I’ve been applying for jobs while starting this business. I worked as an adjunct writing professor for the last two years. The summers hold this weird mix of terror and possibility. Terror- because I don’t know where the money is about to come from. Possibility because I have a fresh chance to share my gifts with the world. Cut to me agonizing over cover letters for the last thirty days.

I asked a few friends who were recently employed or are currently job hunting—how they came up with their cover letters. The form is notoriously annoying. How much empty corporate speak do I use? What is the correct ratio of buzz words to my own voice? Will it be cheesy if I insert the business’ mission statement in my own tale of glory? Should I opt for my own voice completely? How do I funnel my weird artistic life history into this formal job document?

The responses I received were varied. One friend said Job Fly dot com, an AI writing website specifically for cover letters. Their AI works by analyzing your raw resume and the raw job description to form a perfect cover letter. The website gave me error messages when I tried. So. I used ChatGPT by instructing it through the same process. The cover letters ChatGPT spit out were decent, quite decent. I even used them to apply for jobs. I laugh about it though. ChatGPT gives me a writing voice which reeks of a confidence I just don’t have. It makes all people sound as self-assured as a young man fresh out of business school, ripe with a bunch of connections. I sound professional, but I don’t sound like myself.

Another friend who is a writer too told me his approach. He said something like: I have my story written down, the one with all the weird art stuff and professional stuff. I have this written out so there are three different sections to it. Then I take the job description and put my experiences into a cover letter in the order they are asked for in the description. If it’s a writing job, for example, I put my writing experience in the first paragraph. If it’s a teaching job, I put my teaching experience in the first paragraph.

I loved his method. The key to cover letter creation, just like any writing where I am presenting myself, is to have a firm grasp of my own story. Not the faux confidence Chat GPT imbibes my writing with, but a true grounding in the way I describe my background. To write a good cover letter, I need first a solid narrative of my past to pull from. This narrative should describe how my life’s work has lead to this present state of readiness. Contending with an entire past in one page is no small task. I am here to help writers do just that.

I’m hosting a Creative Cover Letter Writing Workshop this weekend where I will guide you through the entire process.

Photographs from Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Color Photographs Collection, Library of Congress. View here.