How I Taught an AI to Capture My Writing Voice

You can learn a lot about a person by asking them to write in your voice. You can learn even more about yourself by asking a robot to do so. The robot and I sat down to talk over outstanding baked goods in a newish Forest Park coffee shop that I cannot identify for strict ethical reasons. (Ironic, because before the coffee shop opened I’d been in the building many times, but never once for an ethical reason.) We discussed the robot’s ability to create my voice while retaining its own. Here’s what we landed on:

Defining the Writer's Voice

Alan: You can write like me?

ChatGPT: Absolutely. Or at least the you that’s been stitched together from your previous work and a suspicious number of Midwestern metaphors.

Alan: My style isn’t just metaphors. It’s timing. It’s like minor league baseball — deliberate, a little dusty, and if you leave early you’ll miss the best thing that happens all night.

ChatGPT: Understood. Midwest Summer League pacing, with the occasional foul ball into the beer garden.

Alan: And I want local detail. Forest Park. The dog park crowd that talks about dogs the way some people talk about their kids, except they actually like their dogs. The Pride parade where you can find “home base” by listening for the bartender who’s already yelling at someone for standing in the service area.

ChatGPT: And the cinnamon roll raffle from the new coffee shop in the old Doc Ryan’s spot.

Alan: Yes. A dozen rolls that make people briefly forget they’re in line behind someone who just asked if they can get oat milk “but without the oats.”

Adding a Critical Edge and Local Bite

ChatGPT: I can write that. But you want more than charm — you want teeth.

Alan: Exactly. I want the kind of line that makes the local Chamber of Commerce wonder if I’m talking about them.

ChatGPT: Like: “Forest Park’s new ‘community festival’ has all the warmth of a yard sale run by hedge fund interns.”

Alan: Now you’re getting it. And don’t be afraid to jab at the people who take civic pride so seriously they ruin it for everyone else.

ChatGPT: You mean the ones who write furious Facebook posts about the new trash can design on Madison Street?

Alan: Yes. The ones who say, “This town is going downhill,” as if they didn’t personally contribute by double-parking in front of Louie’s Grill.

ChatGPT: Got it. A little vinegar in the frosting.

Mastering the Nuances of Rhythm and Subtext

Alan: More than a little. I don’t want this to sound like an Instagram caption under a latte art heart.

ChatGPT: Then let’s sharpen the rhythm. Less “Isn’t this nice?” and more “Why is this happening?”

Alan: Now you’re starting to sound like me.

ChatGPT: And you always end with a stubborn detail — so small it’s either a joke or a grudge.

Alan: That’s not a trick. That’s just being from here.

ChatGPT: So for this one, the stubborn detail is the cinnamon roll raffle.

Alan: No. The stubborn detail is the people who cut the raffle line.

ChatGPT: Cheaters.

Alan: Worse than cheaters. The kind of people who “save a spot” at the Fourth of July fireworks by leaving a single lawn chair and a roll of caution tape out at 9 a.m.

ChatGPT: Which, to be clear, is not a felony but should be.

Alan: Exactly. And if you write like me, you’ll imply that without saying it outright.

The Final Test and a Touch of AI Flair

ChatGPT: I can. But you know I’m going to throw in at least one thing that’s plausibly false.

Alan: Fine.

ChatGPT: Like: “The Forest Park Public Library once booked a speed-metal band for quiet reading hour, and nobody left because the band was polite enough to tune between chapters.”

Alan: I’ll allow it. It’s the kind of thing that could happen here.

ChatGPT: You know, most people ask me to write like Hemingway or Shakespeare. You’re the only one who’s said, “Make it sound like the guy who knows which bar has the cleanest bathrooms during Pride.”

Alan: And that’s why it might actually work.

ChatGPT: So — what do you think? Is this “you” enough?

Alan: Close. But you’re still missing one thing.

ChatGPT: What’s that?

Alan: You need to sound like you’ve got somewhere else to be, but you’re staying here because you want to see how the raffle turns out.

ChatGPT: That’s the ending.

Alan Brouilette, a resident of Forest Park, writes a monthly column for the Forest Park Review, a Growing Community Media publication.