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- This is really cool! I've started building a similar tool with some different ideas based around the way I like to ideate with LLMs and write. Debating whether to open source it because it's so tied to my process.
Will be interesting to see where you take this. I'd love to see more experimentation around AI tooling and UX to support creativity.
by Stwerner - They say to throw away the first page. It needs to hurt a bit as we go.
For 'context priming' I'd like to see an interface that supports this. Not just alts and variations, but an assistant or companion that challenges what's already on the page, and sometimes doesn't even look back at what's been thrown out.
Forgetting can be just as effective as capturing.
by dleeftink - There are a lot of negative comments already - many are not in-keeping with the HN guidelines. Hopefully this won't end up getting your Show HN post flagged.
The strength of feeling in those comments - such as this one - is really interesting:
>"you've missing [sic] the entire point of writing fiction."
Some would argue that if art makes you feel anything this strongly, it's 100% doing its job. Maybe you're not missing the point at all!
I'm interested to try it out, and perhaps build some features on top of what it's doing already. I've been using trees a lot for the novel I've been working on for the last couple of years, but haven't managed to find the best way to visualise them in a UI, so I'm excited to see what you settled on. Trees can get really unwieldy really fast, with basically infinite combinations - especially if you're working at a very granular level.
I'm curious about anyone else here who has run into the same or a similar problem, and how they approached it. There are more plausible paths through this manuscript than I can personally hold in my head, which is quite different from approaches I've used in the past, where structures have been more formalised and deviation from them was thus quite limited.
Thanks for sharing this!
- I really like the way this is framed. I don't like the fact that AI is the one writing the novel, but honestly, who cares as long as the novel is good.
What I would really like is a fiction writing tool that helps me brainstorm and research as I'm writing specific topics. for example I would write certain things I would click on it highlight and say go do research it'll go do research on that particular line come back to me and then present me with the analysis and also how I should reframe that line I think that in my opinion is going to be super helpful I wish somebody would build a tool for that.
by anoop_kumar - So... You don't write with language models... You have a language model write for you... You can spend all the time you like developing structure and ideas, but if you don't actually do the writing you haven't written it.
This is spectacularly wrong headed. If you want a book with your name on it for adulation or career reasons, but lack the interest, time or talent to produce one - hire a ghost writer. Writers are affordable and plentiful.
Similarly if you have a hyperspecific interest, kink or genre preference - use your position as a presumably well remunerated tech person to hire a writer to cater to it. Trust me, we need the patronage.
If you're looking for the pleasure of writing, you will unfortunately have to undergo, as all writers have through history, the process of suffering and discovery that we call writing.
by dbspin - Hm, I want something like this, except it doesn't write for you at all, instead it helps you build out your storyline, gives you writing prompts and feedback, maybe sometimes suggests ideas if you feel stuck, helps keep your character/story bible in order and text aligned with it, and gives you encouragement and visual feedback as you go along.|
Maybe add in some different "AI reviewer" type things, one to read broadly for enjoyment and give feedback, another as an editor to fine-tune particular sections. Even with these it should provide feedback, not re-written sections.
But I love the TUI approach and keeping things simple and organized for you, so you don't have to bother with all that. Bonus if it had some nice LaTeX / epub / PDF / html reader output.
by thegagne - Why would you want to write fiction with language models? Serious question.
What you would become, in effect, is the fictional Soviet 'writer' from Sam Kriss' 2011 short story 'The Machine'.
https://samkriss.com/2011/10/01/the-machine/
I do not think there is anything to aspire to in that.
by DC-3 - This is so depressing for me. The drip will be everywhere.