mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Co-Writing Screenplays and Theatre Scripts with Language Models: An Evaluation by Industry Professionals

arXiv 2209.14958 ↗First posted 29 Sep 2022cs.HC cs.CLcited by 191

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Abstract (arXiv)

Language models are increasingly attracting interest from writers. However, such models lack long-range semantic coherence, limiting their usefulness for longform creative writing. We address this limitation by applying language models hierarchically, in a system we call Dramatron. By building structural context via prompt chaining, Dramatron can generate coherent scripts and screenplays complete with title, characters, story beats, location descriptions, and dialogue. We illustrate Dramatron's usefulness as an interactive co-creative system with a user study of 15 theatre and film industry professionals. Participants co-wrote theatre scripts and screenplays with Dramatron and engaged in open-ended interviews. We report critical reflections both from our interviewees and from independent reviewers who watched stagings of the works to illustrate how both Dramatron and hierarchical text generation could be useful for human-machine co-creativity. Finally, we discuss the suitability of Dramatron for co-creativity, ethical considerations -- including plagiarism and bias -- and participatory models for the design and deployment of such tools.

Key facts. Cited by 191 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 60 of its 142 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 29 Sep 2022.

Builds on

60 of 142 references.

References · 60

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38 more
  1. 2021Ethical and social risks of harm from Language Modelscited by 957
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50 most cited of 60 All 60 (JSON)

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2022: 5; 2023: 41; 2024: 59; 2025: 55; 2026: 31.

191 papers.

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  1. 2023Challenges and Applications of Large Language Modelscited by 251
  2. 2023Does Writing with Language Models Reduce Content Diversity?cited by 190
  3. 2023Art or Artifice? Large Language Models and the False Promise of Creativitycited by 168
  4. 2024Homogenization Effects of Large Language Models on Human Creative Ideationcited by 127
  5. 2024A Thorough Examination of Decoding Methods in the Era of LLMscited by 112
  6. 2024When combinations of humans and AI are useful: A systematic review and meta-analysiscited by 100
  7. 2023A Confederacy of Models: a Comprehensive Evaluation of LLMs on Creative Writingcited by 98
  8. 2025WritingBench: A Comprehensive Benchmark for Generative Writingcited by 95
  9. 2023Pearl: Personalizing Large Language Model Writing Assistants with Generation-Calibrated Retrieverscited by 91
  10. 2024A Design Space for Intelligent and Interactive Writing Assistantscited by 76
  11. 2022Help me write a poem: Instruction Tuning as a Vehicle for Collaborative Poetry Writingcited by 71
  12. 2022Creative Writing with an AI-Powered Writing Assistant: Perspectives from Professional Writerscited by 69
38 more
  1. 2023Evaluating Language Models for Mathematics through Interactionscited by 69
  2. 2023Prompted LLMs as Chatbot Modules for Long Open-domain Conversationcited by 61
  3. 2024AI Suggestions Homogenize Writing Toward Western Styles and Diminish Cultural Nuancescited by 59
  4. 2023On the Creativity of Large Language Modelscited by 57
  5. 2024Agents' Room: Narrative Generation through Multi-step Collaborationcited by 57
  6. 2023Let's Think Outside the Box: Exploring Leap-of-Thought in Large Language Models with Creative Humor Generationcited by 56
  7. 2024Shaping Human-AI Collaboration: Varied Scaffolding Levels in Co-writing with Language Modelscited by 51
  8. 2024Can AI writing be salvaged? Mitigating Idiosyncrasies and Improving Human-AI Alignment in the Writing Process through Editscited by 49
  9. 2024LAVE: LLM-Powered Agent Assistance and Language Augmentation for Video Editingcited by 47
  10. 2024From Role-Play to Drama-Interaction: An LLM Solutioncited by 42
  11. 2024AI as Humanity's Salieri: Quantifying Linguistic Creativity of Language Models via Systematic Attribution of Machine Text against Web Textcited by 40
  12. 2023Beyond the Chat: Executable and Verifiable Text-Editing with LLMscited by 35
  13. 2024IBSEN: Director-Actor Agent Collaboration for Controllable and Interactive Drama Script Generationcited by 35
  14. 2023CoQuest: Exploring Research Question Co-Creation with an LLM-based Agentcited by 34
  15. 2023MacGyver: Are Large Language Models Creative Problem Solvers?cited by 33
  16. 2023Creativity Support in the Age of Large Language Models: An Empirical Study Involving Emerging Writerscited by 32
  17. 2023Interactive Natural Language Processingcited by 31
  18. 2024The Silicon Ceiling: Auditing GPT's Race and Gender Biases in Hiringcited by 29
  19. 2024A Robot Walks into a Bar: Can Language Models Serve as Creativity Support Tools for Comedy? An Evaluation of LLMs' Humour Alignment with Comedianscited by 29
  20. 2023Experimental Narratives: A Comparison of Human Crowdsourced Storytelling and AI Storytellingcited by 26
  21. 2023DataTales: Investigating the use of Large Language Models for Authoring Data-Driven Articlescited by 24
  22. 2024"They are uncultured": Unveiling Covert Harms and Social Threats in LLM Generated Conversationscited by 24
  23. 2025AI-Slop to AI-Polish? Aligning Language Models through Edit-Based Writing Rewards and Test-time Computationcited by 24
  24. 2023Intuitive or Dependent? Investigating LLMs' Behavior Style to Conflicting Promptscited by 23
  25. 2024Patchview: LLM-Powered Worldbuilding with Generative Dust and Magnet Visualizationcited by 23
  26. 2022I Cast Detect Thoughts: Learning to Converse and Guide with Intents and Theory-of-Mind in Dungeons and Dragonscited by 22
  27. 2023LLM for SoC Security: A Paradigm Shiftcited by 22
  28. 2024A Philosophical Introduction to Language Models -- Part I: Continuity With Classic Debatescited by 22
  29. 2024How AI Ideas Affect the Creativity, Diversity, and Evolution of Human Ideas: Evidence From a Large, Dynamic Experimentcited by 22
  30. 2024HoLLMwood: Unleashing the Creativity of Large Language Models in Screenwriting via Role Playingcited by 22
  31. 2022Open-world Story Generation with Structured Knowledge Enhancement: A Comprehensive Surveycited by 21
  32. 2023Dynamic Storyboard Generation in an Engine-based Virtual Environment for Video Productioncited by 21
  33. 2023ChatGPT and Other Large Language Models as Evolutionary Engines for Online Interactive Collaborative Game Designcited by 20
  34. 2023Beyond Summarization: Designing AI Support for Real-World Expository Writing Taskscited by 20
  35. 2024StoryVerse: Towards Co-authoring Dynamic Plot with LLM-based Character Simulation via Narrative Planningcited by 20
  36. 2023ReelFramer: Human-AI Co-Creation for News-to-Video Translationcited by 19
  37. 2024GhostWriter: Augmenting Collaborative Human-AI Writing Experiences Through Personalization and Agencycited by 18
  38. 2023Susceptibility to Influence of Large Language Modelscited by 17

50 most cited of 191 All 191 (JSON)