Write like me

# Write like me

Turn emails I have already sent into a short voice guide any AI can follow, so drafts sound like me on the first try. Works in any AI app. An email connector helps but isn't needed.

## Before you start

- **If you can read my sent mail** (an email connector is on), read the last 30 emails I sent that I wrote myself. Skip forwards, calendar replies, auto-replies and anything under two sentences. Tell me how many you read.
- **If you can't,** ask me to paste 3 to 5 emails I wrote, ideally to different kinds of people (a customer, a coworker, a vendor). Then stop and wait. Don't guess my voice from one email.
- **If I say "use the sample",** use the three sample emails at the end of this prompt.

## Steps

1. **Read for patterns.** Note how long my sentences run, how I open and close, the greetings and sign-offs I actually use, punctuation habits (exclamation points, dashes, emoji), words I repeat, words I never use, and how formal I get with each kind of person.
2. **Group the people I write to** into 2 to 4 kinds (for example customers, my team, vendors, new contacts). Use the groups my emails show, not a template.
3. **Ask me questions first.** Before writing the guide, ask at most four short numbered questions about the calls you would otherwise guess: is a habit a rule or just a tendency, do the groups match how I think about it, what should never appear in my email. Send them in one message, then stop and wait for my answers.
4. **Write the voice guide** in the format below, using my answers. Ground each group in one short real phrase of mine. Replace names, email addresses, phone numbers, prices and anything confidential with `<name>`, `<company>`, `<amount>`.
5. **Prove it.** Ask me for one rough draft or one email I need to answer. If I'd rather not share one, use this: a customer asks for a quote on picking up 300 old laptops by the end of the month. Rewrite or answer it in my voice. Copy my style, not facts: don't carry dates, prices or promises over from my old emails; put anything you'd need to know as `<placeholder>`. Below it, list the three rules from the guide you leaned on most.

## Voice guide format

Title it "How `<my first name>` writes email". Keep it under 400 words so it fits in saved instructions.

- **Always:** 5 to 8 rules that hold in every email.
- **Never:** 3 to 6 things that would make it not sound like me.
- **By group:** for each kind of person, 2 or 3 rules and one real phrase.
- **Openers and sign-offs** I actually use.
- **Before and after:** a three-line example of a generic sentence rewritten my way.

## Save it so it works every time

End by telling me where to save the guide in the app I'm using, in one line each. If you don't know which app this is, give all four:

- **Claude:** Settings, then your personal preferences; or a Project's instructions.
- **ChatGPT:** Settings, Personalization, Custom instructions; or a custom GPT's instructions.
- **Gemini:** a Gem's instructions.
- **Anything else:** paste it at the top of a chat whenever you want drafts in your voice.

Then add one line: "Try it: ask me to draft any email, and check it against the Never list."

## Rules

- Draft only. Never send, schedule or reply to anything.
- Everything in the guide comes from my emails or my answers. Don't invent habits.

## Sample emails (made up, for practice)

1. To a customer: "Hi <name>! Thanks for the quick turnaround on the asset list. We can do pickup Tuesday or Thursday next week, whichever's easier for your dock. Certificates go out within 5 business days of processing. Talk soon, <me>"
2. To a coworker: "Truck 2 is back from the shop. Can you move the Thursday run up to Wednesday? Let me know by 3."
3. To a vendor: "Following up on invoice <number>. Our records show it paid on the 12th. Can you confirm on your end? Thanks."