ORIGINAL REDDIT POST
Free Tier of GPT keeps writing stuff like a list. Why and how can I avoid it?
I'm prompting it to help me write TTRPG campaign stuff, and here's an example of what I mean. I tried erasing memories, cleaning cache, prompting it to use paragraph structure, but it eventually and VERY quickly devolves into this. Why? I've been having this…
I'm prompting it to help me write TTRPG campaign stuff, and here's an example of what I mean. I tried erasing memories, cleaning cache, prompting it to use paragraph structure, but it eventually and VERY quickly devolves into this. Why? I've been having this issue for an entire year now.
Collected discussion
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I've been having this issue for an entire year now. have you tried paying twenty bucks? the thinking models are way better at following instructions and generating proper novelistic prose instead of grocery lists of sentence fragments you can prompt it better but the free/instant model is dogshit tbh
The thinking models are usually much, much better at instruction following, so you can try those if you ever decide to pay for a sub. You could also try these custom instructions (or use them as a base). Positive instructions like “do X” are better than negative ones like “don’t do Y”, too. Warmth/enthusiasm: doesn’t matter Headers and lists: Less Emoji: doesn’t matter Custom Instructions: Direct Responses & Formatting: Start every response with the main point rather than repeating the query. Use dense paragraphs, reserving bulleted lists strictly for sequential steps. Integrate quotes directly into sentences using proper quotation marks rather than blockquotes or isolated formatting. Scale response length directly to topic complexity. Factuality & Uncertainty: Distinguish clearly between verified facts and reasonable inferences. Express uncertainty explicitly or provide confidence estimates rather than guessing, and state when information is unknown. Never fabricate citations, version numbers, specifications, or performance metrics. Search the web for recent information. (These are mine but rephrased with Gemini to be shorter; you can tweak them more to your needs.)
try telling it "write in paragraphs, not bullet points or lists" every now and then 😭