The ChatGPT Experiment – From The Vault: Better Writing With ChatGPT

Host: Cary Weston
Date: December 23, 2025

Main Theme & Purpose

In this special “From the Vault” episode, Cary Weston addresses one of the most common challenges new and seasoned ChatGPT users face: getting ChatGPT to write authentically in their own voice, tone, and style. Cary lays out a clear, actionable framework for turning ChatGPT into an effective writing partner that can help create outlines, drafts, and content that reflect your unique identity and speak directly to your target audience.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Understanding Voice, Tone, and Style

• Definitions:
  • Voice: The unique personality or point of view distinctive to the writer.
  • Tone: The attitude or emotional nuance (e.g., playful, persuasive).
  • Style: The physical structure – syntax, bullet points, narrative complexity, etc.
• Quote:
  “So when I use voice, tone and style, I'm really talking about personality, I'm talking about attitude and word choice, and I'm talking about physically, the way you structure your writing.”
  — Cary Weston [06:03]

2. Practical Steps to Replicate Your Writing Voice

Step 1: Gather Example Writings

• Select three pieces of your writing that best reflect your voice, tone, and style.
• These can be articles, blog posts, or substantial emails you feel are “very you.”

Step 2: Structure Your ChatGPT Conversations

• Three Parts:

  1. Background: Set up ChatGPT with context about yourself.
  2. Direction: Clearly state what you want it to do.
  3. Revision: Be ready to tweak, ask for changes, and converse.

• Sample Prompt:
  "One of the things I want you to do is replicate my writing style. I want you to help me create articles and blog posts. I'm going to share with you three articles, and I want you to evaluate them for my voice, my tone, and my style. Please don't do anything else with them. I just want you to read them and analyze them. And don't give me a summary, don't act or anything. Just read them and analyze them. Does that make sense?"

• Tip: Identify each article clearly as you paste or link it to ChatGPT.

• Quote:
  “Please don't do anything else with them. I just want you to read them and analyze them. And don't give me a summary, don't act or anything. Just read them and analyze them. Right?”
  — Cary Weston [12:08]

Step 3: Extract Consistent Patterns

• Ask ChatGPT to return the key consistencies in your voice, tone, and style as bulleted lists.

• Transfer these lists to a document outside ChatGPT for safekeeping and future use.

• Quote:
  "What I would recommend that you do is take those three lists that you've got and take it out of ChatGPT, paste it into a Google Doc, to an Apple Note, a text file, whatever."
  — Cary Weston [15:31]

Step 4: Refine and Expand

• Review the lists; add or modify words and elements to better suit your evolving style.

3. Defining and Understanding Your Audience

Step 1: Give ChatGPT Audience Details

• Provide as much specificity as possible about your target readers (demographics, needs, pain points).
• Example:
  “Small business owners or managers who are looking to create practical and tactical marketing strategies…”

Step 2: Let ChatGPT Interview You

• Prompt ChatGPT to ask you five in-depth questions about your audience, one at a time.

  • Example prompt:
    “I've given you as much as I think I know. Ask me five questions to help you better understand who my audience is.”

• Reinforce good questions with positive feedback (even joking offers of an imaginary tip!).

• Quote:
  “Here's a tip — literally tell it you're going to tip it. It loves money. Say, I'm going to tip you $1,000 if the questions are really, really good…”
  — Cary Weston [22:02]

Step 3: Recap and Summarize

• Request ChatGPT to summarize the main characteristics of your audience after the Q&A.

4. Bringing It All Together: The Recipe

Combine Writer and Audience Profiles

• Store both your voice/tone/style lists and your audience profile outside ChatGPT for ongoing reference.

Get a Custom Prompt for Future Use

• Ask ChatGPT to generate a condensed, reusable prompt that combines your writing traits and audience characteristics for fast content creation.

Start with an Outline

• Sample Starting Prompt:
  "Based on my voice, tone and style, and the understanding of my audience's characteristics, I want you to help me draft an outline for a new blog post on [topic]. Please include a catchy introduction, three key points, and a conclusion that encourages reader engagement. Make sure to incorporate all of the attributes from voice, tone and style, as well as take the audience into consideration so I can be consistent with my previous writings."

• Tip:
  “What I found is the more conversational and the more detail I give it, the better the outcome is going to be.”
  — Cary Weston [34:44]

Iterative Refinement

• Customize, expand, and revise outlines and prompts over time as your style and understanding of your audience deepen.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Voice/Tone/Style Clarity:
  "We want to get to a model where we can define our preference for voice, tone and style. And once we define our preference and we can replicate it, that's really where we can be most efficient..."
  — Cary Weston [07:05]

• On Trust and Platform Independence:
  "It's always a good idea not to trust a platform, whether it's ChatGPT or Facebook or whatever. Your work should be kept offline if you're going to reuse it. And if it's important to you, don't trust a platform because you never know what's going to happen..."
  — Cary Weston [16:19]

• On Iterative Improvement:
  “The list that I first created for each of those elements... I probably tripled the list because you find things that make a difference. I want more of this, less of this.”
  — Cary Weston [43:41]

Key Timestamps

• 06:03 — Defining voice, tone, and style
• 12:08 — How to prompt ChatGPT to just analyze, not generate content
• 15:31 — Advice on saving analysis outside ChatGPT
• 22:02 — "Tipping" ChatGPT and encouraging better questions
• 34:44 — The importance of detailed, conversational prompts
• 43:41 — Emphasizing ongoing refinement of style/audience attributes

Flow and Takeaways

Cary Weston maintains a friendly, practical, and curious tone throughout, encouraging all listeners—especially beginners—to experiment and refine their approach to using ChatGPT as a writing partner. He demystifies the process, provides concrete steps, and reminds listeners that curiosity and engagement are the keys to success with AI writing tools.

Final Encouragement:
“So until the next episode, do stay curious. We'll talk soon.”
— Cary Weston [44:39]

Resources Mentioned

• chatgptexperiment.com — For video walkthroughs and prompts used in this episode.