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Show HN: 1667, a terminal UI for writing fiction with language models

1667.ai

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Re: Show HN: 1667, a terminal UI for writing fiction with language models

#71

Post by refsab »

gabriel666smith wrote: post #64

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 missi…

>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

yes exactly. My main motivation for writing this was to try my hand at it. I'm not happy yet. First started looking at loom interfaces but all have the same problem of how you visualize it.

My try is a in the map (m) if you want to check it out. I feel like the path view works reasonably well but tree and mass not so much.

This is really difficult to solve.

Happy to hear your ideas or see your solutions

Re: Show HN: 1667, a terminal UI for writing fiction with language models

#72

Post by newsy-combi »

gabriel666smith wrote: post #64

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 missi…

> Some would argue that if art makes you feel anything this strongly, it's 100% doing its job.

It's pretty easy to invoke disgust and pain. That doesn't make public toilets and getting shot pieces of art 100% doing their job.

Re: Show HN: 1667, a terminal UI for writing fiction with language models

#73

Post by codeduck »

colesantiago wrote: post #58

To those on HN that are hating on this, why? There isn't even any tracking or account setup with the OP's software? I'm curious if you have your own creation that doesn't use LLMs at all that you think everyone can benefit from? We should encourage people to create software even if they use AI to help them. Calling something 'slop' without any further arguments or constructive criticism for the OP isn't in the spirit…

The reaction is not because the OP used AI to create software.

The reaction is because OP's software facilitates the outsourcing of creative writing to a agentic content mill, and many HN users take issue with that.

Re: Show HN: 1667, a terminal UI for writing fiction with language models

#74

Post by refsab »

arecsu wrote: post #61
refsab wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you. Really appreciate it. Makes me feel better. Yeah I spent a lot of time thinking about this problem. Wanted to make it easy to navigate multiple takes and multiple branches. It's a difficult UX problem. I feel like the path view of the map works reasonably well but tree/mass not so much. Needs more thinking

I think you've built some awesome. Even if, as you said, it proves to be for an audience of one (you), I know some people out there are grateful for you sharing it. Comments are not reality most of the times. There is a silent portion which would like your idea and you just don't know. People here in HN tend to be very polarized towards a certain idea, come up with intellectual arguments to justify their emotional re…

Thank you. I didn't think this would be so controversial. A few people are in my email inbox with nasty comments. I've removed my email from the website. I'm not used such visceral hate.

Anyway I have children myself. They play, they write, they draw. And occasionally we do tech stuff like this. I use it as a choose-your-own-adventure with them. We also make up our own stories for bedtime. I don't see these things as exclusive

Re: Show HN: 1667, a terminal UI for writing fiction with language models

#75

Post by Stwerner »

refsab wrote: post #52
Stwerner wrote: post #45

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.

This was also tied pretty much to my process. Just publish it. Would love to exchange ideas. The only thing I would avoid is calling it an AI writing tool haha. I didn't realize this was such a sore topic. Probably naive of me

I know it's easier said than done, but don't let the anti-AI crowd get to you. Would love to exchange ideas (and be emotional support if the mean comments are taking their toll)! Definitely reach out (I'm scott@ (the domain in my profile))

Re: Show HN: 1667, a terminal UI for writing fiction with language models

#76

Post by refsab »

sunir wrote: post #50
refsab wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My god. I'm getting anxiety. I shouldn't have posted this

I'm sorry you're getting the lash end of the whip. The rage against the (literal) machine is very high right now. I appreciate you sharing your creativity, and frankly, I am taking notes on what you've built for a related but different project. Don't forget Hacker News is known for amazing commentary like this https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

haha thank you. Would love to see your project. I could use a few fresh ideas myself

Re: Show HN: 1667, a terminal UI for writing fiction with language models

#77

Post by Towaway69 »

gabriel666smith wrote: post #64

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 missi…

I agree with your sentiment and all kudos to the author for being so creativity in creating such tool. I like the idea of having a list of "facts" to keep track of characters in the story.

Even if I won't use it since I dislike using the terminal, I still think its very creative tool for writing.

Strangely I can also understand all the hate but what are you going do? For all those that hate, don't shoot the messenger - the author of the tool is only using those tools that everyone else is also using.

We are collectively going down a very sloppery (pun intended) slope and the author of the tool is just being creativity for their own purposes. Hate the companies pushing this slop down our throats, not those that make use of the existing tools and pushing them to new uses - that's called learning.

Re: Show HN: 1667, a terminal UI for writing fiction with language models

#78

Post by refsab »

newsy-combi wrote: post #68
refsab wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a form of low tech holodeck. You write the stories you want to read. I love these vintage pulp detective novels but no one writes them anymore so I write them myself for myself, and a few of my fellow weirdos on weird discords.

What's the point of that? I mean, as you invent the story, you already know what happens next, even with your tree system, you're choosing what happens before the AI writes it. So what exactly do you get out of the AI writing it? The handful of sloppy details and stereotypical character traits the AI synthesizes without your explicit input? Sounds horrible. It seems like you're pivoting to "this tool is just a twist…

I'd love to hear some ideas about non ai tooling. I do write myself (terribly).

Maybe the tree system and branch switching would still work without attaching it to an LLM backend.

But the editor would have to be more advanced I think.

Would be cool to try and build something like that.

Re: Show HN: 1667, a terminal UI for writing fiction with language models

#79

Post by refsab »

Towaway69 wrote: post #77
gabriel666smith wrote: post #64

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 missi…

I agree with your sentiment and all kudos to the author for being so creativity in creating such tool. I like the idea of having a list of "facts" to keep track of characters in the story. Even if I won't use it since I dislike using the terminal, I still think its very creative tool for writing. Strangely I can also understand all the hate but what are you going do? For all those that hate, don't shoot the messenger…

I also built a webui but it's not very fleshed out.

After all this hate I'm thinking about stripping out the ai parts of the webui and making it a manual writing tool maybe. Keep the branching and tree visualizations

Re: Show HN: 1667, a terminal UI for writing fiction with language models

#80

Post by codeduck »

dbspin wrote: post #70
dbspin wrote: post #43

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 a…

Downvotes are disturbing and ideologically motivated rather than bothering to engage with the point. You're not a musician if you hop onto Suno and generate a song. You're not a filmmaker if you open Gemini Omni and prompt some video. And you're not a bloody writer if you have an LLM do it for you. Talk about wheelchairs for the mind...

We're setting ourselves up to the be the humans on the ship Axiom from WALL-E
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