Real Words, Polished Edges: How I Write (and Why I Still Trust My Voice)

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I love the feedback I get on my blogs. The feedback themes primarily focus on how relatable they are to the common human experience. I’ve heard people say, “It’s like you are speaking directly to me or “I can hear your real voice”. I also hear feedback on how well they are written and how motivating they are. I’m not here to toot my own horn today. Though who doesn’t love a good horn tootin’! If I am a good blog writer, it's because I have been a writer my whole life. At my age and with my long career, if I weren’t a good writer, I might as well pack up and move on!


Lately, there has been a shift in culture from the traditional approach to writing to utilizing AI to assist with content creation. In some cases, people may use AI to write all the content. This leaves a lot of room for debate in education systems, the downfall of creative skills, plagiarism, authenticity, and more. In the health and wellness blog space, there is a continuing loss of authenticity and trust, where people are pushing out blog and social media content that is over-the-top unrealistic, inauthentic, and doesn’t align with the everyday experience of most humans!! 


Today in the spirit of transparency, I confess that I use AI tools AND I write authentically! I do all my own writing and then use AI in the final steps to edit my work, because as a seasoned technical writer, which could be considered the gold standard for proper writing, editing is the most important step in the process. 


My writing process begins with a brain dump as all good creative writing should!


  1. I write the first draft of the blog using one of the following methods:

    • I open a Google Doc and turn on the Voice Typing feature. This gives me creative freedom to let my thoughts flow freely. Note that I am not doing this right now. These words you are reading right now were typed as my thoughts flowed through my fingers onto the keyboard, and then onto this page.

    • I type my blog by hard. This is a rare occurrence.

  2. I open Gemini Advanced, where I have a “Gem” copyeditor on standby. 


What is a Gem? A Gem is like a personal assistant. The Gem has a set of instructions for exactly how I want my work to be copyedited. For example, use the Chicago Manual of Style for grammar,  serial comma, Canadian spelling, active voice, and present tense, and other such style/standard advice. I have also given examples of my previous blogs for some voice and tone matching. I also ask it to not plagiarize and to not add content. I ask it to keep my wit and tone. 


  1. I enter a kind prompt to say “Please copyedit my voice-to-text draft”. Always be polite to your AI copywriting. It just feels right.

  2. I copy the returned content and paste it back into my Google document.

  3. From this, I do a round of manual editing. 

    • I look for gaps, errors, and clarity. 

    • Where research or quotes are needed for Yoga philosophy, I used my real or digital library of Yoga books to confirm that I am using the terminology correctly. 

  4. Then I use the baked-in Spelling/Grammar feature for the final editing round.

  5. I publish and then hold my breath! 


Confessions:

  • Writing Emojis and SEO/metatagging can be a pain in the pattootie, so I use AI to generate those. 

  • I am publishing this blog without my normal rounds of editing (AI or Spell/Grammar check). Just so that you can hear the real “me” in this blog.


In summary, I have found AI to be very useful to my writing process. When you read my blogs, you are reading my real words (as they were transcribed through voice-to-text). My trusty AI assistant has clear boundaries and guidelines for the level of copyediting I require. As for voice, I am the Everyday Yogi, so I don’t always put my best foot forward--I just put myself out there and I hope that resonate with at least some of you. I cut all the bull-pucky out of my messaging. Life is messy. Life is real. Keep on, keeping on!!

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