The “Reverse-Nested” Prompt: How to Make AI Write the Prompts for You (and Still Sound Human)
Make the prompt sound human
If you’ve already played with Nested Prompting—those slick little < > tags that ask the AI to “fill-in-the-blank” mid-sentence—then you’re ready for the next level: Reverse-Nested Prompting.
Instead of you writing the prompt and letting the AI complete it, you flip the script: the AI writes the prompt, you approve the angle, and then it immediately writes the final copy.
The result? A two-step assembly line that produces hyper-relevant stories, emails, or landing pages in under 60 seconds—without ever sounding like a robot cut-and-paste job.
Below are four techniques you can start using today:
The “Silent Partner” Tag
How it works
Insert a double caret ^^ around the exact outcome you want the reader to feel, not the words you want to say. The AI reverse-engineers the language that will trigger that emotion.
Template
Our refund policy ^^reassures risk-averse SMB owners in 12 words or fewer^^.
AI returns
“Our refund policy: 100 % money back in 7 days, no forms, no phone call.”
Use-case
Drop this into a pricing page draft and watch conversion lifts on risk-sensitive segments.
The “Anti-Example” Bracket
How it works
Tell the AI what you DO NOT want inside curly braces { }. It will write the opposite—perfect for differentiation.
Template
{Never mention price} in the first 50 words of the cold email.
AI returns
“Saw your team just hit 3 k GitHub stars—congrats. Quick question: are you still losing four hours a week to flaky CI pipelines?”
Use-case
Great for outbound sequences where every competitor leads with “We’re cheaper.”
The “Time-Travel” Tag
How it works
Use a pipe | to signal “write this as if it’s already happened” or “write this as if it’s still two quarters away.”
Template
Subject line |post-purchase + 90 days| upsell email for a SaaS analytics tool.
AI returns
“90 days ago you cut query time by 38 %—ready to unlock predictive forecasts with one click?”
Use-case
Customer-success teams can pre-write the entire year of lifecycle emails in one sprint.
The “Swivel” Prompt
How it works
Ask the AI to write the prompt it would need to produce the copy you’re imagining, then immediately answer its own prompt. You literally watch it swivel.
Template
AI, give me the exact prompt you would need to generate a two-sentence LinkedIn voice-note that sounds like a founder who just closed a $20 M Series B but is still humble.
AI returns (prompt)
“Write a 40-word voice-note in first-person, include one specific metric, one personal gratitude, zero emojis, and end with an open invite for coffee.”
AI then answers its own prompt
“Closed $20 M Series B yesterday, but the real win was the 3 000 retailers who trusted us before the VCs did. If you’re building in climate tech, coffee’s on me—DMs open.”
Use-case
Perfect for ghost-writing executive social at scale while keeping authentic cadence.
Quick Cheat-Sheet
^^emotion^^ → feel, don’t tell
{anti-example} → say it by not saying it
|time-travel| → tense shift without grammar gymnastics
Reverse-nested → AI writes prompt + copy in one breath
Bookmark this article, try one technique in your next outreach or blog post, and watch your writing velocity 5×—without ever sounding like you handed the keys to a machine.