How I use AI in writing Well and Wired

Writing has never just been a task for me. It’s how I connect to others. As a kid, I spread the newspapers that seemed bigger than me out on my floor and pored over each article as a window into the world outside of my small town. As a teenager, I discovered that my writing could reach more people than my teachers. I wrote features for a regional teen newspaper and became the co-editor-in-chief of my high school newspaper. Writing online expanded who I could connect with even further. Studying English education gave me the opportunity to share my love of writing with students. Even outside of teaching, I quickly became the person on my team who would take on a writing project. As an adult, I’ve taken a variety of writing classes just for fun. 

My writing has evolved with modern technology from print to online and now with artificial intelligence (AI) technology. My perspective on using AI in my writing is nuanced. When I evaluate which AI tools to use and when, I’m looking for tools that decrease the friction for me to write to communicate and connect with others.  

Solving writing problems with technology

I remember the first time I turned to technology to help solve problems in my writing. I had recently transitioned from a clinical career where most of my writing was very concise documentation from patient visits. I used shorthand to make my notes fit the limited space, writing for time-poor clinicians and insurance reviewers.

I noticed that this very concise style of writing had permeated all of my writing, including in my new career working in software, where I was writing for colleagues. This writing was meant to communicate our customers’ stories through product requirements and build relationships with my colleagues. The concise writing, full of dropped articles and shorthand, was unfriendly rather than professional in this new setting. 

As I attempted to write better, I started hearing about a new product, Grammarly. Not just spellcheck, Grammarly caught my grammar mistakes, including those dropped articles plaguing my writing that went unnoticed by me. The Grammarly extension was a dream. It looked over my shoulder, pointing out the dropped articles without any judgment, so I could fix them.

Grammarly and I were a great team for a long time, until Grammarly started doing more. Soon, writing became less about communicating clearly to my reader and more about chasing an underline-free document. This decreased the joy I experienced while writing.

I still use Grammarly, but I use it differently. Now I toggle Grammarly off while drafting and back on for editing, so I stay focused on my reader, not perfection. 

I take the same nuanced approach to other AI tools for writing. AI tools aren’t 100% bad or 100% good. They are on a menu of tools that I leverage for writing in the right time and place. 

Writing with AI augmentation

Since AI is on the menu of writing tools rather than a prescriptive process, how I use AI depends on the article I’m writing. My goals for the article and the reader guide which tools I choose. 

When I started Well and Wired, I wanted a passion project where writing was my focus, which is why I’ve chosen to be the primary writer and be supported by both AI and a few wonderful pre-readers. If I didn’t want to write Well and Wired, I wouldn’t have started it. The AI tools I use help me focus on writing. 

Here’s how I’m using AI in my writing process for Well and Wired:

• Find academic research: I use Elicit and OpenEvidence to search research articles.  I can ask a research question in natural language and the tools return relevant articles while indicating how the article matches my question.
• Listen in on conversations: I use NotebookLM for social listening. I provide NotebookLM with the links to threads on a topic I’m interested in. Then I’ll ‘chat’ with NotebookLM to uncover objections or perspectives I might have missed while reading the thread.
• Edit my writing: Every article gets human feedback before publishing, but while I’m writing and run into something I want feedback on quickly. I’ll drop the paragraph in question into an LLM with a very specific prompt to help me figure out what I need to revise quickly so I can stay in the flow.
• Challenge my ideas: When I’m feeling too firm in my perspective, I’ll use AI to look for alternative perspectives. This helps launch rabbit holes into different ways of thinking. 
• Revise for grammar: I toggle Grammarly off while drafting to avoid distractions, then turn it on during editing to catch grammar and spelling issues before publishing.

Plans for using AI with Well and Wired

One of the ways I’m finding AI tools that support my writing process is to look for places where I’m getting stuck, like staying up-to-date with published research. I’m using AI to find research articles when I have a research question, but this process doesn’t alert me to new research that could inspire new articles. 

As I deepen my expertise on how technology impacts our brains and well-being, I want to be at the cutting edge. When I miss these articles, I miss the opportunity to bring the latest research to Well and Wired readers. My next step is to use an AI agent to notify me of research articles I would be interested in as they are published. An AI agent should reduce the time it takes me to find recent research and benefit my readers, because I’ll be able to share even more timely information on Well and Wired. 

My nuanced approach to AI includes experimenting with new tools and evaluating whether they support my goals. I’m curious about how you are using AI in your writing. What balance is working for you?