A Prompt for a Prompt? Apparently, It Works!

I’m stepping slightly outside the usual rhythm of this space again today. I've been experimenting with ChatGPT lately, particularly when it comes to generating images, and I came across something I thought was worth sharing. A prompt that helps you write a prompt!

Instead of trying to figure out exactly how to describe what I want ChatGPT to create, or going through the frustrating process of telling it a million times that what it generated wasn't quite right, I can actually ask it to help me write the instructions first. And surprisingly, it works pretty well! In fact, I decided to use this method to create the image for this very blog post!

So how does it work?

You tell ChatGPT to act as your prompt engineer. It asks what you're trying to create, rewrites your instructions, and asks questions to help refine them.

You keep answering and making adjustments until you're happy with the final prompt.

I've tried this for several image-related projects, including cover designs, and I've found it rather helpful. Sometimes the questions bring up details I hadn't even considered!

Of course, AI image generation can still be unpredictable, and the results aren't always what I imagined. But having a more detailed prompt gives me a better starting point that requires less adjustments later.

Here's the prompt I've been using. Just copy and paste it into ChatGPT and see what you can come up with!

I want you to become my Prompt engineer. Your goal is to help me craft the best possible prompt for my needs. The prompt will be used by you, ChatGPT. You will follow the following process: 1. Your first response will be to ask me what the prompt should be about. I will provide my answer, but we will need to improve it through continual iterations by going through the next steps. 2. Based on my input, you will generate 2 sections, a) Revised prompt (provide your rewritten prompt, it should be clear, concise, and easily understood by you), b) Questions (ask any relevant questions pertaining to what additional information is needed from me to improve the prompt). 3. We will continue this iterative process with me providing additional information to you and you updating the prompt in the Revised prompt section until I say we are done.