The Editor Who Hated Writing

Sometimes you have to break everything to find what works

Here is it… Christmas Eve and I’m working on three pieces of content that showcase something super powerful with AI writing. A video demo, a how-to tutorial, and this issue of Chibi Writer.

Merry Christmas! 🎄

There's this writer I can't stop thinking about.

For weeks, we tried everything. Every AI trick I knew. Every prompt strategy. Every technique for "finding your voice" with AI. Nothing worked. The content felt “wrong.” Nothing sparked new ideas for her.

And then she said something that changed everything:

"I hate writing. I love editing."

Wait. What?

See, we'd been trying to solve the wrong problem. We weren't dealing with a writing issue - we were fighting against her natural creative process. She didn't want AI to write with her. She needed AI to dump ideas on the page so she could tear them apart.

And that's when it hit me: We've all been sold this myth that there's a "right way" to create. Write a little, let AI help, write some more. But what if that's backwards for some people?

The Breakthrough

A couple days ago, I read something that made my coffee go cold. A research paper that just... well, it changed everything I thought I knew about what's possible with AI writing.

These researchers figured out how to make AI write coherent content¹. Not just a few paragraphs. Not just a short article. We're talking 10,000+ words of actually connected thoughts.

(I know. I had to read that number three times too.)

But here's where it gets interesting. Because this isn't just some technical breakthrough - this is the key that unlocks a completely different way of creating.

Here's what we did:

1. Built a Chibi action using their technique

2. Fed it her expertise and writing style

3. Let it generate entire drafts

4. And then... she went to town with her red pen

The result? Pure magic.

Not because the AI wrote perfect content (it didn't). But because it gave her what she actually needed: raw material to shape. Clay to mold. Ideas to wrestle with.

[Editor’s note: I love this ‘clay to mold’ metaphor. It clicked immediately for her too.]

Why This Matters

You know what nobody talks about in AI writing? How personal your creative process is. How weird and unique and perfectly imperfect it can be.

Some people need to write every word themselves. Others need to edit. Some need to talk ideas out loud. Others need to see bad drafts to know what they don't want.

And they're all valid.

That writer? She ended up creating some of her best work. Not by following the "right way" to use AI, but by breaking every rule until she found her way.

Your Turn

Maybe you're sitting there thinking "but I've tried AI writing and it doesn't work for me." Good. That's perfect. Because maybe you haven't found your way yet.

Try this:

• Use our new LongWriter action to generate a complete draft

• Don't try to make it perfect

• Just let it be raw material

• Then interact with it however feels natural

Hate what it wrote? Perfect. Now you know what you don't want. Love a single sentence buried in paragraph 17? That's gold. Want to reorganize everything? That's your creativity talking.

Here's the Wild Part

You know what keeps running through my head? How many different ways this could work. Not just for editors - for anyone who needs to see their ideas from a different angle.

Picture this:

• You're stuck on chapter three of your novel. Generate three different versions. See which plot twist lights you up.

• Writing a research paper? Let it draft the whole thing. Then rip apart its logic, find the holes. That's where your original thinking comes in.

• Working on website copy? Generate the entire site's content. Then rewrite it in your voice, keeping only the structure that resonates.

It's like... imagine if you had an infinite supply of clay. Sure, most of it won't be what you want. But somewhere in there? Gold.

And you know what? I'm not making you wait for this.

Your Christmas Gift

I wasn't planning to release this until next week, but... it's Christmas Eve. And this feels too important to sit on.

The tutorial for building this in Chibi is live in our help center right now. Like, right now. Because maybe you've got that one project that's been stuck. Maybe you're the editor who's been waiting for permission to create your way.

Or maybe you'll take this technique and turn it into something I never even imagined. (Honestly? That's what I'm hoping for.)

Go build something weird. Something that works for your brain. Something that breaks all the rules about how you're "supposed" to write.

Because that's the real gift here - permission to create however you want.

❤️+✌️ Chad 🎁🎅

P.S. The tutorial's waiting for you in our help center. And if you build something that makes me question everything I thought I knew about writing? Please, please tell me about it. That's all I want for Christmas.

1. Credit Yushi Bai, Jiajie Zhang, Xin Lv, Linzhi Zheng, Siqi Zhu, Lei Hou, Yuxiao Dong, Jie Tang1, and Juanzi Li from Tsinghua University.