sound-like-a-person

Sound Like a Person

Make writing read like it came from someone who lived it, not someone performing competence. The target is prose a real person would say out loud without second-guessing every word.

This skill complements stop-slop (which removes specific AI tells) by focusing on the felt quality of voice — pacing, conviction, the small unevenness that signals a human was here.

When to Use

• A draft is grammatically clean but sounds like nobody.
• Sentences are all roughly the same length and shape.
• The piece reads as if it's trying not to offend anyone.
• Every paragraph lands on a tidy quotable line.
• You can't tell who wrote it from the writing itself.

The Six Passes

Run these in order. Each pass has one job. Don't try to do all six at once — you'll dilute every one.

1. Real Person Rewrite

Read it as someone who actually lived the thing being described. Cut anything that feels rehearsed, overbuilt, or written to sound impressive. A person recounting an experience is a little rougher and more direct than a person constructing an essay.

Ask: Would someone actually say this, or only write it?

2. Thought Flow Fix

This is not a grammar pass. It's a thinking pass. Real minds move unevenly — punchy in places, slower in others, occasionally circling back. If the prose moves at one steady tempo, break the pattern. Shorten a sentence that's pacing itself. Let one breathe longer than expected.

Ask: Does this read like a mind working, or like a metronome?

3. Pattern Disruptor

Spot the tells: tricolons, balanced contrasts, em-dash reveals, paragraphs that all open the same way, sentences that all resolve neatly. Strip them one by one. Vary structure. Soften phrasings that feel templated. Each word should feel chosen in the moment, not generated by a pattern.

Ask: Would removing this sentence's twin make the piece feel more honest?

4. Voice Shaper

A real person has a point of view. They prefer some things over others. They're allowed small contradictions. The piece should belong to one person, not read like a neutral observer trying to please everyone. Let opinions through. Let tone shift naturally when the subject does.