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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

#81

Post by refsab »

colesantiago wrote: post #47
refsab wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I noticed that my god. I regret even posting it. I'm suddenly getting a lot of weird mail I'm not used to hate like that.

What type of hate are you getting if you don't mind me asking? I like your tool by the way, I don't understand what sort of person would have such visceral hate towards someone's creation. They don't have to use it but it is nice for you to share your creation. Don't be put off by them, they actually secretly use LLMs for their own work and they are embarrassed of putting it out there to protect their own 'programmer…

Got 4 emails in my email inbox. I suspect all from the same guy. Weird rants about how ai is going to eat peoples brains how I'm going to hell and calling me a bunch of nasty names. Probably not wrong but you know he could have said it nicer.

Removed the email address from the homepage just in case.

Appreciate your reply thank you.

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

#82

Post by ChicagoDave »

I went down this road six months ago with tool called Lantern though specifically for writing text adventure games.

I had it working and then realized that no matter how hard I put walls up between my artistic abilities and the llm was impossible.

The llm’s interference would eventually corrupt my own thinking process.

I tossed it and know anything I write will stand apart from GenAI.

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

#83

Post by gabriel666smith »

DC-3 wrote: post #5

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.

You might be interested in language models the same way lots of great artists in the past have been interested in generative art. Burroughs would be an example.

More broadly, you might be interested in language models because they are new, and you don't want to discount the value of new, constantly-evolving tools for your art form until you have explored them and understood their strengths and limitations.

I personally have not found language models very useful at all for serious work thus far. I am curious, though, about why many people are openly dismissive of the potential artistic value of what is an extremely new tool, and - maybe more importantly - those who choose to use it.

How other writers write doesn't strike me as any of my business, beyond what I can learn from their methods.

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

#84

Post by dleeftink »

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.

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

#85

Post by colesantiago »

codeduck wrote: post #73
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.

> many HN users take issue with that.

It seems that the only people who are hating on this aren't even writers themselves.

But very grumpy programmers on HN who probably don't write (except probably documentation) and probably AI anyway in their READMEs and even their docs.

I think that many who are angry on here are angry on behalf of writers, I've seen a writer who is actually interested in this tool, myself included.

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

#86

Post by gabriel666smith »

refsab wrote: post #79
Towaway69 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It would be incorrect to amend your work based on the opinions of people who have chosen to spend some of their finite time on Earth being openly rude to you about your work on the internet. If people don't want to use the free software you have kindly shared with the world, they can simply not use it. Don't stress it.

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

#87

Post by gabriel666smith »

refsab wrote: post #71
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 ma…

Yeah, I started off with looms too, and got frustrated with them.

My current hunch is that it requires a Z axis. Google Earth, for example, manages to convey quite a lot of interesting variables simply (and has maybe been underutilised as a type of UI):

- Longitude

- Latitude

- Granularity / altitude ("the same, but different")

- Paths between destinations

- On Msoft Flight Sim, a slider can amend the time (to change weather, the sun, etc). This gives you another variable to work with.

I haven't tested implementing UIs from this hunch yet, but that's where I'm at currently. It feels like there's a lot of useful parallels.

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

#88

Post by khalic »

bennettpompi1 wrote: post #38
khalic wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are some good use cases, personal fiction, etc. The issue is mostly people not disclaiming it’s AI. I can’t get mad at the tool builder. Neither can I assume the worse of every user. That being said, I wouldn’t have published something like this because I do assume the worse. But it’s morally wrong to assume every one lacks honesty… Tough one

I just fundamentally disagree with this. On one hand, sure, you can argue that there is no direct harm caused by using LLMs to generate fiction for personal consumption. But on the other hand, I feel like there is a deep spiritual deadening that arises when we no longer must engage with the works of others to find fiction that satisfies our tastes. You have niche interests? What you want to read doesn't exist in a me…

I agree, and I personally don't need an Isekai generator to feel good, but who am I to tell someone else it's not ok? The thought police? The guardian of "good" distraction?

Less colloquially, is "spiritual deadening" something we should/can force people away from?

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

#89

Post by codeduck »

colesantiago wrote: post #85
codeduck wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> many HN users take issue with that. It seems that the only people who are hating on this aren't even writers themselves. But very grumpy programmers on HN who probably don't write (except probably documentation) and probably AI anyway in their READMEs and even their docs. I think that many who are angry on here are angry on behalf of writers , I've seen a writer who is actually interested in this tool, myself inclu…

> It seems that the only people who are hating on this aren't even writers themselves.

I will gladly be the counter-example, then. I program. I'm grumpy. I also, however, write fiction - and have for well over twenty years now.

Writing is a skill I acquired and honed through hard work, diligence, and practice. I would no more cede "creative" control of my stories to a LLM than I would load a MIDI track onto my piano and claim the piano's perfect rendition as my own.

But feel free to characterise I - and others - as "grumpy coders who probably don't write".

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

#90

Post by drbscl »

refsab wrote: post #69
drbscl wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I'm aware, I just think it's an unusual default for a harness to use

Should be more? I envisioned the user of this as kind of local koboldcpp or lmstudio users with limited resources

I believe they report the configured window, right?
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