My Approach to Content Creation

I've been arguing with myself over this topic for quite some time and I haven't been sure how to conclude or consolidate my thoughts until recently.

I am a content creator, but not in the sense that most people think of the word. I don't want to do this for the views, I don't want to do this for the likes, I don't want to do this for the subs. I am creating a universe for me and my friends.

I am terrified of dying. You see, IRL, I live in Minneapolis, and I am Hispanic. These last few weeks have made me realize how scared I am of death. I am so afraid that even though I look passably white, I have been holed up in my apartment, checking both sides of my hallway before even stepping out of my own front door to go get the mail.

I know who I am. I know I don't trust myself to stay alive if I encounter someone who's trying to unlawfully arrest me. And based on their actions, I don't trust them to be motivated to keep me alive.

So, what does this have to do with my content creation? The thing is, I don't want to die. When I do close my eyes for the last time in this world, I want to open them for the first time in my own world. My paradise. My twisted, complicated heaven. So in order to achieve that, I have to create that universe.

I have to detail everything I can. I have to use the tools available to me at their max potential in order to achieve this dream, because I may have 50 years to do this... or I may have one day where I step out to pick up food across the street just to be shot by a nazi on a power trip.

I want to be clear about this: I don't intend to make any money from Avilium, but if I do make money, I'm not going to turn it away, either. If I could turn this passion project into something that keeps me homed and fed, I would be silly not to do so, but if I spend the next 50 years of my life creating something that I can only spend nights and weekends on, then I will proudly do so.

As such, I will treat Avilium as my own private little bubble in the internet. I will use social media, AI, and my own software development and technology architecture skillsets as tools; not dependencies, not needs, not even motivators.

I will not change my content because it doesn't get enough likes. I will not alter my stories because they offend people. I will not modify my approach in pursuit of popularity.

Soooooo... let's talk about my actual approach to content creation.

Lately, I've been trying to use my tools to keep myself motivated. I've found a pretty fun motivation loop that has been working really well for me, too! I do all of my writing and notes taking in Obsidian, then as the stories reach natural points of completion, I bring them into Gemini. Using my Gemini license, I ask the AI to generate lyrics based on the story.

Usually these stories are not narratives, just high-level notes about the narrative, but it's enough to accomplish two things:

1. Show me if my notes are carrying the right message. If the lyrics feel like they're ill-informed or just way off from the narrative I'm trying to note, I modify my notes until the message is more clear.
2. Once the song lyrics properly represent the message and narrative I want to deliver, I move those lyrics into Suno. There, I generate music for myself based on the lyrics (sometimes modifying the lyrics), and then I add that song to my personal playlist.

Once I have my songs generated, I listen to them. At first I added them to folders, and then synced them with my phone and had to get an app to play music on my phone because surprisingly phones don't have basic music players anymore. And... ultimately, it became a hassle.

So, instead, I'm going to be making a new YouTube channel for Ulmina moving forward, where I'll be posting all of my AI-generated visual/audio content just so I can have it all in one place. This allows me to use YouTube Music to listen to the music!

Why do I do all this music stuff? Well, I'm very motivated by music and when I am constantly hearing music pertaining to my universe and my writing, it allows me to be constantly thinking about it. Before I started doing this, I wrote once a week, if that. Since I started doing this, I find myself writing at least once a day, even if it's just a few small notes, but it's gotten me way more productive.

I recently even started using Claude to explore my own universe; pick apart some details I like and details I don't like, following the same concept I did with Gemini, but focusing more on the narrative side of things. I may move this whole process over to Gemini soon, as I do think Gemini may be a bit more capable geared towards literature and writing than Claude, but it has been fascinating to see how these systems interpret my writing and help me spot the places where my notes are either incomplete, conflicting, or simply just delivering the wrong perspective.

While the music use case for AI is really a motivation dogfooding chain, I do think that this venture with Claude has me considering skipping Gemini altogether and pursuing a self-hosted AI to begin doing this with. The ultimate intention maybe being to make an Avilium-themed interactive AI that allows anyone to interact with my universe freely. But I still have some testing to do to get to that point of confidence with this process.

Anyway, if you find any Avilium-related content on the web and it seems like something you'd like to get involved with... well, I'm not sure what to tell you. I don't think I'm ready for other people to do anything besides chat with me about their ideas, but if you think there's somewhere you can help, please don't hesitate to reach out!

Until then, I'm gonna keep plugging away at things and hopefully soon, I'll have my personal paradise all mapped out.