#PublishingReinvented 167: The Best 25 ChatGPT Prompts For Writers + #IDWF23 Wrap
We had two sessions on AI for writers at our festival last weekend and lots of mentions in other sessions. All this gave me ideas for prompts in a wide variety of areas to help writers.
This is AI assistance, not AI writing your book. Haven’t you always wanted a research assistant?
Below are 25 ChatGPT prompts suitable for a variety of needs that writers may have—from research and structural planning to copywriting, proofreading, and marketing.
Prompts for Research
1. "Summarize the key points of [insert topic] for my upcoming book."
2. "What are the main controversies surrounding [topic] that I should cover in my book?"
3. "Provide an overview of the historical context for [subject] for my writing project."
4. List 10 experts/authors on [topic] that I should research for my book."
Prompts for Deciding the Structure of a Book
5. "Outline a potential chapter structure for a book on [topic]."
6. "What are common pacing issues and tropes in a thriller/romance/fantasy/other genre novel and how can they be avoided OR written about in a fresh way?"
7. "How should I organize the sub-sections in a chapter about [topic]?"
8. "What should be the critical elements in the introduction and conclusion of my book about [topic]?"
Prompts for Assessing Copywriting and Proofreading Issues
9. "Review this paragraph for grammatical errors and suggest corrections: PASTE PARAGRAPH."
10. "Does this piece of writing maintain a consistent tone and style? If not, where are the inconsistencies: PASTE EXCERPT?"
11. "Identify the passive voice sentences in the following text and suggest active voice alternatives: PASTE EXCERPT."
12. "How can I make this paragraph more concise without losing its meaning: PASTE EXCERPT?"
Prompts for Creating Marketing Copy for Amazon
13. "Write a compelling 140 word book description for a mystery/romance/fantasy/your genre novel aimed at young/old adults from the following book summary: PASTE IN BOOK SUMMARY."
14. "Suggest 5 bullet points highlighting the unique selling points of my [topic] book based on the following book summary: PASTE IN BOOK SUMMARY."
15. "Create an engaging author bio for my Amazon book page based on this biography: PASTE IN BIOGRAPHY."
16. "Provide three options for a catchy tagline for my romance novel based on the following book description: PASTE IN BOOK DESCRIPTION."
Prompts for Creating Social Media Posts
17. "Write three tweet ideas to promote my upcoming science fiction book described as follows: PASTE IN BOOK DESCRIPTION"
18. "Craft a Facebook post to announce the release of my new poetry collection described as follows: PASTE IN BOOK DESCRIPTION."
19. "Suggest a series of Instagram story slides to showcase behind-the-scenes of my writing process described as follows: PASTE IN DESCRIPTION OF YOUR PROCESS."
20. "Write a LinkedIn post to engage with professionals about my latest book, described as follows: PASTE IN BOOK DESCRIPTION."
General Writing and Editing Prompts
21. "Generate a list of synonyms for commonly overused words in the following writing sample: PASTE IN A SAMPLE OF YOUR WORK."
22. "What are the steps for effective self-editing the following: PASTE IN A SAMPLE OF YOUR WORK?"
23. "How can I improve dialogue in my script: PASTE IN A SAMPLE OF YOUR WORK?"
24. "What are some techniques for writing an engaging first sentence for the following PASTE IN A SAMPLE OF YOUR WORK?"
25. "How can I use foreshadowing effectively in my narrative: PASTE IN A SAMPLE OF YOUR WORK?"
Note, all output must be checked and edited before use. ChatGP hallucinates = lies.
The above prompts are designed to illustrate the array of options that can assist us at different stages of our writing. Feel free to adapt them according to your specific needs.
The length in words of what you can paste directly into ChaptGPT is expressed in tokens. The token limit for gpt-3 is 4096 tokens, for gpt-4 and gpt-4-32k its 8192 and 32768 respectively, including the message list sent and the response.
The token count also includes special tokens used for formatting, like spaces and newlines. Note that if you are close to the token limit, the output from ChatGPT will be cut off to ensure the entire conversation (input + output) stays within this limit.
#IDWF23
Selected sessions from our International Dublin Writers Festival are available as recordings in our dedicated festival group.
Join here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/internationaldublinwritersfestival
The group will have ongoing video meetings and other community building options too!
And there are no catches there. We hope you benefit from all this.
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