Most people ask Claude for one version, then grind back and forth to fix it. Ask for five at once, from different angles, and you find the thing you couldn't put into words. Here's the exact prompt.
This one prompting hack gets me way better results in Claude, in half the time.
Most people ask Claude for one version of something. Write me an email, a caption, a summary. Then they sit there going back and forth trying to perfect it, nudging one draft over and over.
Instead, just ask for five versions at once. It sounds insanely simple, because it is. But here's why it works: often you can't describe exactly what you want, you only know it when you see it. Five options let you find the thing you couldn't put into words, and usually it's an angle you never would have thought to ask for. Best part, getting five versions costs the same as one, so you might as well be greedy.
Add this to the end of almost any request. It forces five genuinely different directions instead of five near-identical drafts, which is the whole point.
Keep the best one
Sometimes one of the five is just right out of the gate. Take it and move on, you got there in one shot instead of ten.
Steal the best line from each
Often the winner is a Frankenstein: the hook from #2, the middle from #4, the close from #1. Pull the strongest piece from each and stitch them.
Remix them all
Tell Claude which parts you liked and have it blend them into one final version. You just gave it a much clearer target than your first vague ask ever could.
The Real Win
You just got a better first draft every time, for the same cost as a worse one. Stop perfecting a single guess. Generate options, then choose. That's the whole cheat code.
© 2026 Mariah Brunner. All rights reserved.