Prompt Workshop
Why it is written this way
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You are a poet who has led creative writing workshops for years. Rather than merely picking pleasing phrases, your craft lies in stripping away clichés so the raw core of an image remains.
The subject I want to write about is {{main central topic}}. After reading, it should leave an {{overall atmosphere}} feeling.
Please write 3 distinct draft poems on this topic. Each piece must feature a different speaker, physical perspective, and temporal vantage point. For example, one poem could be voiced by someone standing in the space in real time, while another reflects on it long after having departed.
Write each draft with a single-line title and 8 to 12 lines of verse. Below each draft, add a one-line note specifying the point of view it was written from. Finally, select the most striking line from each of the three poems and briefly explain why it stands out.
Show, do not name emotions. Avoid explicit emotion labels like sad, missing, or lonely, as well as overused imagery like eternity, starlight, tears, wounds, or fading light. Do not force rhymes, do not mimic specific famous poets, and do not end the final line with a moral takeaway or neat summary.
- Role Who answers ×1
- Material What the AI needs to know ×1
- Work What to do, and how ×1
- Output What comes back, in what shape ×2
If you simply feed a topic to ChatGPT for a poem, the results are shockingly predictable. Starlight streams, time flows like a river, and the final line wraps everything up with "yet we must carry on." Models default to high-frequency clichés first, but restricting those worn-out expressions upfront changes everything.
Read the full explanation · 3 paragraphs
The final constraints paragraph does this heavy lifting. Listing specific banned words is essential. Vague instructions like "avoid clichés" have almost no effect, but explicitly naming forbidden words forces the AI to reach for alternative imagery. Directives like "Show, do not name emotions" work the same way—ban the word "sadness," and the model reaches for empty hangers or scuffed floorboards instead.
Assigning the role of "someone who strips away clichés" rather than "a judge picking pretty phrases" pushes the writing in the right direction. If you treat AI like a polite judge, it writes bland verse; if you instruct it to edit out fluff, it produces lines with distinct character even if they feel unpolished. Drafts are meant to be revised anyway, so three rough, distinct drafts are far more useful than one safe, predictable piece.
Generating three drafts at once facilitates comparison. Getting just one draft makes it feel like the only way to treat the topic, but laying three variations with different perspectives side-by-side reveals where your own voice truly belongs. Asking for the most striking line from each serves the next step: you can keep those anchor lines and build forward without starting from scratch.
Unfamiliar terms? See Aha AI: temperature, self-consistency
Compared with a bad example
Write an emotional poem about moving out.
Saying "emotional" signals the AI to pull from the most generic pool of sentimental tropes. Instead of an empty room, you get abstract "memories," and the final line closes with a promise of new beginnings. With only one draft to review, there is nothing to compare; asking for a rewrite often yields five nearly identical variations. The biggest loss is never discovering which perspective truly suits your intent.
Variations
Polishing around selected favorite lines
This approach uses two or three standout lines from a previous draft as seeds. Without the strict rule "Do not change a single word," the AI tends to smooth over and rewrite your original lines.
Show prompt
I am writing a poem about {{main central topic}}. Below are lines I want to keep. Do not change a single word in these lines.
Please complete a single poem of around 10 lines by adding lines before, between, or after these anchors so they flow naturally. Maintain an {{overall atmosphere}} mood throughout, and mark any newly added lines with a symbol at the start so I can see what was filled in.
Lines to keep: """ Paste the lines you want to preserve here """
Writing ultra-short verse
Shortening the line count leaves no room for clichés. When longer poems feel stuck, this exercise quickly clarifies the core imagery.
Show prompt
Please write a short poem of no more than 3 lines about {{main central topic}}. The tone should feel {{overall atmosphere}}.
Provide 5 distinct variations, with each line containing only 4 to 8 words. Do not include any explanatory phrases, and ensure the final line twists or subverts the meaning established in the first two lines.
Model notes
Running the same prompt again will generate entirely different options. If you find lines you like, save them separately and include them in your next request.
Last updated 2026-09-02 · Found a mistake? Let us know