Introduction
What the Hell is “Dirty Writing” and Why Should You Care?
TL;DR: Just write whatever comes to mind; however, it flows—typos and mistakes don’t matter. Let the brain-vomit flow freely. That, my friends, is pure creative energy. That’s the essence of you—not the neatly typed, fifty-times-proofread thing. No, it’s the raw, unfiltered version of your thoughts. The messy, chaotic, who-cares-about-grammar version.
Dirty writing isn’t about perfection; it’s about getting your ideas out without overthinking. Grammar? Structure? Who cares? No one’s going to read this stage anyway. It’s meant to be messy and creative, giving your ideas the freedom to flow without worrying if it “makes sense.”
So What Does This Have to Do with AI?
For me, this approach has been game-changing. And with a little help from AI, I can write without feeling ashamed of typos or spending hours tweaking sentences. Because that’s where AI comes in.
Here’s the thing: AI is, by its nature, artificial. It’s not human—it doesn’t truly understand the words it generates. It’s just trained to produce outputs that sound and look right (and let’s be honest, sometimes they’re not).
When people rely on AI to hammer out content, you can see it, you can feel it—there’s no person behind those words. Sure, it’s easy to churn out several blog posts a day by letting AI do all the work, but the result? Pretty soulless. Mediocre, even. If mediocrity is the goal, go for it. But think about it: where’s your worth as a person in that? Everyone can do it—it’s not that hard.
That’s where dirty writing comes together with AI. You write the majority of what appears on the page, raw and unfiltered. Then AI steps in to refine, tweak, and maybe add a little extra polish. The result? Content that still feels like you. It’s authentic, human, and readers can tell the difference.
The Dirty Writing Philosophy
Imperfection is king—we are imperfect beings. Our thoughts aren’t neatly organized; they’re messy. And that’s where creativity is born. Why are kids so creative when they play? Because they don’t care about structure or rules most of the time. They just do whatever comes to mind, whatever seems fun. If something doesn’t work, they toss it and jump straight to the next idea, constantly creating new games, adapting old ones, and experimenting with what feels right.
We learn best when we’re playful with what we do. Anyone with kids knows this. Experimenting, diverging, and just blurting things out without a filter is how kids grow and understand the world. And yes, sometimes it stings, like when you hear: “Daddy, why are your teeth so yellow?”—straight to the point, no sugarcoating.
And that’s the essence of dirty writing. You make mistakes. You let the chaos spill onto paper (or a screen, or whatever). Think about a topic and stop trying to be so damn professional. Play with your words, write silly jokes (all the stupid little jokes in my content? Yep, those are all me). Be more like a kid spinning a story out of thin air with the information they have. If you wander too far off course, adapt the content a little—but leave the grammar, punctuation, and structure for the AI to handle in the first run. No worries, you can (and should) still review everything AI refines, make changes, and give it the final polish.
So, in essence, dirty writing is simple: write as fast as you can, as much as you can, about whatever comes to mind. Go with the flow, pause to think for a moment if you must, but don’t overdo it. Write down what feels like a good idea at the moment. That’s dirty writing for you—unfiltered, raw, and full of potential.
The Workflow: From Chaos to Clarity
Let’s break it down, step by step. For this example, I’ll use this very blog post. I’ll skip over the “let’s find the topic to write about” stage, as brainstorming with AI deserves its own post. So, we’ve got our topic. That’s a start—but dirty writing works best when you give it a little structure first.
1. Start with a Structure
The first thing I do is prompt the AI to suggest a structure. If it feels right, great—go with it. If not, tweak it yourself. And here’s the key: if you make changes, tell the AI what you adjusted and why. This helps it understand how to structure your content and where you want it to go. Think of this as setting the stage before you dive into the messiness of writing.
2. Write Dirty
Now it’s time to get to work. Take the introduction (or whichever section you’re tackling) and just start writing whatever comes to mind. Feeling stuck? Ask the AI for ideas or topics that could go into the section. But remember, this stage is all about chaos. It should sound stupid. It should be messy, full of mistakes, and completely unpolished. That’s the whole point of dirty writing: let your ideas flow without judgment.
3. Let AI Refine
Once you’ve written your dirty draft, hand it over to the AI. Tell it:
“This is my dirty writing. Please refine it, fix the structure, but keep my personality in the text. I want this to still feel like my content.”
And boom—you’ll have a cleaner version ready to work with.
4. Review and Iterate
But hold on, you’re not done yet. AI has a tendency to hallucinate—it might add details that aren’t accurate or misunderstand your intent. That’s why you need to review everything.
If a sentence doesn’t hit the mark, copy it back into the AI, explain what you meant, and ask it to fix it. Be clear about your point, adapt some things yourself, and give it the final polish. This iterative process ensures the result is not just good but truly yours.
5. Rinse and Repeat
Okay, now you’re done with just the intro—what’s next? Move on to the next part. Keep everything in the same chat, so the AI has context to work with. Be mindful that the AI’s context window (how much it remembers in the conversation) might have a limit. Some AIs handle longer context better than others—ChatGPT 4o is great, but I’ll soon be experimenting with Gemini and others to see what works best for me. (Stay tuned, I’ll document everything here!)
As you continue, you may notice that your content starts to deviate from the structure. When that happens, take everything you’ve already written (like the first two parts) and ask the AI to adapt the outline, not the content. Remember: we’re dirty writing. Our minds give us direction, and the AI gives it structure and grammar, so others can understand what the hell we’re trying to say.
Keep repeating this process—write, refine, adapt, and iterate—until your content is complete.
Why This Works
Dirty writing frees your mind to focus on creativity, while AI handles the structure and polish. Together, they save time and let you produce content that’s both authentic and high-quality. By keeping the workflow flexible, you stay in control, adapting as you go and ensuring the final result remains yours.
Example: Dirty Writing + AI in Action
Let me show you how this workflow plays out using a part of this very blog post. I’ve shortened the original dirty writing to keep the example concise, but the process remains the same.
The Dirty Draft
First, I write my thoughts quickly and without worrying about grammar or structure. It’s messy, but it captures the essence of what I want to say. As a non-native English speaker, my dirty writing is really dirty—but that’s the point: it’s all about getting the ideas out, not making them perfect.
“””
My Dirty writing for: The Workflow: From Chaos to Clarity
Lets work it through, step by step. As an example I will take this very Blog post and jump over the “lets find the topic to write about” stage – as the brainstorming with AI in itself deserves its own post. So we have the topic, that’s not much, just writing dirty still works but I like to give it first a little structure, so we prompt the AI to give us a structure, if you are ok with it, great – if not than change it, but if you do change it yourself tell the AI that, so it knows how to structure your content and where you want it to go.
…
“””
The AI’s Refinement
Next, I hand the dirty draft to the AI, asking it to refine the structure while keeping my voice and ideas intact. Here’s the refined version:
“””
Let’s break it down, step by step. For this example, I’ll use this very blog post. I’ll skip over the “let’s find the topic to write about” stage, as brainstorming with AI deserves its own post. So, we’ve got our topic. That’s a start—but dirty writing works best when you give it a little structure first.
1. Start with a Structure
The first thing I do is prompt the AI to suggest a structure. If it feels right, great—go with it. If not, tweak it yourself. And here’s the key: if you make changes, tell the AI what you adjusted and why. This helps it understand how to structure your content and where you want it to go. Think of this as setting the stage before you dive into the messiness of writing.
2. Write Dirty
…
“””
Why This Works
As you can see, the core ideas are still mine. The personality, humor, and direction are all intact—it just reads better. It’s as if I have a personal editor polishing my drafts, but the content remains authentically me.
This process allows me to focus on creativity and expression without being bogged down by perfectionism. It’s still a lot of work, but much less than editing every single word myself. And here’s the best part: even without being a professional writer, I can now produce authentic, polished content.
Yes, you could let the AI generate the entire thing by feeding it a few bullet points for each section—that’s faster, sure. But where’s the “you” in that? Taking the extra time to dirty write keeps your voice, your ideas, and your personality alive in the content.
Going the extra mile isn’t that much work, and it is fun! You get to express yourself in your own words while the AI works its magic to turn it into a blog, email, or whatever you’re writing—all without losing you. I love it, and I think you will too.
Conclusion: Try It Yourself
Dirty writing paired with AI isn’t just a workflow—it’s a game-changer. It allows you to express yourself authentically, focus on creativity, and produce high-quality content without getting bogged down in perfectionism. By keeping the process messy and personal, you ensure that you stay at the heart of your content.
So, why not give it a try? Pick a topic you’ve been meaning to write about, let the words spill out without overthinking, and then let AI refine it. Experiment with prompts, iterate on the output, and see how much time and stress you can save while keeping your unique voice intact.
Whether it’s a blog post, an email, or even your next big idea—get started, and see what dirty writing and AI can do for you. Who knows? You might even have fun along the way.
And hey, if you enjoyed this post, stay tuned—there’s plenty more to come on AI, tech, and productivity. Sign up for my no-bullshit weekly newsletter, where I share additional straight-to-the-point guides, tools, and thoughts on the topic of the week. It’s all about value—no fluff, no spam, just actionable insights to keep you ahead of the game.