There’s an old meme: “Being a good writer is 3% talent, 97% not being distracted by the internet.”
It’s true — staying focused matters. When you’re mid-flow and missing a key detail, the last thing you want is to disappear down a research rabbit hole. In an age of distraction, you need to be able to order a jar of mustard without accidentally falling into the world of DIY mustard enthusiasts.
Sometimes, yes, you need to go deep. If you’re writing a historical novel about a 13th-century Franciscan monk, it might make sense to spend a month holed up in the Vatican’s secret archives reading ecclesiastical histories and monastic diaries to steep yourself in the rituals and rhythms of medieval religious life.
But other times, you want to keep moving. You’re not trying to write a dissertation — you just need a real detail so you can write the scene and move on. Maybe you need to know what the sleeper berths look like on an overnight train to Mumbai... or what kind of churrasco skewers the street vendors grill after the bars let out in São Paulo. You’re not doing a PhD in Indian rail travel or Brazilian street food. You just need a quick answer so you can get back to typing.
Frank Sun is a filmmaker who’s writing a screenplay about pro wrestling.
In one pivotal scene, Frank needed a realistic sequence of wrestling moves that could plausibly take two characters from facing off on their feet to grappling on the mat, ideally in a way that echoed their overall emotional arc.
“Without ChatGPT, I would have had to watch a bunch of old training tapes probably and spend multiple days to capture the realism,” says Frank.
Instead, ChatGPT gave him a plausible sequence of maneuvers that he could pass straight to his movement coordinator. “That’s what AI is good for,” he says. “ChatGPT isn’t replacing my role as a storyteller, it’s just filling in the blanks.”
That was my takeaway: ChatGPT isn’t only useful for background context (“Explain the causes of World War II”) or deep dives (“Write a comprehensive report on how caffeine affects creativity”). It can also give you fast, specific answers so you can keep writing.
What we’re listening to
Writing community member Alexandra Samuel, whose insights on ChatGPT as a tool for writers have appeared in the Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review, stopped by The Media Copilot podcast to unpack her AI workflow.
Alexandra works with a custom GPT she calls “Viv,” pre-loaded with her book proposal and past articles. Her morning routine includes voice-chatting her ideas while she makes breakfast, then asking ChatGPT to turn them into a structured outline so she can hit the ground running.
“I gave her instructions on how to be a writing coach,” Alexandra explains. “Don’t tell me what to write. Ask me questions that prompt my thinking. Then, at the end of that conversation, I would say to her, ‘OK, Viv, I want you to write a memo to tomorrow’s Viv telling her how to be a better writing coach based on our conversation today.’”
The rabbit hole you avoided
Have you used ChatGPT to surface a missing detail so you could stay in your writing flow? I’d love to know what you’re working on — and the question that got you unstuck. Drop your examples below!