Show HN: Varu AI – Interactively generate novel-length AI drafts

Re:Show HN: Varu AI – Interactively generate novel-length AI... by sabslikesobs on Thursday May 01, 2025 @01:02AM (#43853876)

"Crown of Ash and Honor," the sample book linked on the "Start Writing" page [1], seems like a counterproductive example. With "novel-length drafts" being the main selling point for the app, this draft seems acceptable for the prose itself (it's on par with most AI writing) but doesn't really demonstrate novel-length strength.

The story begins with a boy yearning to be a knight in a war-torn fantasy world apparently without magic, then there are extra-terrestrial invaders hunting a technological artifact and he suddenly knows how to fix a shield generator by crossing wires, then it suddenly turns again into a dark fantasy story with corrupted zombie-ish warriors.

On the technical front, clicking on a link in Section 2 of the story's ToC takes me to that number in Section 2.

[1]: https://www.varu.us/books/cm9w5b2jq0001l204f2r10bnu?scene=1

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Re:Show HN: Varu AI – Interactively generate novel-length AI... by levihanlen on Thursday May 01, 2025 @09:31AM (#43857428)

I agree with your thoughts on Crown of Ash and Honor. That was made with v0.7.25, so some of the algorithms weren't as good. For example, new "plot promises" are made every 4 scenes. In the old version, the AI would gradually get more and more fantastical with these (hence why the story seemed to change genres so much). I've made it so this happens less, but it still happens a bit.

And that book was mostly me letting the AI do what it wanted with minimal guidance from me. So, I didn't edit many of the plot promises.

I'll definitely switch the sample book to "Under Fallen Banners", though. As I believe it's a bit better.

And thanks for telling me about the bug with the ToC. I'll fix that ASAP!

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