Latest news with #writingtips
Fast Company
4 days ago
- Fast Company
How to tell if the article you're reading was written by AI
So, we've all been there. You're two paragraphs into a blog post. The headline was catchy enough, the intro kind of made sense, and now your eyes are glazing over. You read over a word, a blurb, a sentence that sounds vaguely all-too-familiar and now you're wondering, 'Wait…did a human even write this?' Odds are, you're not imagining it. AI-generated content is everywhere. It is impossible to escape. While it's efficient, especially for meeting summaries and article recaps, you and I know the best content is the content that feels particularly human. When you spend your days working with AI (and creating comprehensive AI training for your team), you quickly start seeing how it's beginning to give itself away. Here's how to spot AI writing before you waste another five minutes of your life reading machine-generated clickbait. 1. It reads like someone trying to win an argument at a networking event. If every paragraph feels like it's trying to make a strong point without actually saying anything meaningful, you're probably in AI territory. Look out for generic phrases like 'in today's fast-paced world' or 'leveraging innovative strategies.' I've read these phrases so often that it occasionally feels right to use them as filler, like an SAT tutor that teaches your kid three big, impressive terms to use to crush the written portion of the test. Ultimately, this is the biggest red flag that you're reading AI-generated content. 2. There's 0% personality and 100% too much structure. AI content often follows a painfully clean format: intro, subheads, conclusion. The content might include some big words, but it's not fooling anyone. It reads like it went to school and graduated with honors, but never worked a day in the real world. Great for a college essay, not so realistic (nor creative) beyond that. There's no strong voice, no edge—just perfectly average takes. On this note, I'm seriously considering creating a support group for copywriters and marketers who embraced the em dash long before AI came around. While it's become popularized as an AI 'tell' of a blog post or article, too often it's a case of mistaken identity. Tread carefully. 3. It's bland, not very controversial. This flag can be a difficult one to spot in the moment, as it's important to consider varying perspectives and points of view. AI doesn't like to ruffle feathers, so you'll often find it hedging every single opinion. It'll say one thing, then immediately say the opposite to keep the peace. Look out for something along the lines of, 'While X has benefits, it's important to consider the potential downsides of Y.' Let's keep writing about things that may be controversial, with strong opinions and hot takes. When creatives are writing about a particular topic, and aiming to prove a point, it doesn't seem appropriate for them to include the counterargument. Right? You're reading to gain insight and perspective about whatever topic is at hand, not ride the see-saw. 4. The conclusion is weirdly robotic pep talk. If the article wraps with something like, 'As we move into the future, embracing innovation will be key,' congrats, you've hit AI bingo. These vague, motivational endings are a dead giveaway. The conclusion usually feels abrupt, as if AI knows it's necessary for sentence structure but is not willing to spend the time on making it truly meaningful. I rarely see a real person sign off their blogs, newsletters, or other content with such blatant corporate optimism. 5. Your brain feels…untouched. Maybe the biggest tell is how it makes you feel (or not feel). Great writing sticks with you. Even a short blog post can inspire, surprise, or challenge you. But AI-written content, on the other hand, is like a lukewarm shower. Technically fine. Emotionally forgettable. I wouldn't go so far as to claim that specific words, 'key,' 'crucial,' 'robust,' or 'comprehensive' are always AI indicators, but it is true that most writing tools can't resist overusing their favorite buzzwords. Even ChatGPT refers to these words as its 'greatest hits list,' so it's no wonder that my mind is exhausted from seeing them in other's writing. I use AI daily to optimize my workstreams, beat creative blocks, and sharpen my emails. And if I don't pay attention and refine my prompts, my results will be rampant with these 'tells.' Don't believe me? Test it out using ChatGPT. With a little practice, you'll soon be able to spot an AI-generated story from a mile away.
Entrepreneur
28-05-2025
- Business
- Entrepreneur
Jeneva Rose on Writing No.1 Bestseller 'The Perfect Divorce'
This week's How Success Happens guest is a bestselling thriller writer who has been called "The Queen of Twists." So there was a 50/50 chance I would be murdered by the end of our maybe it was I who turned out to be the killer? Spoiler alert: Neither of those things happened. But instead, Jeneva Rose, whose new novel, The Perfect Divorce, hit No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list, shared incredible tips for creative people who are looking to turn their passion into a business. Rose's background in marketing shapes every part of her writing, an edge that helped her turn her breakthrough novel, The Perfect Marriage, from a small press release into a bestseller. In this episode, Rose breaks down how she creates viral TikToks, her "binge-writing" approach to her books, and answers a question that has plagued this interviewer's mind: Do audiobooks count as reading? You can listen to our conversation below, or on your podcast platform of choice. And check out highlights of our chat here, which have been edited for length and clarity. Subscribe to How Success Happens: Apple | Spotify | YouTube Congrats on The Perfect Divorce hitting No. 1. How does that feel? It feels surreal. My brain hasn't caught up. Being No. 1 on the bestseller list is a pretty big sign of success, but how do you personally define success? It used to be the accolades of having the bestseller status, selling millions of copies and the big advances. But I think my definition of success changed about a year and a half ago, and it was when I was facing severe burnout. I didn't have the right team around me, so when I hit my breaking point, I knew I needed to make a change in order to continue this career. I changed up the whole team around me, and now I define success as being able to breathe, to have other people in the room speak on my behalf and to take a day off without feeling guilty that I should be doing something to progress my career. That's what success is. Related: Barbara Corcoran Reveals Who the Cheapest Shark Really Is — And Explains the True Passion That Drives Her Success When The Perfect Marriage first came out, you weren't yet a known writer. As you wrote the follow-up, were you keenly aware that every sentence you typed was likely going to be read by millions of people? It's the same thing when I create my videos for social media or write my books. I forget that other people are going to read or see it. I write my books for me. The first book I ever wrote was literally for myself. I was not trying to get published. It was to work through the grief of losing my mother. What were you doing before you became a writer? I was a global senior social media manager, so I actually wrote my first four or five books while working full-time. The job was basically 8 to 5, so I wrote during nights and weekends. I would do these big writing sessions where I worked from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. I continue to do that even though I've been a full-time author since March of 2021. I feel like if I'm binge-writing it, that makes it bingeable for a reader. Can you tell us a bit about how you map your thrillers out? Or do you make it up as you go along? I will not start writing a book until I can summarize it in a sentence or two, so it has that very commercial hook. I enjoy writing the back marketing copy, so that's the second piece I write before I start the story. Then I do my character sketches and my setting sketches, so I feel like I really know them. That's all my research. I do a little bit of an outline, but never for the entire book, because I want the story to be able to change and the characters to breathe and not to be stuck with this outline. So sometimes I surprise myself. I usually know the big twists, but other small twists and reveals are usually surprises that I did not intend to write. They came out during a writing sprint. Related: Writing a Book? Here's How to Find Your Audience and Become a Bestselling Author Success doesn't often come easily — any advice you can share about dealing with rejection? Well, not to brag, but I've had over 400 rejections in my career. But from the very beginning, I knew not to take it personally. I knew this was a creative career, and rejection was inevitable. So I treated every "no" as a "not right now" or a "noble attempt." Now that I've had agents and editors who rejected me back then want to work with me now, I never treat it as, "Oh no, I'm going to be spiteful." I think everything happens for a reason. If it happened a different way, I wouldn't have the career I have right now. Maybe even the books I've written would be different, or I wouldn't have as many under my belt if I didn't have to work so hard and long to make all this happen. Can you talk about the marketing breakthrough you had for The Perfect Marriage with TikTok? I had a very small publisher, and there was no marketing budget. I know that I was going to be the one who had to market it. So I got on Instagram and Facebook. Then I saw TikTok, and at the time, it was considered an app for teens dancing. But I scrolled around and I realized, no, there are other things on here. People are clamoring for community. They want to share their likes and dislikes. So I started marketing my book on there, and one of my first videos got five million views and ended up shooting The Perfect Marriage up to No. 3 on Amazon. So I started growing a readership from that. But I knew that I did not want to just keep marketing my books. I wanted to be able to actually connect with my readers, share parts of my life — my husband, my dogs, behind the scenes, my humor and my personality. I made sure that it wasn't just transactional. It was more about creating a community between me and my readers. Related: The Pep Talk From Mickey Mouse We All Need to Hear, Compliments of Chris Diamantopoulos What was the video about? It created a BookTok trend. I pretended that I was the protagonist in my book, and told everyone that my husband was accused of murder and that his mistress was the victim. Then I held up my book and said, "Actually, this is the plot of my new book." It just hooked people. It doesn't really work anymore because other authors have done it. Publishers even did it. Readers did it about their favorite books. So it got very saturated. Now I try to be as natural as possible when I'm on camera. Important question: Does listening to the audiobook count as reading? Yes. Listen to the entire conversation here and be sure to subscribe to How Success Happens: Apple | Spotify | YouTube
