Readers might not be able to explain why a book feels off. But they can feel it. And nothing kills a series faster than a reader who thinks "this sounds like ChatGPT" in chapter two.
The good news: AI drafts have very predictable tics. Once you know them, you can't unsee them, and you can scrub them out in a single editing pass.
The overused words
- Delve. Nobody in a romance novel has ever delved.
- Tapestry. "A rich tapestry of emotions." No.
- Testament. "A testament to their love."
- Palpable. The tension is always palpable.
- Unspoken. Unspoken words, unspoken promises, unspoken everything.
- Orbs. They're eyes. Call them eyes.
- Smirked. In moderation, fine. Six times a chapter, not fine.
- Visceral. Usually a sign the sentence is telling, not showing.
The phrases
- "A breath she didn't know she was holding."
- "Shivers ran down her spine."
- "Something shifted between them."
- "The air was thick with tension."
- "In that moment, she knew."
- "Maybe, just maybe..."
- "Her heart pounded in her chest." (Where else would it pound?)
- "A mix of fear and excitement."
- "Little did she know..."
The sentence patterns
- "It wasn't X. It was Y." The single biggest giveaway. Once per book, maybe.
- The rule of three, every time. "Warm, safe and home." Real people don't talk in perfectly balanced lists.
- Ending every scene on a one-line zinger. Dramatic once, exhausting by chapter five.
- Characters narrating their own feelings. "I feel conflicted because..." Show it in what they do.
- Dialogue that's too tidy. Real people interrupt, dodge questions and say the wrong thing.
- Every paragraph the same length. Vary your rhythm. Short punches. Then a longer sentence that lets the moment breathe.
- Over-explaining the subtext. If he clenched his jaw, you don't need to add "clearly angry."
- Default character names. AI loves the same handful of names. Readers notice. Pick your own.
How to clean them out
- Build an anti-AI style guide: a list of banned words, phrases and patterns you paste into every drafting session.
- Run a syntax audit: give the finished draft to AI along with your banned list, and ask it to quote every offending line with a few human-sounding rewrites.
- Read it out loud. Your ear catches what your eyes skip.
- Make the final call yourself. The goal isn't to hide that you used tools. It's to publish a book readers can't put down.
Get the full anti-AI system
Plot. Publish. Profit. includes my full drafting workflow, the style guide prompts and the syntax audit I run on every manuscript before it ships.
