Emails, posts and pages that sound like you wrote them, in a fraction of the time. In 20 minutes you’ll give Claude or ChatGPT your writing rules for good, and get one prompt that turns any stiff draft into something you’d happily send.
What you’ll need.
Get these set up first. Everything below uses them.
Claude
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Spot what makes writing sound like AI
Once you can see it, you can’t stop seeing it. These are the habits the rules below switch off.
- It warms up before it says anything: “Great question”, “In today’s fast-moving world”.
- It sets up a fake contrast to sound smart: “It’s not about X. It’s about Y.”
- Everything comes in threes, and every paragraph is the same length.
- It reaches for the same fancy words: delve, elevate, unlock, seamless, journey.
- It’s full of long dashes, bold words and bullet points nobody asked for.
- It ends by summing up what it just said, or by asking you a question.
Tell this page how you write
Your answers write your rules, your humanize prompt and your Claude skill. They stay in your browser and nobody else sees them.
Give Claude or ChatGPT your writing rules
Put them in your settings once and they apply to every chat, so you stop fixing the same things over and over.
In Claude
- Go to claude.ai, click your initials in the lower left, then Settings.
- Find Instructions for Claude. On some accounts it’s under Profile and asks about your personal preferences.
- Paste your rules below. If something’s already there, add them underneath. Save.
In ChatGPT
- Click your profile icon, then Settings, then Personalization.
- Check Enable customization is on, paste your rules into Custom instructions and save.
WRITING RULES (follow these whenever you write anything for me to send or post)
- Write like I talk: warm and friendly, like a message to someone I like.
- Write in British English (colour, organise). Use contractions.
- Short sentences. Mix in some very short ones. Paragraphs of one to three sentences.
- Plain words a 12-year-old knows. No jargon unless I use it first.
- Start with the point. No warm-up line, no "Great question", no "In today's world".
- End when the point is made. No summary at the end, no "I hope this helps", no question tacked on.
- Never use: em dashes, "delve", "tapestry", "elevate", "unlock", "seamless", "game-changer", "robust", "leverage", "journey", "landscape", "realm", "testament", "crucial", "foster".
- Don't contrast for effect ("It's not X, it's Y"). Just say Y.
- Don't group things in threes by habit. Use the number that's true.
- Bullet points only for real lists. Everything else is sentences.
- No exclamation marks unless I use them. No emojis.Humanize any draft
For anything already written: an AI draft, a stiff page, an email you’re not happy with. Paste it in and get it back sounding like you.
- Start a new chat in Claude or ChatGPT.
- Copy your prompt below and paste your draft where it says [paste your draft here].
- Send it. Read the list of changes so you know what moved.
Rewrite the draft below so it sounds like me, a real person, and nothing like AI.
ABOUT ME
- I'm [YOUR FIRST NAME]. [WHAT YOU DO IN ONE LINE]
- I'm writing for: [WHO YOURE USUALLY WRITING FOR]
HOW I SOUND
Here are real things I've written. Match the rhythm, the sentence length and the words. Don't copy the content.
---
[THREE THINGS YOUVE WRITTEN YOURSELF]
---
WRITING RULES (follow these whenever you write anything for me to send or post)
- Write like I talk: warm and friendly, like a message to someone I like.
- Write in British English (colour, organise). Use contractions.
- Short sentences. Mix in some very short ones. Paragraphs of one to three sentences.
- Plain words a 12-year-old knows. No jargon unless I use it first.
- Start with the point. No warm-up line, no "Great question", no "In today's world".
- End when the point is made. No summary at the end, no "I hope this helps", no question tacked on.
- Never use: em dashes, "delve", "tapestry", "elevate", "unlock", "seamless", "game-changer", "robust", "leverage", "journey", "landscape", "realm", "testament", "crucial", "foster".
- Don't contrast for effect ("It's not X, it's Y"). Just say Y.
- Don't group things in threes by habit. Use the number that's true.
- Bullet points only for real lists. Everything else is sentences.
- No exclamation marks unless I use them. No emojis.
HOW TO DO IT
1. Keep every fact, number, name and link exactly as it is. Don't add new claims.
2. Cut anything that's there to sound clever or to fill space.
3. Read it back as if you were me saying it out loud to one person. Fix anything I'd never say.
4. Give me the rewrite, then a short list of what you changed and why, so I can check it.
THE DRAFT
[paste your draft here]Shorter. Cut a third. Too polished. Make it sound like a voice note. That line isn’t me. Say it the way I would: [how you’d say it] Keep my original first line.
Make it one word in Claude
A Claude skill keeps your rules and your samples on file, so “humanize this” is all you ever type.
- Download SKILL.md from the last step.
- Make a folder called humanize, put SKILL.md inside it, and zip the folder.
- In Claude, open Customize, then Skills. Click +, then Create skill, then Upload a skill, and choose the zip.
- Check it’s switched on. Then in any chat, paste a draft and type: humanize this.
---
name: humanize
description: "Rewrites a draft so it sounds like [YOUR FIRST NAME], a real person, not AI. Use when I say humanize, make this sound like me, or make this less AI."
---
# Humanize
## About me
- I'm [YOUR FIRST NAME]. [WHAT YOU DO IN ONE LINE]
- I'm writing for: [WHO YOURE USUALLY WRITING FOR]
## How I sound
Real things I've written. Match the rhythm, sentence length and words, not the content:
[THREE THINGS YOUVE WRITTEN YOURSELF]
## WRITING RULES (follow these whenever you write anything for me to send or post)
- Write like I talk: warm and friendly, like a message to someone I like.
- Write in British English (colour, organise). Use contractions.
- Short sentences. Mix in some very short ones. Paragraphs of one to three sentences.
- Plain words a 12-year-old knows. No jargon unless I use it first.
- Start with the point. No warm-up line, no "Great question", no "In today's world".
- End when the point is made. No summary at the end, no "I hope this helps", no question tacked on.
- Never use: em dashes, "delve", "tapestry", "elevate", "unlock", "seamless", "game-changer", "robust", "leverage", "journey", "landscape", "realm", "testament", "crucial", "foster".
- Don't contrast for effect ("It's not X, it's Y"). Just say Y.
- Don't group things in threes by habit. Use the number that's true.
- Bullet points only for real lists. Everything else is sentences.
- No exclamation marks unless I use them. No emojis.
## How to do it
1. Keep every fact, number, name and link exactly as it is. Add no new claims.
2. Cut anything that's there to sound clever or to fill space.
3. Read it back as if I were saying it out loud to one person. Fix anything I'd never say.
4. Give me the rewrite, then a short list of what you changed and why.
Want the full walkthrough of skills? My guide “Your first Claude skill” goes step by step.
Do the read-aloud check
The prompt gets it most of the way. Your ear does the rest, and it takes one minute.
- Read it out loud, at the speed you talk.
- Anywhere you stumble or run out of breath, cut or split the sentence.
- Anywhere you’d never say that word, swap it for the one you would.
- Check every fact, number and link is still right.
Take your downloads
Tick what you want. Each file is written from your answers in step 2.
Your tools, one more time.
If something goes wrong.
It still uses long dashes
Reply: “Replace every long dash with a comma, full stop or brackets.” Then check your rules are saved and start a new chat. Old chats don’t pick up new settings.
It sounds like me, but too casual
Your samples were all relaxed ones. Add a sample of how you write to clients or customers, or pick Direct instead of Playful in step 2.
ChatGPT won’t save my rules
They’re over the size limit. Delete the optional lines (the words you use and the words to avoid) and try again.
It changed my facts
Reply: “Put back every fact, number and name from my original. Only change the wording.” The prompt already asks for this, so it usually only happens on very long drafts. Do long pieces in sections.
Claude didn’t use my skill
Check it’s switched on in Customize, then Skills, and start a new chat. You can also call it by name: “Use my humanize skill on this.”