If you are new to generative AI tools, you might wonder why anyone uses a prompt library. First, think of prompts as recipes – instructions that help you turn out a consistent result over and over. For this reason, some prompt engineers with a background in the tech industry call their collected generative AI prompts a ‘cookbook.’ But I am first and foremost a writer; I consider each prompt a mini manuscript and so mine are housed in a ‘library.’

Let’s turn to the Zero Shot Learning lesson from a previous Teach Me prompt to generate an explanation for a prompt library and instructions for creating and using one.

Text Prompt

In Microsoft Copilot/Bing, paste this prompt (highlighted in gray and noted as ‘code’ to designate where the prompt begins and ends):

How would I [task]
[task] = explain a prompt library and how to create and use one to a college freshman
Let’s think step by step.

Try it and see what happens.

Really. Go ahead and try it now. I’ll wait.

Excellent. Now paste in that prompt but change the words following [task] = to something else you want to learn or research, like: explain where manga originated, what the current market is, and how to become employed as a manga creator.

This is the beauty of a simple prompt you can use over and over, making slight adaptions to fit the current need or use case.

Image Prompt

For a fun exercise in image generation in Microsoft Copilot/Bing, try editing one of these prompts. For me, this exercise in creating an image prompt was a good reminder how many attempts it still takes me to get the results I want. Saving prompts that turned out the intended result is the most important aspect of my Prompt Library.

create an image of a confused student standing at the open door of a professor's office with bright sunlight streaming in through an open window showing a grove of trees in summer. The student is confused because there is no human visible but an animated humanoid robot seems to be filing papers while monitoring the feed of a web camera focused on a classroom where the professor is teaching a large group of students.

Note: this prompt created a fun version of a ‘flipped’ classroom even though it wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.

Image Prompt #2

Rather than keep editing the idea I had for a robot in a professor’s office, I changed to an outside library with students and robots.

create an image of an imaginary outside library nestled in a grove of leafy trees. the library is filled with books and animated humanoid robots filing papers and extracting or replacing books while a large group of students work at multiple tables.

Image Prompt # 3

Going with the manga theme of the final text prompt on this page, I attempted generating a manga-style image of a robot professor explaining something to a human student.

create a manga-style image of a confused student standing at the open door of a brightly lit professor's office; an animated humanoid robot greets the student while filing papers