Isabella Taylor
In the second semester of my Freshman year in High School, I was homeschooled. I wanted a break from public school, and it ended up being the best semester of High School for me. During the semester, my mother wanted me to learn how to manage my own creativity and help me hone it a bit more effectively. So she introduced me to The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.
If you’ve ever needed to use creativity, whether it be for a project or even your dad’s birthday card, sometimes it can be hard to get the juices flowing. With the rising use of generative AI, human creativity is a dying art, and it can be combated with a few simple methods. The Artist’s Way is a process that boosts inspiration and should be used in response to an artificially creative world.
It’s incredibly important to tap into this method to improve or even just awaken your own creativity. In an AI-driven world, many people are giving up on thinking for themselves, especially when it comes to academics. The loss of human creativity to derivative, AI-produced slop is an ever-growing issue because it constantly devalues human work and synthetically manipulates our emotions through algorithms.
In a study done by Zephin Livingston from “Innovating With AI Magazine,” 73% of people said it would very negatively impact their view of the piece if later it was revealed the piece was done by AI. Creativity, human creativity is a dying art, that we desperately need to preserve.
I know we’ve all caught ourselves using or thinking about using ChatGPT to generate a paragraph for a paper, however, we should move away from this. Obviously, people have done creative work before AI was introduced into society, and we can do the same now.
As someone who’s completed the 12-week series, and been doing one of the practices for a couple of years now, I am qualified to explain the practice and it’s importance. I’ve also conducted some research on generative AI and its impact on creative spaces.
Here’s a brief history of AI in creative spaces.
AI was first introduced into these spaces as early as the 1950’s and 60’s according to Maya Ackerman from the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics in 2023. This included generating songs in the style of Bach, and creating artificial paintings for art galleries. Back then, AI was a novelty, nowadays, it’s a necessity and an expectation, even in spaces that require human heart and emotion.
Most of you, including myself, are probably academic AI users. If I’m stuck on a calculus problem, or I need a concept explained further, I’ll plug them into ChatGPT and it’ll work me through it step by step. However, the problem is how deeply specifically Generative AI has infiltrated creative spaces like storytelling, painting, and songwriting. Creative spaces that previously required years of human dedication to craft, hours of work, and a beautiful story told with emotion and heart. AI has none of this, and plagiarizes all existing artwork in seconds by producing quick, dead renditions.
Using Generative AI to take over creative spaces also raises ethical concerns. Not only does this raise moral questions about how much AI should be integrated, but it also elicits cognitive dissonance in every artist’s mind. Cognitive dissonance, or the feeling when your actions aren’t justified by your internal logic, can easily pop up while using generative AI. If you generated a prompt with AI, and your best work came from it, how much ownership is dedicated to AI? If you wrote the introduction for your memoir using sentence structures from an LLM, can you really feel strongly that your work is completely your own?
On the same note, AI should be used as a tool, rather than a replacement for art, especially since AI is based on using sources without citing them. AI should replace mundane, repetitive tasks, not creative ones. According to Andres Fortino from NYU in 2025, AI has been seen boosting the creative process in a multitude of ways by being used as a tool rather than replacement. Such as using a Large Language Models to generate prompts and idea seeds, rather than the entire product.
A Solution:
Julia Camerons’s practice involves a 12-week, repeatable plan with detailed instructions and activities on how to get your inspiration flowing again.
The 12-week program starts off introducing the main parts of the book, including Morning Pages, Artist Dates, Weekly Walks, Weekly Tasks, and Affirmations. I’ll briefly explain a couple of these parts. Morning Pages are a daily 30-minute or less practice that I’ve been doing for a couple of years now, it’s where you physically write 3 pages from the book included with the bundle right when you wake up (before electronics). Artist Dates are sort of mini outings by yourself with some sort of creative task prepared. I used to go on nature walks with a sketchbook and some colored pencils. The weekly walks and tasks are geared towards allowing inspiration to enter your brain naturally, and the affirmations help support you throughout the journey.
All of these practices and many more are explained in Julia Cameron’s book. They are all extremely useful in boosting your own creativity, rather than having to constantly rely on generative AI. According to Iris Kim from Iris Writes in 2025, popular creatives such as Olivia Rodrigo, Doechii, Alicia Keys, Reese Witherspoon, and Elizabeth Gilbert all use The Artist’s Way method.
This method might not be right for everyone, and many other creative practices work well to boost creativity. Similarly, simply using AI as a tool rather than a crutch is already 10 times better in any creative setting.
However, Julia Cameron’s method is one of the best, if not the best way to boost inspiration. This is especially important in a world where Generative AI is taking over creative spaces. Through the practices of The Artist’s Way, we can start reclaiming creativity for human use rather than quick consumption through AI.
If you’re interested in creativity remaining humane, or struggle producing anything without the use of ChatGPT, I highly encourage you to start a creative practice like The Artist’s Way, or do some research on your own about the topic.
Now, when you’re writing that birthday card, or finishing your project, keep your laptop shut, keep your phone away, and use the creative tools I’ve provided!