---
title: "How To Write With An LLM"
source: "Simon Willison 博客（Atom）"
source_tier: "t2"
url: "https://simonwillison.net/2026/Sep/17/how-to-write-with-an-llm/"
permalink: "https://feed.astralor.com/items/itm_5326b23f1259ac99c0d3651b"
published: "2026-09-17T23:37:27.000Z"
score: 57
channel: "ai"
tags: ["LLM","Write With","LLM How","LLM Thomas Ptacek","LLMs","Rule Number One","You"]
---

# How To Write With An LLM

## At a glance

How To Write With An LLM Thomas Ptacek on using LLMs as copyeditors, not as writing assistants: Rule Number One: You may not use a single word an LLM suggests to you. [...] I think that as a form of intellectual persona…

## Key points

- How To Write With An LLM Thomas Ptacek on using LLMs as copyeditors, not as writing assistants: Rule Number One: You may not use a single word an LLM suggests to you.
- [...] I think that as a form of intellectual personal protective equipment you should adopt the rule that any specific turn of phrase an LLM suggests is off limits.
- Be strict about the rule!

## Full text

How To Write With An LLM Thomas Ptacek on using LLMs as copyeditors, not as writing assistants: Rule Number One: You may not use a single word an LLM suggests to you. [...] I think that as a form of intellectual personal protective equipment you should adopt the rule that any specific turn of phrase an LLM suggests is off limits. Be strict about the rule! I won't let LLMs write content for my blog, but I use them for fact-checking, spelling and grammar and as an occasional thesaurus (see my proofreading prompt). The rule to never use a turn of phrase suggested by an LLM feels good to me. The text has that weird smell to it, and it's also a good principle to help stay disciplined. Later in this piece Thomas shows a screenshot of his personal LLM copyediting tool (see also this Twitter thread), and provides a prompt to help kickstart building your own. Tags: thomas-ptacek, writing, ai, generative-ai, llms

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