Writing My Blog’s About Page, and How I Tried to Get ChatGPT to Help

Even though I’ve tried to be mostly focused on just writing on this blog, there have still be some things I needed to do to get it set up and working as a new website. A lot of this was fun for me as I learned new things about setting up a CMS I’ve never used before. But there was this one task I needed to do to that I kept putting off: writing the About page.

Ugh! Every time I thought about what I should put on that page, I dreaded writing it. What should I say? How do I say it? How do I even describe a blog like this where there’s no real overarching topic?

How hard could this be, right? After all, a big portion of my job is writing. I can write compelling text. I can write text that gets people to do something or buy something. I write messages for large audiences to communicate in times of crisis. I can write to clearly explain highly complex subjects. But when it comes to something simple like an About page for my own measly little website? Complete writer’s block!

I just don’t want to talk about myself in an About page kind of way. It feels so self-serving. I mean, who am I to have a website with an About page? How on earth could I write this in a way that didn't make me feel all weird and impostery? Well, I didn't know, so I did what any good ADHDer with a bad case of the Wall of Awful would do: I put it off for a while and focused on more interesting things.

But it eventually came back around and I just had to get something up there.

Then it dawned on me: use ChatGPT. I’ve been using AI for several projects at work to help with some writing tasks, and I thought I had gotten pretty good at describing exactly what I want to ChatGPT to make sure I get an output that works. Surely my robot friend could help, right?

Well, see it for yourself. Here’s a look at how my conversation with ChatGPT went:

It's not a complete strike out, but not exactly a home run either. Looking back, I probably could have done a better job of describing what I wanted (but I'm not sure I even knew myself).

What I can tell you is that I refuse to call this website "a cozy corner of the web where I, Chris, share my musings." 🤢 And I'm certainly not going to be so bold as to tell you that this is a place "where every click is a discovery" to "whispers of the heart." 🤮

I did like the "mixed bag of ideas, thoughts, and reflections" part, though. And I've used that in a few places where I needed to add a little blurb about the site.

But for the About page, well, I don't think I used any of this. I just ended up writing something where I probably awkwardly tried to sound funny and it fell flat. But what can I say? It's an About page. One of those things you need to have to make a website feel official but probably not much of a place where people spend too much time.

See it for yourself. Don't judge it too harshly (I'll be doing enough judging for all of us).

I think I'm going to put a reminder on my calendar six months from now to go back and edit the page. Maybe I can make it better then. Or maybe I'll be so embarrassed by it I get another case of writer's block and put it off again. Only time will tell!