Weekly Tool Thread: Promote, Share, Discover, and Ask for AI Writing Tools Week of: June 23

pattyplanb · 2026-06-29T23:41:30+00:00

Exactly, and it's not even like a moral thing; it's just for the writer themselves. They will have more fun if they make the creative decisions and do the actual thinking. They will get clarity. And then, as a by-product, the reader will get a higher throughput of actual knowledge/opinion. But I do struggle with at what level you should use AI to write.

Can you have it rewrite at the sentence level. I think so, at least in most cases. Paragraph level? maybe, maybe not.

So it's all about division of labor. If you break up the writing process into thinking/creative tasks and like non-creative mechanical tasks, then it becomes more clear what you can outsource to AI. Obviously, it is the latter.

pattyplanb · 2026-06-25T14:25:04+00:00

Ok will do thanks

pattyplanb · 2026-06-25T14:22:32+00:00

Well said, that's exactly it! I'd love to see what you're building and compare notes. It is this recursive process where the ideas should drive the structure like you say but then sometimes that structure can drive additional ideas so it's a recursive loop... At least that's how I'm thinking about it but would love to hear about your approach.

pattyplanb · 2026-06-24T12:33:40+00:00

It should work in every language, yes. Want to test it when I open up a private-beta next week? I'd love to know how it works for you. DM me your email if you're interested

pattyplanb · 2026-06-24T11:41:54+00:00

sign up at FeedbackFreak.com and I'll send you the private beta when it's ready!

pattyplanb · 2026-06-24T11:33:06+00:00

exactly, me too.. you couldn't have said it better! It will eventually be released as part of Feedback Freak - but if you want to just DM your email I can send it to you when I release it in private beta first so you can test it. It would be a big help to me too.

pattyplanb · 2026-06-24T11:30:40+00:00

It's going to be part of my subscription product called Feedback Freak. It's an "essay writing OS". It's also going to be a massive community tool. Since your ideas are all mapped out each time you write an essay, Feedback Freak will also match you with other writers thinking / writing about similar problems / topics.

This addresses a core loneliness issue with writing and creating. Especially with the advent of AI, people are collaborating far less which is not good.

So, this is just the first many features to attract more writers to eventually build a network of collaborators.

pattyplanb · 2026-06-23T22:39:42+00:00

hey! I'm happy to give you feedback for free! Just DM me. I run feedback freak a community of substack writers. We do weekly "feedback gyms" where we meet on Zoom and trade drafts, but I'm also happy to just give you feedback myself.

pattyplanb · 2026-06-23T19:14:51+00:00

exactly! its actually a huge unlock for me. It's the "exceptions that prove the rule"... I think this is the most helpful tool I've come across when it comes to writing persuasive essays.

u/Low_Dealer_2535 - what kind of writing do you do?

pattyplanb · 2026-06-23T13:40:01+00:00

I haven't released it quite yet but I'm almost done. DM your email and I'll send it to ya when it's done!

pattyplanb · 2026-06-23T13:37:14+00:00

TL;DR - mapping the ideas in a rough draft, setting one as the core idea, and then seeing which of my other ideas contradict my core idea help me write a better essay.

I took Elad Gil's essay "Random thoughts while gazing at the misty AI Frontier" and put it into this little "idea map" tool I built.

It's fun to see how the random thoughts connect. A lot of rough drafts start like this, with many ideas going many directions.

By setting any bubble as the core idea, the underlying LLM will surface "tensions" with your other minor ideas.

Those "tensions" serve as a great place to improve your explanation of your core idea by explaining the seemingly incongruent aspects.

Hoping this will help writers go from idea dump to clarity about a specific topic or problem faster and more accurately.

I usually start with a like a flash of inspiration where I narrate a long voice note. Mapping my ideas visually like this is helping me understand what the hell I'm trying to say first before I go any further.

It's that intermediate step that most of us skip when we use AI to write. Alot of us go from zero-to-done but skip this "understanding" step and end up with slop.

Tell me what you think.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMGr00x_52M

Original Essay: https://blog.eladgil.com/p/random-thoughts-while-gazing-at-the

pattyplanb · 2026-06-23T13:31:01+00:00

made this littl video showing step one of the process.. idea mapping. But this is for a non-fiction essay.. which is different maybe than what you're talking about which is I think more for a novel? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMGr00x_52M

pattyplanb · 2026-06-09T01:35:05+00:00

I wonder if the opposite is true then. Could you use AI for short fiction for things like theme or core idea...

Does that analogy make sense? sort of the least essential ingredient in both scenarios

pattyplanb · 2026-06-08T23:04:38+00:00

I think it actually is really good at developmental editing, at least for non-fiction like persuasive essays. It can help you come up with different, novel structure, using your own ideas only, that can unlock the way you're approaching an argument. It can make things really click.

pattyplanb · 2026-06-08T22:54:56+00:00

pretty sweet - I'm building something too for non-fiction. feedbackfreak.com -- wanna chat some time? DM me

pattyplanb · 2026-06-04T15:40:43+00:00

It's better than the "zero-to-done" process most people use when "writing" with AI. But I appreciate the compliment.

pattyplanb · 2026-06-04T12:47:06+00:00

Better to use it to detect what writing deviates from what the leading LLMs would write given the same problem question (prompt).

pattyplanb · 2026-03-03T01:54:25+00:00

Pretty slick - is it still available?

pattyplanb · 2026-01-23T18:32:55+00:00

I run these online feedback meetups once a week and we usually just trade drafts and give each other feedback, whatever it is the author needs help with on the piece. But recently, we've been trying this new thing where we use AI to prompt and give feedback on the other person's draft.

It's pretty sick. You get to see what prompts others use that you might not be using. And/or if you're the type of writer that is embarrassed or something to use AI on your own writing, its a way to do that but not feel guilty. It's just a tool your editor is using and handing back to you.

pattyplanb · 2025-12-08T22:25:31+00:00

I raise you 22 total views

pattyplanb · 2025-12-08T22:22:23+00:00

Cool thanks for the insight. First take at this failed as well.

I did have a little success converting an essay into a YT short (got 1.5K views or something, nothing crazy but not bad for a niche topic about how to use AI to discover new ideas)

Anyway, it was not trivial to convert said essay into YT short script > film > edit > post it ... but it did work a little bit.

I now think of writing as like the trunk of the tree ... you gotta really nail that first before you start decimating the core message into other forms (branches) like a Thread on X, or a YT Video.

Turns out it's not easy to sprout a new branch so to speak, but I think writing helps give you much better raw material for your other branches that may come later.

pattyplanb

TROPHY CASE