Here we go with Julia Cameron's The Artists Way. Wish us luck.

Remember, we have a Writers Process meetup every Wednesday. Check us out.

Three pages. Every morning. No exceptions. No mercy.

We're going to unblock our inner artist using Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way. For three months, we'll write stream-of-consciousness drivel before our brains fully wake up - a bizarre ritual Cameron swears by and millions of writers have adopted.

But will these 'Morning Pages' really unlock our creativity? In this episode, we dig into the practice and the equally peculiar 'Artist Date' before diving headfirst into one of the most influential (and controversial) creativity programs ever written.

Remember, we have a Writers Process meetup every Wednesday. Check us out.

Over the past few months, we've taken a deep dive into AI writing tools. Now we're coming up for air and trying to reconnect with our human creative souls. What better book for this than Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way? 

Published over thirty years ago, Cameron's much beloved Creative Recovery Program is the reason why so many writers drag themselves out of bed for Morning Pages. This is a twelve week course, so buckle up - we're in it for the long haul. And it's not just a book for wannabe authors - this self-help tome promises to unleash the creativity of "potters, photographers, poets, screenwriters, dancers, novelists, actors, and directors." What's not to love? 

Well, there's a catch: Cameron's book is veryspiritual, packed with calls to a higher power. We dive into Cameron's Great Creator, whether this book works if you're not particularly religious, and what we're hoping to get out of this whole endeavor - besides possibly talking to the universe.

Remember, we have a Writers Process meetup every Wednesday. Check us out.

We've been looking at how AI chatbots have been upending fiction writing, but how about in news media? Today we talk with former Wired writer and freelance science journalist Ramin Skibba about the issues that chatbots, as well as business models based on new technologies, are having on journalism - both the news that he writes and the news that we read.

Remember, we have a Writers Process meetup every Wednesday. Check us out.

What if chatbots result in the next generation never learning to write? It's a doomsday scenario that we keep coming back to in our series on AI writing tools. If AI can craft essays and compose emails instantly, why would kids bother mastering grammar, sentence structure, or the art of putting thoughts into words? And here's the terrifying follow-up—if they never learn to write, will they lose the ability to truly read and think critically too?

If you've been spiraling down that educational apocalypse rabbit hole, this episode might cheer you up. We're talking with Sonia and Karthik, the team behind SuperDecoders, who are taking a different approach to AI in education. Instead of replacing human creativity, their AI-powered writing tool acts like a personal writing coach for kids—the kind of personalized attention that could help kids develop their writing skills rather than bypass them entirely.

Our discussion with them left us genuinely optimistic about the future. Sometimes the best way to navigate new technology isn't to ban it, but to find smarter ways to use it.

Remember, we have a Writers Process meetup every Wednesday. Check us out.

In our quest to cover the mind-blowing benefits AND the nightmare scenarios that AI chatbots are unleashing on the writing world, we called in friend-of-the-podcast and editor Kristen Tate to find out if she's using AI in her work. 

The answer? It depends entirely on her clients' wishes—and a few hard lines she refuses to cross. But this isn't just about ethics (though we go there). Kristen gets into the nitty-gritty technical stuff: what chatbots absolutely nail, what they're garbage at, and her brilliant hack for wrangling conference notes that'll make you wonder why you didn't think of it first. Plus, she's got some hard truths for authors who are way too eager to let AI do their editing dirty work. 

If you're an indie writer or just need some tips to polish your work, this is the episode for you.

Remember, we have a Writers Process meetup every Wednesday. Check us out.

We've been putting AI chatbots through creative writing challenges, but what are these systems actually doing when they write?

In this episode, we bring in AI expert Bill Moore. Bill works with AI on the coding side, so we had him apply his technical know-how to literary prompts - including crafting the opening of a bestselling fantasy novel. Along the way, we dive into the thorny ethics of building and using AI systems.

Perfect for non-tech folks who want to understand what's happening under the hood.

Remember, we have a Writers Process meetup every Wednesday. Check us out.

Is nothing sacred? After exploring how AI might steal our writing jobs, we're now testing whether these digital usurpers can replicate our podcasting chemistry too. Google's NotebookLM claims to transform documents into conversations between virtual "hosts," setting up the perfect showdown with our human-led book discussion format. 

For this AI vs. human battle royale, we revisit our podcast roots with James Gardner's "The Art of Fiction," specifically tackling that mind-exploding (and not in a good way) final chapter on plot. With words like “profluence” and “picaresque” not to mentions some painfully retrograde sexual politics, this chapter is a doozy. 

Listen as we compare the artificial hosts' takes with our own snarky comments (er…insights) and decide for yourself: can cold, calculating algorithms somehow make Gardner's impenetrable prose not just comprehensible, but actually entertaining? (Spoiler: the results will surprise you.)

Remember, we have a Writers Process meetup every Wednesday. Check us out.

We've explored AI as brainstorming allies, critique partners, and research assistants. Now we're tackling the most contentious question: should writers use AI in the actual writing process? Not the "generate a novel in a week" approach (both ethically dubious and creatively hollow), but rather using AI as an editor whose word and phrasing suggestions you might incorporate into your novel. Is this approach effective? And even if it is, is it ethical?

Join us as we navigate these thorny questions at the intersection of creativity and technology.

Remember, we have a Writers Process meetup every Wednesday. Check us out.

In the current publishing industry, authors are expected to handle their own social media. If we wanted to be out there interacting with people, we probably wouldn't have picked artforms that have us sitting alone for hours everyday. What writer hasn't wished for an assistant to handle their social media? How about assistants we don't have to pay? 

In this episode, Kim and Renee explore how AI can lighten authors' marketing burden. They demonstrate AI tools that create marketing checklists, research Amazon keywords, build reader personas, and develop social media strategies that won't leave authors exhausted or creatively drained. Also, Renee, without any AI assistance, goes on a great rant.

Remember, we have a Writers Process meetup every Wednesday. Check us out.