What Exactly Is Creativity

Ever since I started this blog - mostly to curb my creative atrophy caused by AI dependency - I’ve had people tell me I’m wrong to say AI leads to creative atrophy, since they’re still being “creative” when using AI to write. After all, they’re the ones writing the prompts and directing what to generate. And sure, I won’t say that logic is entirely wrong. But to me, especially in writing or any literary context, AI-assisted creativity starts and stops at ideation: prompts, rough outlines, maybe narrative setups. True creativity, in my eyes, is the ability to infuse personal originality and emotional depth into your own words. But I digress.

In past interviews for newspapers and job applications, I’ve often been asked the same question:

“What makes you creative?”

And every time, I give the same answer. The dictionary defines creative as:

relating to or involving the use of the imagination or original ideas to create something.

But here’s the thing, being creative, or original, might just be a myth. It’s 2025. There’s currently over 8 billion people alive and odds are, someone has probably already thought of that “original” idea you just had - even before you even thought of it.

We consume so much writings and designs through our screens that we’re inevitably influenced by them, subconsciously or not. So… is that still creativity? If we’re just echoing what we’ve absorbed, is that truly original?

I don’t think so. I think that’s just adapted inspiration.

Creativity is not about inventing something from thin air. True creativity lies in translating everything you’ve learned, felt, and experienced into new forms - across mediums, styles, and genres. It’s about sifting through the mosaic of your cultural, technical, and personal experiences and shaping something that only YOU could make. Not something stitched together and spat out from generic AI outputs with a few human tweaks. But something alive, with intention, perspective, and you at its core.