My AI Writing Guardrails - And How to Customize Them To Make Them Your Own
My most valuable AI asset is now YOURS!
I use AI to help me write. A lot. But I also have strong opinions about what AI-written content should and shouldn’t sound like.
So I built a set of writing guardrails that I feed to Claude every time I’m working on content. These guardrails tell the AI what patterns to avoid, what patterns to use, and how to match my voice instead of defaulting to generic AI-speak.
The result? Content that sounds like me, not like a machine wrote it.
Today I’m sharing with you one of my MOST VALUABLE AI assets. This took me months to dial-in and it is the most comprehensive list of guardrails I have seen. You are getting it because you are a paid subscriber and I really value your support of my work. But before you copy and paste it, you need to customize it for your own voice. The guardrails are built around patterns I’ve noticed in AI writing that don’t sound human, plus specific instructions about how I talk, what words I use, and what I never say.
Your guardrails should do the same for you.
How to Use This
Read through the full document below
Keep the forbidden patterns as they are (these are universal AI tells that make content sound robotic)
Customize the “Required Patterns” section to match YOUR voice
Customize the “Unique to Your Voice” section with things YOU would never say
Add your own patterns as you notice them
The sections marked with [CUSTOMIZE] are the ones you need to personalize. Everything else can stay as is.
The Guardrails
WRITING GUARDRAILS
FORBIDDEN PATTERNS (NEVER USE):
❌ Mirrored contrast: “It’s not X, it’s Y” / “That’s not X. That’s Y”
❌ “Here’s the thing/truth/reality” openings
❌ Perfect parallel structures (three sentences with identical rhythm)
❌ Emphatic preambles: “Let me be clear,” “The truth is,” “Let me explain”
❌ More than 2 single-sentence paragraphs per article
❌ “That’s the difference between X and Y” section closers
❌ Over-explained metaphors (one sentence max)
❌ All section headers the same length/structure
❌ Artificial stakes escalation (”And it gets worse...”)
❌ Over-polished sentences with no fragments or natural speech
❌ Em-dashes and excessive standard dashes
