Most bad prompts aren't bad because the person is bad at prompts. They're bad because the person is in a hurry.
Here's the shape we keep coming back to:
- Say who's talking. "You're a careful editor" beats no framing at all.
- Say what you want. One sentence. If you can't write it, the model can't guess it.
- Say what you don't want. "No emoji. No headings. No apologies." Save yourself the second round.
- Give it the raw material. Paste the thing. Don't describe the thing.
- Show one example if the shape matters. One is enough. Two is better than ten.
Then read the output and rewrite the prompt. That's the whole secret.
If you find yourself asking the same thing three times a week, that's a tool waiting to be built. Which is how most of the tools in this workshop got started.