writing](https://www.dbreunig.com/writing.html) 1. Voice Audits: Every 10 posts, run your AI drafts through a 'Voice Consistency' check. Feed it 3 of your best human-written posts and ask it to identify the delta in tone, sentence length, and vocabulary. 2. The 'Human-in-the-Loop' Hook: Instead of just reviewing, make it a rule to manually rewrite the first 100 words and every sub-heading. This breaks the AI pattern and keeps the 'Search Intent' focused on what humans actually want, not just what the LLM predicts. 3. Fact-Checking Layer: If you're using the REST API, you can actually add a 'Verification Step' where the AI has to cite a source for any data point before it pushes to WordPress. 4. Internal Linking: Automation often misses the nuance of internal linking. Manually adding 2-3 deep links to your older, high-performing content is the best way to keep that traffic growing. - Titles are 80% of the work, but you write it as the very last thing. It has to be a compelling opinion or important learning Place results here: [[writing-project]] Ways I need AI to help me improve writing: - Get better about not having a meandering intro: - a good intro shows the reader how continuing to read will benefit them - Explain concepts in a way the reader understands - Reduce my excessive formality