When people ask how to do automatic writing today, they usually mean one of two very different things: the century-old spiritualist practice of writing without conscious control, or the modern version — using AI tools to generate text automatically. Both are worth understanding, but I’ll be honest: most of you are here for the AI version. I’ll cover both, because the old one is weirder and more interesting than you’d expect.
Automatic Writing: The Original Meaning
Automatic writing as a practice dates back to the 19th-century spiritualist movement. The idea: enter a relaxed or trance-like state and let your hand write without conscious direction, supposedly channeling spirits, the subconscious, or creative inspiration. Writers like W.B. Yeats experimented with it seriously.
Stripped of the supernatural claims, there’s a real psychological technique underneath. It’s essentially freewriting — writing continuously without editing, judging, or stopping — which psychologists recognize as a legitimate way to bypass the inner critic. Julia Cameron’s “morning pages” practice is automatic writing with the mysticism removed: three longhand pages every morning, no editing allowed.
If you want to try the classic version: sit comfortably, pick up a pen, relax your hand, and write whatever comes for 15 minutes without lifting the pen or re-reading. Don’t aim for sense. The point is loosening the grip of self-censorship, and writers have used it to break through blocks for over a century.
How to Do Automatic Writing With AI (The Modern Version)
The modern meaning is simpler: generating written content automatically using AI tools. Here’s how people actually do it well, rather than producing the generic slop that gives AI writing a bad name:
1. Start with a real brief, not a vague prompt
“Write a blog post about productivity” gets you garbage. Instead, provide: the audience, the angle, the key points you want covered, the tone, and the length. The AI is doing the drafting; you’re doing the thinking. People who skip the brief get generic output and conclude AI writing doesn’t work — the tool was fine, the input was empty.
2. Generate in sections, not all at once
Long AI-generated text drifts. Generate section by section — introduction, then each main point, then the conclusion — reviewing and adjusting as you go. This keeps quality consistent and lets you steer the piece while it’s being built rather than trying to fix a finished mess.
3. Always add the human layer
AI-generated drafts are starting points. The publishable version needs your examples, your opinions, your specific details. Our guide to humanizing AI text manually walks through exactly how to do this pass. A good rule: if you couldn’t defend every claim in the piece in a conversation, it’s not ready.
4. Match the tool to the job
- General chatbots (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini) for flexible drafting and brainstorming.
- Specialized writing tools for marketing copy, with templates for ads, emails, and product descriptions.
- Long-form platforms for books and extended documents — relevant if you’re wondering whether AI can edit your book, since the editing workflow matters as much as drafting.
The Honest Limitations
- Originality. AI remixes existing patterns; it doesn’t have new ideas. Automatic writing gives you competent drafts, not brilliant ones. The brilliance has to come from you.
- Accuracy. AI generates plausible-sounding text, not verified facts. Every claim needs checking — especially statistics, quotes, and anything your reputation depends on.
- Voice. Out of the box, AI writing sounds like everyone and no one. Developing a distinctive voice still requires human rewriting.
- Detection and disclosure. Depending on your context — school, publishing, client work — AI-generated text may need disclosure or may be prohibited entirely. Know the rules where you publish.
Automatic Writing Prompts to Try This Week
Whether you’re going classic or AI-assisted, prompts get the pen moving. For classic freewriting, set a timer for 15 minutes and start with: “What I really want to say is…” or “The thing nobody knows about this is…” — then don’t stop. For AI-assisted drafting, try: “Give me 10 opening paragraphs for an article about [topic], each in a different tone, so I can pick the direction that feels right.” The common thread: generate abundantly, then choose ruthlessly. Automatic writing is about volume first, judgment second.
Whichever version you try, give it at least three sessions before judging it. The first attempt at anything — freewriting, AI drafting, all of it — feels awkward. The technique starts paying off once the novelty wears off and it becomes a habit.
For more background, see Wikipedia’s generative AI overview.
The Takeaway
Whether you mean the trance-state freewriting of the spiritualists or the prompt-driven drafting of the AI age, automatic writing works best as a way to get words flowing — not as a way to avoid thinking. Use it to defeat the blank page, then bring your judgment, your knowledge, and your voice to turn the raw output into something worth reading. The automation handles the typing; the writing is still yours to do.
