ChatGPT for creative work

Where it falls short

• Default output is generic; without a strong brief it writes what everyone else gets.
• Image control is looser than a dedicated image tool.
• It can be confidently wrong on recent facts — check anything dated.

How to use it for creative work

1. 01

   Write custom instructions once

   Fill in who you are, what you make, who you sell to and how you want it to write. Everything after that starts several corrections ahead.

2. 02

   Use a project per client or collection

   Keep files, voice notes and past approvals in one project so you never re-explain the background.

3. 03

   Ask for the questions before the answer

   Start with 'ask me the five questions you need answered to do this well'. Answering five questions produces a better result than a long prompt written blind.

4. 04

   Separate drafting from judging

   Generate ten options in one message, then in a new message ask it to score them against your criteria and kill seven.

5. 05

   Close the loop with a checklist

   Finish with 'check this against the brief and list what still fails'. It catches the obvious misses before a client does.

Ready-to-use prompts

Before you write anything, ask me the five questions you most need answered to produce an excellent [deliverable]. Ask them one at a time and wait for my answer.

Give me ten [names/taglines/concepts] for [project]. Then, in a separate list, score each out of ten for distinctiveness and fit, and keep only the three best with one line on why.

Research [topic] using sources from the last six months. Return: five facts with dates and links, what they mean for a small independent brand, and one recommended action. Flag anything you could not verify.

Here are my raw notes. Turn them into a one-page brief with: objective, audience, single-minded message, deliverables, constraints, success measure. Leave a clearly marked gap wherever my notes were missing something.

Check the attached draft against the brief above. List only what fails, ranked by how much it would bother the client. No praise.

Questions people ask

Which plan do I need?

The free plan is enough to learn the workflow. Paid plans matter once you rely on faster models, longer files and image generation daily.

How do I stop it sounding like everyone else?

Feed it your own writing, ban generic adjectives explicitly, and always ask for a specific detail per sentence. Generic output is a brief problem, not a model problem.