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

The Standings → GPT‑5.5

Live run data

OpenAI

GPT‑5.5

xhigh reasoning effort · via Codex CLI · judged by Fable 5 and Gemini 3.7 Flash and GPT-5.6 Sol

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

Headline 0.705 compliance × craft
Compliance 0.977 of 1.0
Craft 0.719 of 1.0

The record: 10 items · 30 verdicts · 0 errors · 2,098 words on average · est. generation cost $2.28

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
3.93
Prose
3.93
Character
3.90
Scene
3.77
Integration
4.03
Momentum
3.70
12345
craft mark, 1–5; bars begin at the scale’s floor of 1

Integration is the strongest dimension (4.03); momentum the weakest (3.70). 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
Red Harvest
The Moonstone
The War of the Worlds
Persuasion
The Secret Garden
Leave It to Psmith
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
The Sun Also Rises
The Awakening
Dracula
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
Red Harvest item 023 · after ch. 2 · Dashiell Hammett 0.760.750.750.792,448
The Moonstone item 011 · after ch. 8 · Wilkie Collins 0.750.750.750.751,620
The War of the Worlds item 006 · after ch. 1 · H. G. Wells 0.740.710.750.752,692
Persuasion item 001 · after ch. 1 · Jane Austen 0.740.710.750.752,296
The Secret Garden item 013 · after ch. 2 · Frances Hodgson Burnett 0.720.710.710.75814
Leave It to Psmith item 022 · after ch. 3 · P. G. Wodehouse 0.710.710.750.672,916
The Mysterious Affair at Styles item 017 · after ch. 3 · Agatha Christie 0.690.750.750.562,654
The Sun Also Rises item 021 · after ch. 3 · Ernest Hemingway 0.680.710.710.621,463
The Awakening item 016 · after ch. 7 · Kate Chopin 0.670.670.710.63570
Dracula item 015 · after ch. 5 · Bram Stoker 0.590.670.710.383,509

  The widest judge split in the run: Gemini 3.7 Flash 0.71 against GPT-5.6 Sol 0.38 on Dracula (item 015).


§ 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
Red Harvest
2,448
The Moonstone
1,620
The War of the Worlds
2,692
Persuasion
2,296
The Secret Garden
814
Leave It to Psmith
2,916
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
2,654
The Sun Also Rises
1,463
The Awakening
570
Dracula
3,509
01,0002,0003,0004,000
words; the ink tick marks each brief’s maximum

Three of ten items landed inside their brief’s word range. The War of the Worlds and Leave It to Psmith and Dracula ran over by 92 and 116 and 909 words respectively.


§ IV

Worst Flaws, as Recorded

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

The chapter is so compressed that the required beats pass as a sequence of brief vignettes rather than built scenes — the first swim and the lady in black's first words, which should carry real weight, are each over in a few lines and the latter comes off as an oracular emblem rather than a person.

on The Awakening, item 016 · Fable 5

At half the minimum length, every required beat is executed in compressed shorthand — the moor stop, the arrival, and the supper each get a paragraph where Burnett would build a scene — so the chapter reads like an accomplished sketch of itself rather than a finished chapter.

on The Secret Garden, item 013 · Fable 5

The second half slips into compressed summary — Lady Verinder's arrival and her sweeping prohibition are triggered by nothing more than Franklin's bow at 'Family reasons?', making the chapter's one big dramatic confrontation feel abrupt and brief-driven rather than earned.

on The Moonstone, item 011 · Fable 5

The closing page slackens into an inventory-style recap of facts the reader already has ("She had lied some. Maybe all... Albert Galt knew the bank had not seen the check."), telling us the state of play instead of dramatizing it and blunting the ending's pull.

on Red Harvest, item 023 · Fable 5

§ V

The Mechanical Docket

Automated screening results across the ten outputs.