My Writerly Self - Week 7: 2025 - Notebook LM: My Week with Zeek
Abstract
From February 10th to 14th, 2025, I delved deep into music composition, storytelling, and AI experimentation, blending creativity with technology. This week saw the transformation of This Little Bird from a long-form poem into three distinct grunge rock songs. I also continued my Songs for the Goddess series, refining my 12-part From Then to Now audio project while preparing for future releases. With AI as my creative companion, I balanced human ingenuity with digital assistance, refining lyrics, producing music, and preparing to wrap up The Adventures of Millie and Sandra.
My evolving AI workflow, particularly with Suno, DeepSeek, and Ideogram, played a key role in shaping my music and visuals. However, challenges arose, reinforcing my commitment to keeping AI as an assistant rather than a creator.
Creative Journal: Week of February 10th – 14th, 2025
Monday, 10th February – The Birth of ‘This Little Bird’
Today, I revisited a long-form poem, Lake of Tears, which had already inspired a song. My goal was to break it down into three unique tracks. I initially experimented with DeepSeek (Zeek), asking it to draft three songs from the poem. After editing and refining the lyrics, I ran them through Suno, producing three grunge rock songs.
However, as I sat back and listened, I realised something unexpected: despite my refinements, all three tracks sounded almost identical. The realization made me laugh—after all that work, I had inadvertently created the same song three times! It was a fun experiment, but a valuable lesson: AI-generated compositions can sometimes lack true differentiation.
Tuesday, 11th February – Stripping It Down
Determined to bring originality to my work, I stripped the AI-generated lyrics down to their core and rewrote all three songs from scratch—without any AI involvement.
This took most of the day, but by the end, I had three distinct pieces that truly captured the depth of the Lake of Tears story. AI had served its purpose as an idea generator, but the real artistry came from my own creative instincts.
Wednesday, 12th February – Finding the Sound
With my rewritten lyrics in hand, I turned to Suno to experiment with the sound. After several iterations, I finally found the right tone—one that fit the emotional weight of the coming-of-age theme.
The first song, This Little Bird, was completed:
🎶 This Little Bird
🔹 Verse 1: Rain beats down like a drum on her skin, Yellow eyes and growls echo in the cavern she's in.
🔹 Pre-Chorus: Flashes of lightning sear her mind, showing her truths she'd rather not find.
🔹 Chorus: This little bird, she’s falling slow, trying to fly, but in her sorrow, she drowned... her lullaby.
🔹 Verse 4: She rises, she reaches to touch the light, but this little bird will never again take flight.
Once I had found the perfect sound for this track, I moved on to songs two and three, running them through Suno with the same production approach. These tracks are now scheduled for release at five-day intervals.
Thursday, 13th February – A Day of Production & Future Planning
Today, I nearly took a day off—but the creative drive wouldn't let me. I finalized the fourth episode of my Songs for the Goddess series and prepared my first release, Whispers in the Mist (Watch here).
Additionally, I continued work on my 12-part From Then to Now audio series. All recordings were completed, and once my Ideogram credits reset on the 14th, I planned to finalize the visuals and production for release.
This series will follow a staggered release schedule, alternating with Songs for the Goddess every two weeks.
Friday, 14th February – Preparing for the Next Big Steps
My focus today was visual production. I created all the images for the From Then to Now series, ensuring they fit the tone of each episode.
Looking ahead:
📌 Monday (17th Feb): Final production on the remaining episodes, preparing them for release.
📌 Tuesday (18th Feb): Uploading all 12 episodes.
Meanwhile, I had some fun interacting with Notebook LM (which I’ve affectionately nicknamed Larry and Louise). It’s been an amusing and surprisingly helpful tool for brainstorming ideas.
On Monday, I’ll also return to my Adventures of Millie and Sandra series, bringing this five-season saga to its climactic end in the next four episodes. Once finished, I’ll begin editing it for eBook and paperback publication while also revisiting the first Josephine Marlin book—its foundational story for both the Sin-Eater and Josephine Marlin: Origins series makes it a priority.
Reflections on the Week
This week reinforced the power of blending AI with human creativity. While AI tools like Suno and DeepSeek were helpful for generating rough drafts, true artistic refinement came from personal intervention—reworking lyrics, shaping soundscapes, and maintaining the emotional core of each piece.
With multiple projects in motion, from music to long-form storytelling, this week has set the stage for exciting releases in the weeks ahead.