WORDPRESS · AI WRITING · PART 03
How to Make AI Writing Sound Like You: A Style Guide for Your Blog
You ask AI for a blog post, then spend your editing time deleting phrases you would never say. The introduction takes too long to get to the point. A simple tip turns into a “game-changing solution.” The information may be useful, but the post doesn’t sound like you.
An editorial style guide and a reusable WordPress block layout give you a more specific starting point. One tells AI how you write; the other shows how you organize a post. You can build both from scratch or use your own published work. You still make the final editorial call.
1. Give your voice and your layout separate jobs
Keep your voice, audience and sourcing rules in style-guide.txt. Keep the WordPress blocks, colors and spacing in layout-sample.html. For a product review, your voice rule might be “state the trade-off before making a recommendation.” The layout might place a quick verdict before the detailed review. Those are different decisions, and either can change without replacing the other.
A WordPress theme template is a separate concept governing page presentation. The files in this workflow are references for drafting article content and formatting its body blocks.
2. Write a short editorial style guide
Start with the choices you already make as an editor: who you’re talking to, how much they know and what you want them to do next. A newsletter can be conversational; a troubleshooting guide needs steps readers can check. Use the following example as a starting point, then keep only the rules that fit your blog.
Editorial style guide v1.1 — U.S. English Reader: WordPress site owners who edit AI-assisted drafts. Purpose: Help the reader complete one specific task. Voice: Clear, conversational and practical. Give the answer, then explain the steps. Locale: U.S. English. Natural contractions are welcome; avoid forced slang. Examples: Use situations familiar to independent bloggers, such as a tutorial or product review. Details: Spell out ambiguous dates. Identify currencies and units when relevant. Experience: Never claim we tested, bought or used a product without supplied evidence. Paragraphs: One main point per paragraph; vary length with the material. Structure: Problem and approach → prerequisites → steps → checks → next action. Wording: Replace vague advice with a concrete action or example. Example: Use “background colors, borders and columns” instead of “visual polish.” Avoid: Inflated promises, repeated conclusions, invented experience, filler FAQs. Evidence: Distinguish official documentation from firsthand observations. Validation: Never claim a test was performed unless it was. Formatting: H2 for sections; H3 only for genuine subsections. Tables for comparisons. Design: Preserve the approved block sample's colors, spacing and classes. Images: Use supplied assets only. English screenshots and English descriptions. SEO: Answer the reader's query without forcing repeated keywords. Exceptions: Omit irrelevant sections and explain why outside the article.
Write rules you can actually check. “Be helpful” is vague. “After a command, tell the reader what a successful result looks like” is usable. Contractions such as “you’ll” and “doesn’t” can fit a conversational blog, but there’s no need to force slang or jokes into a technical explanation.
3. Use your best posts as writing samples
Choose two or three posts you still enjoy reading. That is a practical starting suggestion, not a required sample size. One post can work, but treat its topic-specific choices cautiously.
Supply article text for voice analysis and the saved block HTML for layout analysis. Mark the openings, headings, notes or captions you want to preserve. Text copied from a published page does not establish its exact block structure or spacing.
Extract a reusable style brief from my attached articles. Do not write a new article yet. 1. Analyze voice, sentence length, openings, headings, examples and endings. 2. Support each proposed rule with a short example and the source article. 3. Separate recurring traits from choices found in only one article. 4. Do not turn topics, dates, product names, numbers or image URLs into style rules. 5. Without HTML, do not claim to have checked colors, spacing or block structure. 6. Group findings as traits to keep, habits to improve and decisions for me. I will review the proposed rules before adopting the brief.
Review the proposed rules against the articles. A habit is not automatically worth keeping just because it appears in your writing. Keep the useful traits, revise the awkward ones and approve the brief before using it for a new draft.
4. Save the layout without recycling the old article
Copy the useful blocks into a new draft, leaving the published original intact. Replace topic-specific text with labels such as “[Answer to this article’s main question].” Remove old claims, links, images and media IDs. Leave a blank core Image block where a future image belongs.
An opening, a heading with body text and a verification section are enough to begin. Check colors and narrow-screen wrapping in the draft, then save the body markup from the Code editor as layout-sample.html. Keep a browser preview document separate from the Gutenberg body file.
For the import and editing exercise, see part two: importing AI drafts into the WordPress Block Editor.
5. Choose the right kind of WordPress pattern
To reuse the layout inside the editor, select its blocks and use the block options to create a pattern. For an article body whose wording changes each time, leave synchronization off. Give it a recognizable name such as “Tutorial body · EN · v1.” Interface labels can vary by installed version. See the official pattern guide.
A synced pattern propagates edits to its other uses. Reserve that behavior for material you intend to keep shared, such as a common notice. If only the current article should change, check the Detach option before editing an inserted synced pattern. Locked patterns may not offer that option. See the official syncing and detaching instructions.
6. Give AI a complete assignment, not just a topic
“Use my usual style” leaves the reference unclear. Attach the approved brief and block sample to the current assignment and identify their version. Check that the files are actually available in the task instead of assuming a previous conversation will supply them.
Use the attached style-guide.txt and layout-sample.html to write a new article. Topic: [the reader's problem] Reader: [audience and assumed knowledge] Search intent: [what the reader should be able to do] Sources: [official documentation and dates checked] Firsthand observations: [verified facts, or none] Images: [supplied assets and descriptions, or none] Style guide version: v1.1 Write for U.S. readers using American spelling and natural phrasing, not a sentence-by-sentence translation. Use everyday blogging examples where helpful; do not invent research or firsthand experience. Apply the style guide to voice and structure, and the block sample to formatting. Do not carry over the sample's claims, experiences, figures, links or media IDs. If a style instruction conflicts with the facts, keep the facts accurate. Omit irrelevant sections; format necessary new sections consistently. Preserve Gutenberg core block comments and saved structure. Do not wrap the article in a single Custom HTML block. Use the sample's empty Image block if no image is supplied; never invent a URL. Deliver body HTML, title/SEO description/slug, and verification notes separately. Check the result against the brief without claiming live WordPress validation.
If you publish in more than one language, create a separate style guide for each audience. For a U.S. edition, use American spelling and familiar phrasing. Spell out a month when a numeric date could be ambiguous, and identify currencies or units when they matter. Don’t silently convert a price, rewrite a command or change a product label just to make it feel local. Localize screenshots and captions as well; linking posts in Polylang does not translate words inside an image.
7. Test the voice before you edit a whole post
Start with an opening and one section. If the result works, expand it. When it does not, keep a before-and-after example instead of giving only a broad instruction such as “make it less awkward.”
For example, “This revolutionary method will maximize your content productivity” makes a vague promise. “Send the approved brief and block sample with your next assignment to request the same voice and formatting” describes an action. This is an editorial example, not a measured claim about time savings.
Review the finished draft for three things: facts or links accidentally inherited from the sample, language that conflicts with the brief, and blocks or images that fail after saving and reopening in WordPress. Write the title and SEO description for the new article rather than reusing those of the source post.
Record accepted changes as a new version, with a short reason. Updating an unsynced pattern does not revise every post already made from it. Decide separately whether the new rules apply only to future posts or also to selected older ones.
Your reusable writing kit
Keep three things together: your approved style guide, a clean block layout and a finished post that shows what “good” looks like. Attach them to your next assignment, then add the new topic and sources. Part four applies the same approach to featured images and images within a post.