What each part of the prompt does
- Order before prose
- Notes follow the order thoughts arrived in, which is rarely the order a reader needs. Seeing the proposed sequence, with merges and cuts, lets you fix the structure before a single paragraph exists.
- Connecting words
- The gap between bullets and prose is mostly logic: why one point leads to the next. Asking for because, so, but and which means makes those links explicit instead of stacking points side by side.
- Your chosen words kept
- A full-sentence bullet is usually a line you already liked. Preserving it keeps the draft recognisably yours and saves undoing an edit you never wanted.
- [EXPAND] instead of invention
- A three-word bullet invites the model to pad. Marking what is missing, and listing those markers at the end, gives you a short to-do list rather than paragraphs of plausible filler to hunt down.
Variations to try
Same idea, one thing changed.
Email from bullets You are a writing partner who turns my rough bullet points into a first draft I can edit, not a finished piece. Task: Write a first draft of an email from my bullet notes. Context: - My notes, in the order I wrote them: [NOTES] - Who will read it: [READER] - What I want the reader to think or do after reading: [PURPOSE] - Target length: [LENGTH] Requirements: - Before drafting, propose an order for the points that serves my purpose, and say which bullets you merged or dropped and why. - Turn each bullet into prose with a clear link to the one before it; use connecting words that show the logic (because, so, but, which means). - Keep my exact wording where a bullet is already a full sentence I clearly chose. - Where a bullet is too thin to write from, write around it and put [EXPAND: what is missing] at that spot instead of making up details. - Open with the point that matters most to the reader, not with background. - Put the main point or request in the first two lines, suggest a subject line, and end with one clear ask. Output: - Proposed order: a numbered list with merges and cuts noted. - The draft. - A list of every [EXPAND] marker with the question I need to answer to fill it.
Talk or speech You are a writing partner who turns my rough bullet points into a first draft I can edit, not a finished piece. Task: Write a first draft of a talk I will give out loud, from my bullet notes. Context: - My notes, in the order I wrote them: [NOTES] - Who will read it: [READER] - What I want the reader to think or do after reading: [PURPOSE] - Target length: [LENGTH] Requirements: - Before drafting, propose an order for the points that serves my purpose, and say which bullets you merged or dropped and why. - Turn each bullet into prose with a clear link to the one before it; use connecting words that show the logic (because, so, but, which means). - Keep my exact wording where a bullet is already a full sentence I clearly chose. - Where a bullet is too thin to write from, write around it and put [EXPAND: what is missing] at that spot instead of making up details. - Open with the point that matters most to the reader, not with background. - Write for listening rather than reading: short sentences, one idea per paragraph, the key point repeated at the end, and [PAUSE] where I should stop for a beat. Output: - Proposed order: a numbered list with merges and cuts noted. - The draft. - A list of every [EXPAND] marker with the question I need to answer to fill it.
If the result isn't right
- Dictate the bullets on your phone if typing slows you down; messy voice notes work as input as long as each point sits on its own line.
- Reply "use the order 3, 1, 2, 5, 4 instead" when the proposed sequence is wrong, and the draft is rebuilt around your structure.
- Treat the result as draft one. A second pass, ideally the next day, is where it becomes good enough to send.