Creative Co-Author
Creative Co-author is a creative writing enhancement tool that focuses primarily on pounding out the first draft. It is type-ahead cranked up to eleven. It types ahead, lurks behind, and generally peers over your shoulder while you pound out words in a speed-draft writing reverie.
Co-author does not write for you, but equips you with tools to forge ahead, getting your ideas out onto the page. Using technology similar to the way type-ahead features work, Creative Co-author will suggest words and phrases along the way as you spill your guts into something that might resemble a first draft. Words are not merely suggested in type-ahead form, but are provided in a unique interface that facilitates and encourages rapid changes to the text, both ahead and behind.
Faculty and Staff Leads
Project Details
2018 Spring
Important Questions
- How will look-ahead differ from lurk-behind? Will certain algorithms or approaches work better for one than the other?
- What is a simple interface that will encourage rapid writing while providing a mechanism for incorporating fly-by suggestions into the content?
- Are there other mechanisms for being a lurking co-author besides text completion using language models? Dictionary lookups? Templating mechanisms etc? What are the desired user experiences? Work from there.
- How can the suggestion model be tailored for the task at hand. E.g., can it take on a stylistic bent, or can suggestions be specific to a particular writing mode or a fictional world?
Sample Milestones
- System can make real-time text suggestions from off-the-shelf or simple-to-implement models
- User interface incorporates system suggestions into an editor interface that allows for rapid suggestion management during draft writing
- A rapid-draft writing mode keeps track of writing pace and uses built-in suggestion mechanisms to "co-author" the text
- Initial models can be tweaked and customized according to user preferences, writing mode, etc.
Outcome
The team will develop and deliver an open source editing system that incorporates the features of the Creative Co-author. This may be a standalone system, or may be an add-odd or extended development of an existing editor or interface. Along with a usable system, the team might consider delivering first-draft writing samples that demonstrate the potential of the system. Final edits might also be considered for further demonstration of the co-creative potential of the system.
Links
Students
2018 Fall
Important Questions
- How can we improve word recommendations and even make special case recommendations for a particular context (e.g. location descriptions vs. character descriptions)?
- How can we move to sentence-level language analysis and generation, including “exquisite corpse” style co-authoring of words, phrases, and sentences for unique and surprising effects?
- How can we improve the general user experience to encourage in-flow authorship from the author’s own mind and not typeahead based reactionary writing?
Sample Milestones
- Weeks 1-2: Reassess the research and development from the first iteration. Select a set of incremental improvements to the project appropriate for the scope of a quarter.
- Weeks 3-4: Demonstrate improvements in single word selection.
- Weeks 5-7: Demonstrate the ability to provide full phrases or sentences appropriate to the user experience model.
- Weeks 8-10: Demonstrate improvements in the flow of the user experience.
Outcome
The final project will build on the work of the previous quarter and will begin to demonstrate a usable project for overcoming writer’s block and working in flow.