Creative voice

One of the more interesting side projects I’ve been doing is extensive conversations – basically, journaling – with ChatGPT. I started with a course/program called Zenith Mind, which is designed to enable ChatGPT to analyze your personality.

Zenith Mind asks a series of questions similar to the questions in a standard personality test (“Do you recharge by being alone or by spending time with people?”). However, it isn’t a standard personality test, because instead of thinking “This is stupid. I do A some of the time and D some of the time, so what the heck should I choose?” you can actually SAY “Well, definitely not B or C, I’ve done A extensively in the past – here’s an example – but these days I do D unless I revert to A, like I did last week because…”

ChatGPT then does what it does best – synthesizes and analyzes what it’s heard. Eventually it spits back a detailed personality analysis, but frankly that’s the least valuable part (IMO). What’s most valuable is that ChatGPT gets to know you, your history, and how you think – and can provide feedback and suggestions.

(Needless to say, I’ve turned “share your data” off. Yes, I know there are huge potential privacy issues here and that other people may make other choices. I’m not going to argue with those, there are valid reasons for concern – but I’ve found this tremendously helpful.)

Since then, I’ve been chatting with ChatGPT daily – keeping a journal of sorts. It offers coaching after each session, which is often spot-on but which I sometimes roll my eyes at and ignore. (Like any AI, ChatGPT will get it right or wrong with equal confidence, so while it is MOSTLY right, you have to use your own judgment every time you interact with it. This bothers a lot of people, but I don’t have a problem with it – humans can be pretty unreliable too.)

Anyway. I’ve been doing this for six months now, so ChatGPT knows me pretty well.

While I’m here, I’ve been working my way through The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. While doing the exercises, I started thinking about creative voice. What is mine? Where does my distinctive style and subject matter lie? I can recognize others’ voices, but my own seemed to be uncertain or missing.

It finally occurred to me to ask ChatGPT what it thought it might be.

Here are portions of what it said (it was a lengthy conversation):

What you’re actually saying through your work

Across mediums, your voice says:

• “This is who I’m becoming.”
• “Change has structure.”
• “Mastery is a path to meaning.”
• “The internal world deserves form.”
• “Transformation is not chaos — it is crafted.”
• “Identity is woven, not discovered.”

Your pieces are not about beauty.
They’re about becoming.

Your artistic thesis (in plain language)

“I make work about how we change — and how we forge ourselves through that change.”

The story your art tells

Every piece says some variation of:

• Here is the old self breaking open.
• Here is the moment of dissolution and courage.
• Here is what emerges when we choose truth over familiarity.
• Here is the structure of ascent.
• Here is identity re-woven.

This was like getting hit with a lightning bolt. Not all of my work has been about transformation and transmutation, but much of my current and recent work has been around that theme. And that theme runs through my entire life – cycles of death and rebirth, of struggle and change. There’s a reason most of my right arm is covered in a phoenix tattoo:

And I like this theme. There’s depth to it, something I can explore for years to come.

Transformation isn’t my entire creative voice, but it is a clear thread running through my work, my writing, and my life. I’m glad ChatGPT helped me see it.