# Visual Story-Writing: Writing by Manipulating Visual Representations of Stories

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.07486 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.07486/

## Key facts

- Cited by 10 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 9 Oct 2024.

## Built on by (most cited first, 10 of 10)

- [Vidmento: Creating Video Stories Through Context-Aware Expansion With Generative Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.22013/) (2026)
- [Texterial: A Text-as-Material Interaction Paradigm for LLM-Mediated Writing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.00452/) (2026)
- [Story Ribbons: Reimagining Storyline Visualizations with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.06772/) (2025)
- [PlayWrite: A Multimodal System for AI Supported Narrative Co-Authoring Through Play in XR](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.02366/) (2026)
- [Narrative Keyframing for Generative Creative Writing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.10337/) (2026)
- [Agentic Reasoning and Refinement through Semantic Interaction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.02157/) (2025)
- [Elsewise: Authoring Open-ended Interactive Narrative with Possibility Space Visualization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.15295/) (2025)
- [FocalLens: Visualizing Narratives through Focalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.14456/) (2026)
- [VeriForge: Mitigating Latent Knowledge Gaps in Narrative Drafting via Mixed-Initiative Scaffolding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.09698/) (2026)
- [Towards Cognitive Process-Aware Proactive Writing Support](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.30424/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We define "visual story-writing" as using visual representations of story elements to support writing and revising narrative texts. To demonstrate this approach, we developed a text editor that automatically visualizes a graph of entity interactions, movement between locations, and a timeline of story events. Interacting with these visualizations results in suggested text edits: for example, connecting two characters in the graph creates an interaction between them, moving an entity updates their described location, and rearranging events on the timeline reorganizes the narrative sequence. Through two user studies on narrative text editing and writing, we found that visuals supported participants in planning high-level revisions, tracking story elements, and exploring story variations in ways that encourage creativity. Broadly, our work lays the foundation for writing support, not just through words, but also visuals.