The ground rules before the clock starts

Set a timer for 30 minutes. Not 45, not “until it feels done” — 30. The timer is the whole trick: without it, you’ll polish the same paragraph for an hour and publish a draft that’s shinier but no better. With it, you make decisions fast, and fast decisions are usually the honest ones.

Second rule: don’t edit in the same window where you generated the draft. Copy it into your editor — Docs, WordPress, wherever you actually publish from. A new window breaks the spell. In ChatGPT’s chat window, the draft feels finished. In your editor, it feels like raw material, which is what it is.

Third: read the whole thing once, top to bottom, without touching a key. Five minutes, max. You’re not fixing anything yet. You’re just finding out what the draft actually says, because half the time it says something slightly different from what you asked for — and that’s the first thing worth knowing.

Pass 1: Structure (10 minutes)

AI drafts are almost always structured fine and argued badly. The headings are there. The logic isn’t. So the first pass is about the skeleton, not the sentences.

Start at the top. Delete the first paragraph if it could open any article about any topic. “In today’s fast-paced digital world, content is more important than ever.” That sentence has never helped a reader. Your real opening is usually the second paragraph — the one that actually says something. Cut the throat-clearing and the draft immediately sounds more confident.

Then check the spine. Read only the headings, in order, and ask: does each one earn its place, and does the order make sense? AI loves to repeat itself across sections — the same point dressed up three ways. When I find two headings saying the same thing, I merge them and give the space to the point that got squeezed. A post with five honest sections beats one with eight padded ones.

Finally, check the ending. AI drafts end with a summary of the summary: “In conclusion, by following these steps, you can…” Delete it. End on the last real point instead. If the post needs a final line, write one yourself — one sentence, with an opinion in it. Readers remember the last line. Don’t let a template write it.

I do this pass with the delete key, not the keyboard. Most of what structure editing needs is removal.

Pass 2: Clichés and filler (10 minutes)

This is the fastest pass and the one that changes the sound of the draft most. AI drafts lean on a small set of stock phrases, and readers have learned to spot them in half a second.

Run through the draft and kill every one of these on sight:

• “Delve into” → look at, check, test
• “In today’s fast-paced world” → the actual situation, or nothing
• “It is important to note that” → just say the thing
• “Furthermore / Moreover / Additionally” at the start of a paragraph → just start the paragraph
• “A tapestry of / a landscape of” → the actual thing you’re describing
• “Unlock the power of” → use, try, or describe what it does

Then hunt the repetition. AI repeats its favourite words — “crucial,” “essential,” “seamless,” “elevate” — until the whole draft tastes like one flavour. I paste the draft into our repetition finder after this pass, and it always finds a word I’ve used six times without noticing. Swap in a plain alternative or cut the sentence entirely. Most repeated words are load-bearing for nothing.

One more thing in this pass: kill the hedging. “It could be argued that good editing matters” is a sentence afraid of its own opinion. “Good editing matters” is the same sentence, braver. AI hedges because it has no stake in the claim. You do. Say it straight.

Pass 3: Voice (10 minutes)

The first two passes made the draft correct. This one makes it yours.

Read the draft aloud. Not in your head — out loud, with your actual voice. Your ears catch what your eyes forgive. AI writing has a rhythm: smooth, even, slightly sleepy. When you read it aloud, the flat spots announce themselves. You’ll hear yourself going on autopilot, and that’s exactly where your reader would too. Mark those passages. They’re your real editing list.

Then add one specific thing per section. A number (“cut 40% of the draft”), a name (“my editor, Priya”), a moment (“last Tuesday’s call”). AI can’t invent your specifics, so specifics are the fastest way to make a draft unmistakably yours. One per section is enough — it compounds across the whole post until the piece could only have been written by someone who was actually there.

Here’s what that looks like on a real paragraph. The ChatGPT draft said:

“AI writing tools can help writers produce content more quickly and efficiently. They are useful for many different types of writing tasks and can save a significant amount of time.”

After three passes, the same paragraph in one of my posts reads:

“AI tools write fast. That’s the whole pitch — and the whole problem. Speed was never what my draft was missing.”

Same meaning. One of them sounds like a person. The edit took ninety seconds: cut the filler, killed the abstraction, added the opinion.

Finish the pass by reading the first and last lines together. If they sound like they belong to the same writer, you’re done. If the opening is flat and the ending is a template, fix the ending first — it’s the line the reader carries away.