What Happened When I Asked AI to Fix My Writing Life
What Happened When I Asked AI to Fix My Writing Life
How AI and Mini-Routines Turned Overwhelm into Momentum
Systems. Routines. Processes. They’re the antidote to chaos—yet for me, they vanished at the exact moment life became the most chaotic.
Mid-June is when we found our perfect house – perfect is relative since it does need renovations. Life became a blur of house closings, renovation plans, packing, moving, and endless decisions.
My haphazard routines evaporated. Writing? Sporadic. Focus? Nonexistent. What I had instead was chaos.
At first, I told myself it was fine. A little chaos keeps life interesting. But slowly, I began to crave what I’d lost: the grounding rhythm of routine, the stability of a system. Even boredom looked attractive compared to the constant upheaval. That craving led me to experiment with mini-routines—simple, repeatable actions that helped me carve out snippets of a routine.
And ultimately, an ‘aha’ moment arrived: systems don’t have to be completely mapped out, implemented and followed by continuous improvement. They can be built in fragments, layered as you go, and customized to fit into your life.
Why Writers Fail at Systems
Writing is a journey. I read everything I can get my eyeballs on about succeeding in this world. Advice is everywhere—some free, some locked behind courses. It all sounds like this:
· The Guilt Trap: “Write every day.”
· The Focus Trap: “Stick to one project.”
· The Time Trap: “Schedule writing time.”
· The Buddy Trap: “Find a writing (accountability) partner.”
· The Visibility Trap: “Post on a platform daily.”
· The Readiness Trap: “Start before you’re ready.”
On the surface, it’s all good advice. I did them all. And failed at every one. Sure, it worked for a week or two or three. Inevitably, life would happen and whatever system I was building got derailed.
The truth? Most productivity advice works for the people who built it. It fails for other writers because it ignores context. Things like energy patterns, commitments, personalities, and goals.
What does that mean for us? Trying to adapt our lives into systems that aren’t designed for our unique needs.
The Role of AI in Building Systems
With my tech background, I knew the basis of technology is pattern recognition, i.e. algorithms. This led to the ultimate question - "Could AI help me build a system that works for me for my writing?"
What's a system? It's a set of patterns repeated intentionally. And what is AI's underlying algorithm? Detecting and organizing patterns. Words, sentences, paragraphs - all converted to mathematical algorithms so that AI can respond to our word choice patterns.
How did I do this? I started with my Myers-Briggs Personality type (INTJ-A). ChatGPT and I brainstormed how this type likes to work, the challenges this type faces and what would be an ideal schedule for INTJ-As. Next, I asked ChatGPT to analyze all of our chats and identify the patterns in our interactions. Last, I fed my schedule, challenges, and goals into ChatGPT.
Outcome? Blown away. It mapped my actual commitments, identified where my energy was being drained, and designed a structure that felt natural, not forced.
Instead of chaos, I saw a light at the end of a dark tunnel. I had a blueprint tailored to my life for building my writing career.
From One-Size-Fits-All to Made-for-You
What would it mean for your writing business if you had a system that bends with your energy, protects your writing time, and clears away the noise so you can focus on what really matters?
Here’s what it’s done for me:
· I’ve become more focused on producing writing – whether that be content for the internet or editing my novel.
· I no longer obsess over what I didn’t get done.
· I now plan what I can realistically get done knowing there may be detours
· I’m implementing different parts of the system (mini-routines) one at a time to keep the overwhelm away.
It’s been a game changer for me.
You don’t need years of trial and error to find the perfect system for you. AI can spot patterns in how you already work and translate them into a system that feels familiar, even comforting—because it’s built from you.
The system isn’t the goal. The system is the guardrail that makes the goal possible.
The Bigger Picture: Writing as a Business
The truth most of us resist? Being an author isn’t just about writing books. It’s about running a one-person business.
Having a one-person business means having systems in place so that you can to be productive. Life’s responsibilities—laundry, cooking, errands—become distractions to be conquered.
What if there was a different way? A way to build systems that acknowledge you’re not just a writer, but a whole person with a household, relationships, and demands on your time. The system works because it balances those realities. Writing is still a core part of your week—but it’s not the only part.
That’s why I now help writers use AI to create systems that actually fit them—not off-the-shelf advice, not rigid rules, but living frameworks that evolve alongside their lives.
Because the transformation isn’t just about getting more words on the page. It’s about reclaiming energy, reducing decision fatigue, and building momentum that lasts. A system designed for you doesn’t compete with your creativity—it sustains it.
And that’s the bigger picture: clarity in how you work, confidence in your process, and the steady progress that comes from seeing yourself not only as a writer, but as the owner of a thriving one-person business
Your Turn
What would change if you had a system that was designed for you?
A system that gave you the speed to produce and the space to polish until you were proud?
That’s the promise of combining AI with your own working style. And over the coming weeks, I’ll show you how to do exactly that.
How do you balance writing with the rest of life’s demands? Drop a comment—I’d love to hear your strategies.
Keep being curious.
Lorraine
P.S. Want help designing a personalized AI-powered editing system for your own book?
Let’s build a process that fits your style perfectly.
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