AI PISSED ME OFF. 

It took her from me. My beloved. My ride-or-die. She, who is so beautiful, and makes copy look so pretty, so distinguished. 

My Em Dash. 

(No, those capital letters were not a mistake. She deserves to be a proper noun)

Back when AI started popping up everywhere, the em dash gave people away instantly. You hardly saw one before, then all of a sudden, it seemed everyone had a newfound (borderline obsessive?) love for this punctuation mark. Hmmm….oKaYY.

So, out of fear of being grouped with the accused, I stopped using them.

BUT you see, I’m not just a writer, I’m a secret designer too (secret because it’s not my main offering, not because I’m gatekeeping my design skills). Which means when I’m writing content, I’m also thinking about how it will look on the page and em dashes help bring a balance to copy. A bit of visual interest, even.

And using them was part of my writing style and now I felt like I was having to write like someone else.

So I figured, fuck it. I’m going to keep using my wonderful Em Dash.

It’s not like my content is drowning in them, I only use them when appropriate and correct. Plus, if people are actually reading my content, it wouldn’t take a genius to see that a human is behind these words. 

And that’s all thanks to ✨conversational✨ copy. 

What even is conversational copy?

Essentially, conversational copy is just you writing how you’d talk. So when people read it, it feels like a friendly chat, rather than a weird formal discussion or like you’re being unsolicitedly talked at by a doorstep cold caller.

When I write content, I write exactly what’s in my brain onto the page. I’m literally talking to myself in my head right now, and whatever I say, I write. I don’t overthink it, I don’t really plan or try to make myself sound more impressive or put together than I am. Yeah, I’ll tidy things up later—swap out repetitive words or chop up sentences for better readability—but on the whole, you get whatever my brain is thinking in real time unfortunately.

Which means that I can use em dashes and not have a singleee worry that someone might think I’ve used AI to write, because I KNOW it’s obvious a human wrote this.

And as you clearly want that too (you clicked on this page, didn’t you?) I’m going to give you some tips and tricks on humanising your own content.

I’ve used every single one of the 10 tips below in this blog already, so if you’ve read up until this point and thought “wow this writing feels hella cool and human and fun”, you’re about to find out why.

Right, with all that being said, here’s ways to make your copy scream “I’M HUMAN, I SWEAR. SEEEEEE????”

1. Pretend you’re talking to a single friend.  

Just for clarification, I’m not referring to their relationship status here, I’m referring to them as being singular. As in, there’s one person in front of you and you’re writing to them.

It can be your best friend, your mum, your imaginary friend, your fave book character, just pick anyone that you can imagine having a easy convo with and then write your content like you’re talking to them

You’re not explaining it for them (your content should be geared towards your ideal client, obvs), you’re just saying it to them, which will help you write wayyyyy more naturally.

Writing to an online audience can feel a bit awkward. It makes you want to perform. You’ve never met these people before, you don’t know what they look like, you don’t know their humor or if they’ve had a good day or not. Which leads to saying things you would never actually say, trying to appeal to (and impress) the masses. 

But your friend Becky? Well, Becky’s heard you say shit-fuck more times than you can count and once watched you wet yourself from laughing too much. You’re not going to perform to her, are you? 

2. Make your audience a participant.

This is one of my faveeee things to do. It’s like breaking the fourth wall but through written content. 

You hopefully wouldn’t have a conversation with someone and not involve them. You’d ask questions right? That’s literally the whole point—it’s a two-way thing. So when you’re next writing content, ask your audience rhetorical questions that have an obvious ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer.

I’ve asked you a few questions already on this page. In fact, I asked one in the paragraph above. I’m obviously not going to get an answer from you, but hopefully when you were reading it, you felt like I was including you in my rambling.

3. Start sentences with ‘And’, ‘But’, ‘So’ and ‘Because’.

Ignore what your English teacher told you—you absolutely CAN start a sentence with a conjunction. They only told you that because they were encouraging you to come up with stronger sentences. But now that you’re a big girl, you can break the rules!

Listen to any real conversation and you’ll hear sentences starting like this all the time, which means these are a must-have in conversational writing.

4. Add your inner thoughts in brackets.

Again, another one of my faveeee things to do (can you tell?). In fact, I probably do this too much but you can’t stop me. 

I don’t know about you but whenever I’m having a conversation with someone, I’m always just adding side thoughts here and there. Maybe I forgot a bit of info that I now need to squeeze in. Or they’re judging me so I need to quickly clarify myself before they jump to the wrong conclusion. 

I use brackets in written writing to give the same effect. All those extra thoughts that pop up while I’m writing, I pop into brackets so you get a real sense of what it’d actually be like to talk to me.

This tip might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but if it does feel right for you and how you speak, totally use it! 

5. Get lazy and use the easy words.

All humans get lazy when we talk. Like saying ‘Jeet’ instead of ‘Did you eat?’ or Dunno’ instead of ‘I don’t know’. 

Which means you can get lazy when you write too! Throw in a ‘ya’ instead of ‘you’ or use text acronyms like ‘Iykyk’ (if you know, you know) or ‘lol’ (laughing out loud). 

This also means using the simplest version of a word. AI will try to convince you that ‘endeavour’ is totally natural, but when was the last time you actually heard someone say that?? Just say ‘try’. Same with ‘establish’ or ‘utilise’—just say ‘create’ or ‘use’!!!

6. Chuck in some slang if ya want.

Kinda similar to the tip above but if you’re down with the slang, why not sprinkle some in? Maybe something like ‘they’re just salty’, or ‘my new offer is giving…LIT!’, just to make your writing extra casual (and potentially extra cringe so proceed at your own risk)

When used right, and if it’s appropriate for your audience, it can be super effective in making you feel relatable.

Also remember that slang changes alllll the time so you could find your writing starts to sound real outdated real quick. 

7. Show your tone visually.

No human speaks in perfectly punctuated, grammatically correct, monotone sentences. We pause, we whisper, we emphasise, we get sarcastic. And you can show all this through your writing too.

Here’s a cheat sheet: 

• Want to STRESS something? Use all caps.
• Feeling sarcastic? Do the weird letter thing LiKe tHiS.
• Want a pause… add ellipses.
• Shocked or flabbergasted? Double question marks. Really?
• Want to emphasise a word? Use italics (bold works too).

8. Double check you’re using contractions.

Should’ve, would’ve, could’ve. 

Contractions are basically just two words smooshed together to make a shorter word. No one really says ‘you are’ or ‘I am’ or ‘can not’ unless you’re putting on a posh British voice.

To be fair, you’re probably doing this naturally already but it doesn’t hurt to do a quick once-over.

9. Throw in a lil’ story. 

I started this blog with a little story about AI stealing my beloved Em Dash from me. It wasn’t an overly exciting story, but I’m sure you related to the statement: “Back when AI started popping up everywhere…” and could therefore understand my reasoning for not wanting to use them anymore.

People alwayssss tell stories in conversations. Storytelling is how we show we relate, entertain, remember things and connect. 

PLUS, AI can’t tell its own original stories. So next time you’re writing content, throw one in to prove you’re definitely a human.

10. Make everything short and sweet.

You know when you’re with someone who just talks and talks and talks and you can’t get a word in edgeways? It’s kinda exhausting, right?

Well that’s how people feel when they’re faced with long, drawn-out sentences and chunky paragraphs. You gotta chop them up so they read more naturally and feel more like how people actually talk. 

Plus the white space literally gives the reader’s eyes and brain a moment to rest and process, just like the pauses in a real conversation.

Now you should have no problem making your content sound human! Just run through this list next time you’re editing a blog, email, or caption and tweak accordingly.

And if you’re thinking “ugh, can’t be arsed” and decide to dump your writing into ChatGPT or Claude asking it to “make this sound human”, you’re going to be thoroughly disappointed, my friend. 

AI can’t have conversations. It’s a bit of tech. It doesn’t have a brain, it doesn’t have its own thoughts. It will never truly write like a human. 

So why don’t you just pass your content onto an actual human instead? 

That way it will sound human (because an actual human wrote it) AND you’ll have more free time to do literally anything you want (because you’re not stuck writing content you don’t want to write).

(this human is me, btw. I just don’t want this to sound sell-y)

If that’s tickling your pickle right now,  click on this link. If it’s not, don’t.

Just know the offers there, okay?