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May 23, 2026
A specific, do-it-this-Monday pass that turns AI drafts into prose that reads like a person wrote it. No magic, just edits.
AI drafts have characteristic tells. Em-dashes everywhere. Sentences of similar length. “Moreover” and “furthermore” doing the work of better connectives. Closing paragraphs that summarize what the post already said.
The good news: most of this is fixable with a single careful pass. Here is the pass I run on every draft.
Search for and delete: it is important to note that, it is worth mentioning, generally speaking, in many ways. These phrases consume words and confidence in equal measure.
Read the draft aloud. If you hear a metronome, the sentences are too similar in length. Break the longest one in half. Combine two short ones. Aim for visible variation when you scan the paragraph at arm's length.
One em-dash per paragraph at most. AI drafts use em-dashes the way mediocre writers use exclamation points. Convert most into commas or full stops.
Delete the last paragraph. Read what remains. Nine times out of ten the post ends stronger without the summary. If it does not, write a real ending — one sentence with a takeaway the reader can act on.
“The team improved the workflow” is empty. “The Friday standup moved from 9am to 2pm, and three engineers stopped quietly resenting it” has gravity. Specifics buy authority.
Read the post aloud. If at any point you would not say these sentences in conversation, rewrite them. AI never does this. You should.