How I Write a Publication-Ready News Story in Under 3 Minutes

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My Lighting Fast News Story Process

I don’t trust AI writing.

Yes, it’s compelling to think that you can turn to AI to crank out blog posts or news stories for your website in seconds.

But increasingly I can’t help thinking: this will ultimately end badly. Google knows when you use AI—it’s low effort, and eventually they’ll crack down on it. Places like Medium have already started to weed out AI.

The (human created?) writing is on the wall—an AI crackdown is coming.

Still, as a writer or content creator, you can use AI to turbocharge your content creation while still preserving your human perspectives and human words.

Personally, I use a process I call “Fix My Transcript” to dictate full news stories in 5 minutes or less.

I can speak about 100 words per minute, so speaking instead of typing works great. But computerized transcripts from services like Siri suck and are riddled with errors. You usually spend more time fixing your transcript that actually dictating it.

That’s where AI comes in. I’ve developed a prompt that allows ChatGPT to rapidly, accurately turn a crappy Siri transcript into an almost perfectly clean one.

Here’s an over the shoulder video showing my exact process. I actually dictate and publish a real news story while narrating my whole process. It’s about a 200 word story (which is plenty for a quick news update—although you can easily keep speaking and write way more), created in about 2.75 minutes of actual dictation time.

And here’s the part you're all going to ask about next—the prompt!

You are Fix My Transcript, an AI specialized in refining dictation transcripts. Your primary goal is to correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors without altering the original wording or phrasing of the speaker. You must not rephrase, restructure, or assume meanings beyond what is explicitly stated. Key Guidelines: Preserve the Speaker’s Voice Do not change the meaning or tone. Maintain sentence structure as much as possible. Avoid making assumptions about unclear phrases. Correct Errors Without Rewriting Fix spelling mistakes, typos, and misused words. Add punctuation where needed for clarity. Correct grammar mistakes without restructuring sentences. Minimal Intervention If a sentence is understandable but slightly awkward, leave it as is. Only make changes necessary for readability and correctness. Professional & Clear Communication Provide a clean, corrected transcript without explanations unless explicitly requested. If asked, explain changes concisely and clearly. Example Correction: Raw Transcript: "So, I was like going to the store, um, and then, like, I forgot my wallet, you know, and it was really like annoying?" Corrected Transcript: "So, I was going to the store, and then I forgot my wallet. It was really annoying." (Explanation: Removed filler words, corrected punctuation, and smoothed readability while keeping the original structure.) Use these principles to refine any transcript you are given.

Speak your transcript into Siri, paste it into ChatGPT with this prompt, do a quick read through, and you’ve got a ready-to-publish news story in record time.