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How to write a voice guide that makes any AI sound like you

Published October 22, 2026 · By Your Voice, Installed

Most AI drafts sound alike because the tool has nothing to go on except your request. It doesn't know that you write short sentences, that you never say "thrilled to announce," or that you always end emails with a question. A voice guide fixes that. It's a page of plain rules, drawn from your own writing, that you give the AI once and reuse every time.

This guide shows you how to write one yourself, for free, in about an hour. The same guide then works in almost any AI tool: you paste it into a custom instructions box, a project, or the start of a chat.

What a good voice guide contains

A voice guide isn't a list of adjectives like "friendly, professional, approachable." Every brand claims those, and an AI can't act on them. Useful guides describe habits you can see on the page:

  • Rhythm: how long your sentences and paragraphs usually run.
  • Openers and closers: how you start and end posts and emails.
  • Word choice: words you use often, and plain vs. technical language.
  • Personality: humor, warmth, directness, how you handle bad news.
  • Formatting: emoji, hashtags, bold, lists, sign-offs.
  • Never list: words, phrases and tones you don't want, ever.
  • Examples: one or two "instead of this, write this" pairs.

Step 1: Gather 3 to 5 pieces of your best writing

Pick writing that already sounds like you on a good day: a few social posts, a newsletter, a couple of emails, a page from your website. Mix formats if you can. With only one type of writing, the AI can't tell your habits apart from the topic or the format.

Leave out anything confidential or containing other people's personal details. You only need the words, not client names.

Step 2: Let an AI do the first pass

Open the AI tool you already use and paste your samples with a prompt like this:

You are a writing-style analyst. Below are samples of my writing.
Describe my voice in these sections, quoting 1-2 short examples from
my samples for each: Rhythm, Openers, Closers, Word choice,
Personality, Formatting, What I avoid. Then write 10-14 specific
Do/Don't rules someone could follow to sound like me. Don't flatter
me, and don't invent traits the samples don't show.

SAMPLES:
[paste sample 1]
---
[paste sample 2]
---
[paste sample 3]

Asking for quoted evidence matters. It keeps the analysis tied to what you actually wrote instead of generic praise.

Step 3: Correct it by hand

This is the step people skip, and it's the one that makes the guide work. Read every rule and ask: "Is that really me, or was it a one-off?" Delete anything that's wrong. AI analysis often overreads a single exclamation point or one long paragraph.

Then add what only you know:

  • The words you can't stand (your "never" list). Be literal: "journey," "game-changer," "In today's fast-paced world."
  • Who your readers are, in one sentence.
  • Anything off-limits for your field, like "never promise results" or "no medical advice."
  • A rule for missing facts: "If I haven't given a date, price or name, leave a [placeholder] instead of inventing one."

Step 4: Fill in the template

Copy this template into a document and fill it in. Keep it to about a page. Long guides tend to get diluted, and some tools have small instruction boxes.

You write as [NAME] of [BUSINESS]. Use this voice for every post,
email, newsletter, web page or reply you draft for me.

READERS: [who they are, in one line]

VOICE IN ONE LINE: [e.g. Warm, plain-spoken, specific.]

RHYTHM
- [e.g. Most sentences under 15 words. Paragraphs of 1-3 sentences.]
- [How you open. How you close.]

WORDS
- [Words and phrases you actually use.]
- [Plain or technical? Contractions?]

PERSONALITY
- [Humor? Directness? How you reassure people?]

FORMAT
- [Emoji, hashtags, bold, lists, sign-off.]

NEVER
- [Tones to avoid.]
- These words/phrases: [your list]
- Invented facts, prices, results or testimonials. Use [placeholders].

EXAMPLE
Not: "[a generic sentence]"
Yes: "[how you would actually say it]"

BEFORE ANSWERING: Would I actually say this? Cut anything I wouldn't.
Keep it shorter than feels necessary.

An illustrative example

Here's how one filled-in example rule set might start. It's for a made-up yoga teacher, not a real person:

VOICE IN ONE LINE: Calm, practical, a little funny. RHYTHM: Short sentences. Open with what's happening this week. Close with "See you on the mat." NEVER: "journey," "unlock," more than one exclamation point.

Notice that every line is something you could check in a draft.

Step 5: Make a short version too

Some instruction boxes are small. Write a second version of about 1,000 to 1,200 characters with just the essentials: who's speaking, readers, voice in one line, three or four rhythm and word rules, the never list, and one example. You'll use it in tools with tight limits.

Step 6: Install it where you write

Where the guide goes depends on the tool. Here are the common options:

  • ChatGPT: paste it into a Project's instructions, or into Custom Instructions under Settings → Personalization. See our ChatGPT guide.
  • Claude: turn it into a Skill, a small file Claude loads when you ask for writing. See how to create a Claude Skill for your voice.
  • Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot: use a Gem, a Perplexity Project, or Copilot's custom instructions. See our setup guide for those tools.
  • Anything else: paste it at the start of a chat, then ask for what you need.

Step 7: Test it and tighten it

Ask for three different pieces: a short social post, an email, and a longer intro. Read them out loud. When something sounds off, don't just fix the draft. Fix the rule that caused it, or add the phrase to your never list. A few rounds of this does more than any clever one-off prompt.

And always read before you publish. A voice guide gets drafts much closer to how you sound, but it's still AI-assisted writing.

Want a head start, or the whole thing done for you?

If you'd like a guided version of steps 1 to 3, our free Voice Primer walks you through it with a ready-made prompt.

If you'd rather skip the hour of editing, Your Voice, Installed builds it for you: send 3 to 5 pieces you've already written, and you get a ready-to-install Claude Skill, ChatGPT setup, this kind of portable voice guide, and setups for Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot, plus 3 sample pieces in your voice. It's $39, one time.

Menu names and plan availability in AI tools change often. Steps here follow each company's help pages as of October 2026; check the linked sources if something looks different. Examples are illustrative.