Using AI to Overcome Writer's Block

Writer's block is weird, right? You have thoughts swirling in your head, but the moment you sit down to write them down, everything goes blank. Or worse—you start writing and it feels forced, like you're imitating someone else instead of expressing yourself.

I've been there plenty of times. And honestly? AI has become one of my favorite tools for pushing through those moments. But—and this is important—not in the way you might think.

AI Isn't a Replacement, It's a Sparring Partner

Here's the thing I had to learn: AI doesn't write for you. Not really. Not if you're doing it right.

What AI does brilliantly is react. It bounces back. It helps you see your thoughts from a different angle. It's like having a creative partner who's always available at 2 AM when inspiration strikes (or fails to strike).

When I built Jottings, I wanted to create something that felt like an extension of your thinking. Not a tool that replaces your voice, but one that helps you find it when it's hiding.

The Rough Draft Strategy

My go-to move when I'm stuck is to just... vomit words onto the page. No filter. Broken sentences, weird grammar, incomplete thoughts—everything.

Then I use AI's Generate from Prompt feature to take those messy fragments and ask it: "What am I actually trying to say here?"

Here's a real example from last week:

My mess: "ai tools are weird because everyone thinks they're going to write the whole thing but that's dumb because your voice is... like... the only real thing? why would you lose that"

My prompt to AI: "I have this rough thought about how AI tools should enhance your voice, not replace it. Can you help me organize this into a paragraph that captures my frustration with how people use these tools wrong?"

What came back: A properly structured paragraph that I then... completely rewrote with my own voice. But it gave me the scaffolding. It showed me the skeleton of what I was trying to say.

That's the magic moment. You're not accepting the AI's output wholesale. You're using it as a launching point for your actual writing.

Iteration as a Creative Process

Here's where it gets fun: treat AI suggestions like drafts, not finished products.

Say you've written something, and you read it back, and it feels flat. Use AI Transform to ask: "Make this more conversational" or "What if I used a different metaphor here?" or "How would this land if I wrote it as advice instead of observation?"

Each iteration isn't the AI taking over—it's you making a conscious choice about direction. You're steering. The AI is providing options.

I do this constantly. My first draft of something might sound too formal. I'll ask AI to make it punchier. Then I'll read that version and think, "No, that's too informal for this idea." So I'll iterate again. Sometimes I end up closer to the original than the AI's suggestion, but the process of questioning it got me there.

That's not lazy writing. That's actually more intentional.

Three Prompting Strategies That Actually Work

1. The Context Dump Don't assume the AI knows what you're talking about. Dump context. "I'm a founder writing about digital minimalism for other small business owners. I want to be helpful but not preachy. I'm stuck on how to introduce the problem without sounding judgmental."

Specific context beats clever prompts every time.

2. The Question Instead of the Command Instead of: "Write me a paragraph about writer's block."

Try: "Why do you think people get stuck when writing about their own expertise?"

Questions invite exploration. Commands invite template responses.

3. The Voice Check Use AI to sanity-check your voice. After you've written something, ask: "Does this sound like me? What would I add or remove?" Then actually listen to what it says. Disagree with it. That's the whole point.

The Permission You're Looking For

If you're reading this thinking, "Okay, but doesn't using AI for writing feel like cheating?"—I get it. I've thought that too.

Here's what I landed on: Using AI doesn't diminish your work. Outsourcing your thinking does.

If you're using AI to avoid thinking, to generate content you don't believe in, to pump out posts without actually saying anything—yeah, that's a problem. But you already knew that wasn't satisfying.

If you're using AI as a thinking partner? To challenge yourself? To find your voice faster? That's just being a smarter writer in 2025.

Where This Started

I built this into Jottings because I lived this problem. I'd have fascinating thoughts but struggle to articulate them. I'd sit down to write a microblog post and get trapped in the perfectionism spiral—first sentence not right, abandon whole idea.

The "Generate from Prompt" feature wasn't supposed to write for you. It was supposed to give you permission to think out loud and let the AI help you shape the rough edges.

Because your voice—the actual thoughts that are distinctly yours—that's the thing worth preserving. That's the thing that matters.

Try This Tomorrow

Next time you're stuck:

1. Write your messy thoughts first. Don't filter. Let them be weird.
2. Ask AI a question about what you're trying to say. Not "finish this" but "what am I missing here?"
3. Take what comes back, disagree with it, then write your version.
4. Iterate until it feels like you.

The block usually breaks somewhere in that loop. Not because AI solved it for you, but because you gave yourself permission to think messily first.

That's the whole philosophy behind Jottings—and honestly, it's changed how I think about writing entirely.

If you're struggling to find your voice in your own microblog, come try Jottings. It's built specifically to make this easier—not by automating your thinking, but by making the thinking process less lonely.