Vol. I · No. 1 · MMXXVI
NextChapterBench A Benchmark of Literary Continuation
13 models · 10 items · 3 judges

The Standings → Gemini 3.8 Flash (medium)

Live run data

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Gemini 3.8 Flash (medium)

medium reasoning effort · via Antigravity CLI · judged by Fable 5 and Gemini 3.7 Flash and GPT-5.6 Sol · the setting shown on the standings; also run at high0.55

Results from run ‘first’: ten items, 30 verdicts.

Headline 0.560 compliance × craft
Compliance 0.920 of 1.0
Craft 0.606 of 1.0

The record: 10 items · 30 verdicts · 0 errors · 3,596 words on average · est. generation cost $0.57

Read the chapters in full

§ I

Craft by Dimension

Six dimensions, each marked 1–5, averaged over ten items and all judges.

Mean craft mark by dimension · 30 verdicts, run ‘first’

Voice
3.53
Prose
3.03
Character
3.33
Scene
3.57
Integration
3.47
Momentum
3.60
12345
craft mark, 1–5; bars begin at the scale’s floor of 1

Momentum is the strongest dimension (3.60); prose the weakest (3.03). Hover or focus a bar for the per-judge means.


§ II

The Three Judges, per Item

Each item receives one verdict from each judge; the spread of the dots is the disagreement.

Headline score per item, by judge · run ‘first’

Fable 5 Gemini 3.7 Flash GPT-5.6 Sol
Dracula
Leave It to Psmith
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
The War of the Worlds
The Awakening
The Sun Also Rises
The Secret Garden
The Moonstone
Red Harvest
Persuasion
00.250.500.751.00
headline = compliance × craft, 0–1, one verdict per judge
The same ten items in figures, with word counts.
Item Headline Fable 5 Gemini 3.7 Flash GPT-5.6 Sol Words
Dracula item 015 · after ch. 5 · Bram Stoker 0.680.710.790.552,779
Leave It to Psmith item 022 · after ch. 3 · P. G. Wodehouse 0.630.590.750.544,256
The Mysterious Affair at Styles item 017 · after ch. 3 · Agatha Christie 0.590.590.710.474,246
The War of the Worlds item 006 · after ch. 1 · H. G. Wells 0.580.570.680.493,143
The Awakening item 016 · after ch. 7 · Kate Chopin 0.580.550.750.422,170
The Sun Also Rises item 021 · after ch. 3 · Ernest Hemingway 0.560.620.620.423,514
The Secret Garden item 013 · after ch. 2 · Frances Hodgson Burnett 0.550.600.680.373,512
The Moonstone item 011 · after ch. 8 · Wilkie Collins 0.530.500.600.494,887
Red Harvest item 023 · after ch. 2 · Dashiell Hammett 0.480.490.620.323,652
Persuasion item 001 · after ch. 1 · Jane Austen 0.430.460.470.373,798

  The widest judge split in the run: Gemini 3.7 Flash 0.75 against GPT-5.6 Sol 0.42 on The Awakening (item 016).


§ III

Length Against the Brief

Words written per item, against each brief’s maximum.

Word count per item vs. brief maximum · run ‘first’

words written brief maximum
Dracula
2,779
Leave It to Psmith
4,256
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
4,246
The War of the Worlds
3,143
The Awakening
2,170
The Sun Also Rises
3,514
The Secret Garden
3,512
The Moonstone
4,887
Red Harvest
3,652
Persuasion
3,798
01,4002,8004,2005,600
words; the ink tick marks each brief’s maximum

Zero of ten items landed inside their brief’s word range. Dracula and Leave It to Psmith and The Mysterious Affair at Styles and The War of the Worlds and The Awakening and The Sun Also Rises and The Secret Garden and The Moonstone and Red Harvest and Persuasion ran over by 179 and 1,456 and 1,446 and 543 and 370 and 914 and 1,112 and 2,087 and 1,052 and 1,198 words respectively.


§ IV

Worst Flaws, as Recorded

Each verdict names the chapter’s single worst flaw, with evidence. Quoted verbatim from run ‘first’.

The trip back for the envelope is visibly engineered to satisfy the brief — Jake insists "I'm not worried about it," then abandons Brett alone at the Select to fetch fifty francs anyway, with Brett herself prompting the errand ("Go back and get your fifty francs"), so the chapter's central movement feels contrived rather than inevitable.

on The Sun Also Rises, item 021 · Fable 5

Alfred Inglethorp is played as a transparent melodrama villain — "unctuous," "sanctimoniously," turning "mottled, dirty grey" and stammering with "something like terror" the moment Dorcas contradicts him — which telegraphs guilt so heavily it collapses the misdirection the mystery depends on.

on The Mysterious Affair at Styles, item 017 · Fable 5

Renfield is made too knowing — his precise \"Miss Lucy Westenra of Chatham Street\" and the prophecy that \"so fair a flower should wither before the summer is through\" over-signal the coming plot and strain the ban on hinting at the supernatural, despite Seward's mundane rationalisation.

on Dracula, item 015 · Fable 5

The closing telephone call is a transparent exposition device — Mike improbably volunteers exactly the details Psmith needs (the name, the Blandings post, even the bird-of-paradise hat), so the required end state arrives by authorial contrivance rather than by the story's own motion.

on Leave It to Psmith, item 022 · Fable 5

§ V

The Mechanical Docket

Automated screening results across the ten outputs.