12 Ways to Simplify the Writing Process with an AI Writer

Writing assignments have a way of eating up entire weekends. Students plan to knock out an essay in a couple of hours, then find themselves still working on it Sunday night with a deadline looming. Writers face similar struggles when articles or content pieces balloon into much longer projects than expected. The issue isn't a lack of skill; it's that writing has all these different phases where things can go sideways.

AI writing tools help with a lot of this stuff. People who hit creative blocks find that AI suggests topic ideas worth exploring. Research notes scattered across different sources become more organized when AI helps sort through everything. Sentences that sound awkward get rewritten into something clearer. What makes a difference is knowing which tools work best at which points in the writing process. 

In this article, we go through the five writing stages and share 12 ways AI tools can help finish writing projects without turning them into marathon sessions.

What Is the Writing Process? 

Writers don't just sit down and magically produce perfect work on the first try. There's often some frustrating tug-of-war involved. Maybe someone scribbles down notes first, or maybe they jump straight into writing and then spend hours editing. Either way, there are steps happening.

The writing process gives those steps actual names, like planning, drafting, and revising. Writers have been doing these things forever, but having labels for each part helps people figure out where they're getting stuck. Some people love making detailed outlines. Others prefer to write first and organize later. The good news is that the process adapts to whatever works for each person.

Why Is the Writing Process Important? 

Writers who skip planning usually end up doing way more work than necessary. They'll get halfway through a draft, decide it's terrible, delete everything, and begin again from scratch. Having a process prevents all that wasted effort.

The writing also turns out better when there's some structure behind it. Ideas connect more smoothly when they're planned out first. Writers catch confusing parts or weak arguments before they become big problems. The revision phase helps fix sentences that sounded good while writing but don't make sense. 

Without any process, writing can become messy and hard to follow, which can be detrimental to grades and the chances of being published.

How Do Writing Processes Change Across Writing Types?

Not all writing works the same way. A college research paper needs a completely different approach than a short story or a work email.

Academic papers require much longer research phases since students have to find credible sources for every claim they make. The planning stage involves detailed outlines because everything has to follow a specific structure. Students spend extra time in revision, making sure citations are formatted correctly and arguments sound scholarly enough. The whole process takes longer because of all the requirements professors expect.

Creative writing flips the typical process around. Fiction writers might skip detailed planning and discover their story as they draft. Some people write scenes out of order or completely rewrite entire chapters when inspiration strikes. The revision phase focuses more on character development and plot flow rather than fixing grammar. Writers often go through many more drafts because they're constantly refining the creative elements.

Business writing compresses the entire process into shorter timeframes. The planning phase is brief since the goal is usually straightforward communication. Writers spend less time on extensive research and more time organizing information for quick scanning. The drafting phase moves fast, and revision mainly involves cutting unnecessary words and making sure the key message stands out. Most business writers do fewer total drafts because clarity matters more than perfection.

What Are Common Challenges in the Process of Writing? 

Every writer deals with certain predictable obstacles. These challenges show up regardless of your experience level or writing type:

• Writer's block and lack of inspiration - The cursor blinks mockingly while your brain produces absolutely nothing useful. Or you know the general topic but have no earthly idea how to turn it into quality content
• Difficulty organizing thoughts - Swimming in a sea of disconnected ideas that seem important but won't arrange themselves into anything resembling a logical flow? AI will throw you a lifeline.
• Procrastination and trouble starting - Maybe it’s checking email again or reorganizing your desktop folders. Somehow, everything feels urgent—except getting words on the page.
• Perfectionism and fear of failure - That sentence never sounds quite right, does it? So you rewrite it again. And again. And again.

You don’t need perfect ideas to make progress; you just need a way to start. AI tools can help you do that without getting in your way. 

What Are the 5 Writing Steps in the Process? 

Writing works better when you don't try to do everything at once. Most people jump around between researching, writing, and editing, which just creates chaos. Handling one thing at a time gets you to the finish line faster.

Step 1: Prewriting

Before you start drafting your piece, you need to know what it will be about. This phase is all about putting your thoughts together using different prewriting techniques. 

Start by jotting down every idea that pops into your head about your topic, no matter how random it seems. Then choose the strongest one to build your main point around. Don't try to cover everything, or your reader won't know what the focus is. Next, figure out what order to put your ideas in. Whether you make a fancy outline or just list your main points, you need some kind of roadmap before you start writing real paragraphs.

Step 2: Research 

Research stops your writing from being just loose thoughts thrown together. Even when you already know stuff about your topic, looking into it more always turns up things that surprise you. 

Skip the websites that pop up first on Google and hunt down academic sources that professors will respect, the kind filled with citations and peer reviews. For other writing styles, stick with established news sites, published books, or organizations that know what they're talking about. Write down important quotes with page numbers, put things in your own words so you understand them later, and keep track of which source said what. 

Pay attention to holes in what other people have written. Maybe someone's research is from 1995, and things have changed, or two experts are arguing about the same thing. That's your chance to add something fresh instead of just copying what's already out there. When you've done your homework on research, the writing flows much better because you won't be trying to stretch three weak ideas into five pages.

Step 3: Drafting 

Time to put words on the page that will become the foundation to your finished piece. 

The outline you diligently drew up keeps you focused on your main points, but you can still change directions when something better occurs to you. Try not to force brilliance right away because that's how you end up staring at a half-finished paragraph for four hours. Just write it all down, even the parts that sound awkward, because you’ll fix these areas during your editing phase. It’s also important to set a limit or word goal; this way, you’ll stay fresh. Running on steam (and caffeine) during this phase isn’t going to help you create a quality draft. But if you need a little pick-me-up, our AI Writer will set you on the right track.

Step 4: Revising 

This is where you take a step back and see if you’re making any sense. You’re not sniffing out spelling mistakes yet; that comes next. This is where you check if your ideas actually make sense together or if you somehow started talking about the Revolutionary War and ended up explaining how to make a sandwich. Shuffle paragraphs around, dump the stuff that doesn't fit, and fill in those spots where your brain made huge jumps that nobody else can follow.

Make sure you sound like the same person throughout. If you start out all formal and academic, then suddenly get chatty halfway through, pick one voice and use it the whole time. When your sentences feel wooden or weird, tools like Phrasly's AI Humanizer can smooth out those rough patches. You want to sound like yourself, not like a robot doing a bad impression of a human.

Step 5: Editing and Proofreading 

Final cleanup. This is where you search for typos, fix your commas, and untangle sentences that got twisted up during revisions. The best tip? Read the whole thing out loud. You'll catch clunky bits that look okay on screen but sound terrible when you say them. Your ears notice problems your eyes skip over.

Check that your formatting stayed consistent throughout. Sometimes headings change size randomly, or spacing gets messed up when you're moving paragraphs around. Before submitting anything, use Phrasly's AI Detector to make sure your work won't get flagged by academic detection software. This final check gives you confidence that your paper will pass through systems like Turnitin without any issues.

How Can AI Help Simplify Your Process in Writing? 

AI writing tools can jump in at pretty much any stage when you're stuck or need to speed things up. Instead of wrestling with the same paragraph for an hour, you can get help with the specific part that's giving you trouble. 

Here are 12 ways AI can make your writing life easier:

• 1. Generate topic ideas - Completely blank on what to write about? AI throws out suggestions until something clicks and gets your brain moving again.
• 2. Research summaries - Throw all your notes and sources at AI and have it pick out what actually matters instead of drowning in your own research.
• 3. Outlines that make sense - Turn that jumbled mess in your head into something organized so you're not just winging it when you start writing.
• 4. Getting past the blank page - Skip that awful staring contest with an empty document and get something down to work with.
• 5. Fleshing things out - Take those pathetic bullet points you scribbled down and actually turn them into real paragraphs.
• 6. SEO without the headache - Figure out what keywords to sprinkle in and how to structure things so people can actually find your stuff online.
• 7. Fix the weird parts - Clean up those sentences that make perfect sense in your head but sound bizarre when anyone else reads them.
• 8. Switch up your voice - Go from stuffy academic mode to conversational blog style without having to completely rewire your brain.
• 9. Catch the obvious mistakes - Spot typos, grammar fails, and those sentences where you clearly lost track of what you were saying halfway through.
• 10. Fly under the radar - Make sure your writing doesn't scream "a robot wrote this" to detection tools.
• 11. Get feedback - Spot sections that repeat themselves or go off-topic and get suggestions for fixing them.
• 12. Write strong conclusions - End your pieces with impact instead of just trailing off because you ran out of things to say.

You don't have to use AI for everything. Pick the areas where you get stuck most often and let the tools handle those while you focus on the parts you're good at.

Phrasly: The Ultimate Writing Assistant for the Entire Writing Process

No matter where you are in the writing process, Phrasly can help. Our suite of AI-powered tools assists with ideation, high-quality content generation, style upgrades, and expert-level proofing that saves you time, every time:

• AI Writer: Brainstorm, outline, and draft at lightning-fast speed. 
• AI Humanizer: Transform stiff or robotic phrasing into smooth, natural-sounding language. 
• AI Detector: Ensure your work won’t get flagged by AI detection tools like Turnitin.

Ready to simplify your writing process from start to finish? Get started with Phrasly for free and supercharge your writing today!