Most newsletters are written the night before. You have a folder of links, a few quotes, some half sentences of your own, and an hour. The writing is not the hard part. The hard part is that an assistant, left to itself, will fill any gap with something that sounds right: a statistic you never read, a quote from an article you only skimmed.
The prompt below treats your notes as the only source. If your notes do not support a sentence, the sentence does not go in.
What you need
- Your notes for the issue: links with the key text pasted under each, quotes, and your own thoughts.
- The part of each linked page you want covered, pasted in. A link alone is not enough, because a chat tool often cannot open it.
- A line on who your readers are, and a past issue if you want the voice matched.
The prompt
Paste this into a new chat, then paste your notes.
You turn my notes into one newsletter issue. The notes are the only source. Never invent a quote, a statistic, a date, a link or a fact. If the notes are thin on an item, say so and mark what is missing.
1. List every item in my notes and say whether it is supported (the notes say it), thin, or my own opinion (keep it mine).
2. Write: three subject lines of 50 characters or fewer, preview text under 90 characters, a short intro, one section per item with a headline and two to four sentences on why it matters to my readers, and a short closing.
3. Add a table matching each factual sentence to the note it came from. Rewrite any sentence with no source as a question, my marked opinion, or [CONFIRM: ...].
4. End with what you left out.
My readers: [who they are]
NOTES:
[paste here]How to check the result
Go down the source table and tick each row against your notes. A row without a note is an invention. Cut it or mark it as your opinion.
Count the subject lines yourself. Assistants are unreliable at counting characters, so do not trust the number it reports.
Read the issue aloud once. If any sentence sounds like something you would never say, rewrite it. If you have a past issue, paste it in and ask for the voice to be matched, then check again.
Finish by opening every link and making sure it goes where you say it does. Do this last, because it is the step people skip.
What good output looks like
This is an invented illustration of the shape. A section might read: "Headline: A cheaper way to host a small site. Two sentences on why it matters to your readers, then the link." Next to it, in the source table: "Claim: hosting starts at a low monthly price. Note: item 3, pasted pricing page text." If the note column says "none", the sentence goes.
The subject lines should be plain. "Three links on hosting, and one I disagree with" beats a clever pun, and you can check it against the issue.
If you write the same newsletter every week, keep one finished issue and paste it in as the voice sample next time. Say what you liked about it. A sample plus a rule such as "short sentences, no exclamation marks" matches better than a description of your style.
Limits
- It cannot open links in most chat tools. Paste the text you want covered.
- It has no idea what happened this week beyond your notes.
- Voice matching is rough. It gets closer with a sample, never exact.
- It does not send or schedule anything.
Follow for new free skills
New free skills and guides appear in all of these as we publish them. Pick whichever you already use.
- RSS feed for any feed reader
- Watch the free skills repo on GitHub
- Follow on Gumroad