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.

Ask: Whose writing is this? Could you pick it out of a lineup?

5. Make It Hit

Read it as a stranger encountering it for the first time. Cut anything flat, calculated, or forgettable — even if it's technically correct. Keep what matters. The test isn't "is this fine"; it's "does this land?" Writing that nobody would notice missing should be missing.

Ask: If a reader stopped here, would they remember why they kept reading?

6. Credibility Test

Read it as someone who immediately distrusts writing that sounds too clean. Go sentence by sentence. Anything that feels constructed, overcorrected, or too precisely worded — rewrite it the way a real person would say it out loud, without hedging or polishing.

Ask: Does this sound like a person, or like a person trying to sound like a person?

What "Real" Sounds Like

Markers of human-feeling prose:

• Uneven pacing. Long sentence, then a short one. Then maybe a fragment.
• Specific over decorative. A real number, a real name, a real moment.
• Visible point of view. The writer prefers something. You can tell what.
• Imperfect endings. Paragraphs don't always resolve into a quotable.
• Word choices that show a person chose them. Not the most predictable synonym; the right one for this sentence.
• Comfort with plain words. "Use" instead of "utilize." "Help" instead of "facilitate." "Because" instead of "due to the fact that."

What to Cut

• Throat-clearing openers ("It's worth noting that…", "In many ways…").
• Reassurances the reader doesn't need ("Of course, every situation is different.").
• Symmetrical constructions that exist only because they sound balanced.
• Sentences that summarize the previous sentence in different words.
• Wrap-up lines that explain what the paragraph just demonstrated.
• Any phrase you'd skip while reading aloud.

Process

1. Read the draft once, fast, the way a reader would.
2. Note where it stops feeling like a person — that's where to work.
3. Run the passes above on the weakest sections first.
4. Read it aloud. If you stumble or skim, the prose is still hiding.
5. Stop when it sounds like one specific person could have said it.

What This Skill Is Not

• Not a grammar fix. Grammar is mostly fine in AI prose; voice is the problem.
• Not a request to add personality theatrically (no manufactured quirks, no "let me tell you a story" framing). The goal is presence, not performance.
• Not a license to introduce errors for "authenticity." Real people writing carefully still write carefully.