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Many good and prolific writers of the past used ghost writers who prepared drafts and idea lists for them, in effect making their work more like that of editors
by bambax 6y ago
Many good and prolific writers of the past used ghost writers who prepared drafts and idea lists for them, in effect making their work more like that of editors (it is said Alexandre Dumas worked like this -- it's one of the only reason to explain his spectacular productivity).
So if AI is capable of doing some prep work, why not?
When writing fiction, my struggle is usually not in the writing itself (making sentences) but in figuring out what to write about (the content of a scene). An AI that would generate scene ideas from an input of, say, a list of characters and plot points, would be very helpful.
Outputting sentences and paragraphs, not so much (I think).
Also, the article seems to conflate Sudowrite and GPT-3 but it would be interesting to understand the difference between the two; is Sudowrite just a wrapper over the GPT-3 API that forwards requests directly? If not, what is its added value vs hitting the API directly?
- jamesjyu 6y agoFounder of Sudowrite here. We are built on GPT-3 but we have a bunch of things we do on top that optimizes Sudowrite for the narrative fiction/non-fiction use case. For example, we have a description tool that, given a highlighted phrase, gives you options for telling phrases in 5 senses and metaphorical uses. Another tool we have analyzes a story premise and gives you possible twist and story turns, based on the genre of your story, and also gives you possible characters that could inhabit that world, complete with both external and internal character descriptions. I agree that for writing stories, the hard part is in the forest and not the trees (although this isn't true for everyone). And systems like GPT-3 can help with that, too, simply because it's level understanding of text is approaching that of a human.
- bambax 6y agoInteresting! Thank you for answering. How long is the waiting list to join Sudowrite beta?
- jamesjyu 6y agoIt’s gotten quite large, but we plan on sending more invites out soon. We are prioritizing folks who are working writers and have an immediate project they’re working on that could benefit from collaborating with an AI. If this sounds like you, sign up on the beta form and also send me a note about how you’ll use Sudowrite to jamesjacobyu@gmail.com
- bambax 6y ago> working writers and have an immediate project they’re working on that could benefit from collaborating with an AI. If this sounds like you Not sure. I'm not a professional writer. I just finished my first novel (in French) and am starting a new one in English. I think the idea is great and quite original but I struggle a bit with scene ideas and general structure. I think what I'm looking for is a sparring partner... Maybe I just need to paint a face on a volleyball...