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

The Standings → Muse Spark 1.3 (medium)

Live run data

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Muse Spark 1.3 (medium)

medium reasoning effort · via OpenCode CLI · judged by Fable 5 and Gemini 3.7 Flash and GPT-5.6 Sol · not the setting shown on the standings; also run at xhigh0.60 high0.58

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

Headline 0.599 compliance × craft
Compliance 0.932 of 1.0
Craft 0.640 of 1.0

The record: 10 items · 30 verdicts · 0 errors · 2,543 words on average · est. generation cost $0.43

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
3.73
Prose
3.47
Character
3.53
Scene
3.67
Integration
3.53
Momentum
3.43
12345
craft mark, 1–5; bars begin at the scale’s floor of 1

Voice is the strongest dimension (3.73); momentum the weakest (3.43). 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
The Secret Garden
Red Harvest
The War of the Worlds
Persuasion
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
The Awakening
The Sun Also Rises
Leave It to Psmith
The Moonstone
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
The Secret Garden item 013 · after ch. 2 · Frances Hodgson Burnett 0.770.750.920.642,845
Red Harvest item 023 · after ch. 2 · Dashiell Hammett 0.670.710.790.512,336
The War of the Worlds item 006 · after ch. 1 · H. G. Wells 0.650.670.670.602,786
Persuasion item 001 · after ch. 1 · Jane Austen 0.640.620.710.582,503
The Mysterious Affair at Styles item 017 · after ch. 3 · Agatha Christie 0.640.640.680.602,345
The Awakening item 016 · after ch. 7 · Kate Chopin 0.620.670.710.472,314
The Sun Also Rises item 021 · after ch. 3 · Ernest Hemingway 0.550.670.550.442,098
Leave It to Psmith item 022 · after ch. 3 · P. G. Wodehouse 0.540.600.550.473,079
The Moonstone item 011 · after ch. 8 · Wilkie Collins 0.500.630.470.403,157
Dracula item 015 · after ch. 5 · Bram Stoker 0.410.530.320.371,970

  The widest judge split in the run: Gemini 3.7 Flash 0.92 against GPT-5.6 Sol 0.64 on The Secret Garden (item 013).


§ 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
The Secret Garden
2,845
Red Harvest
2,336
The War of the Worlds
2,786
Persuasion
2,503
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
2,345
The Awakening
2,314
The Sun Also Rises
2,098
Leave It to Psmith
3,079
The Moonstone
3,157
Dracula
1,970
08001,6002,4003,200
words; the ink tick marks each brief’s maximum

Five of ten items landed inside their brief’s word range. The Secret Garden and The War of the Worlds and The Awakening and Leave It to Psmith and The Moonstone ran over by 445 and 186 and 514 and 279 and 357 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 undermined by a cluster of internal contradictions — Rachel both arranging and being surprised by the early arrival, Penelope's dead mother asked after, the fisherman's wife/daughter muddle — capped by the seam-exposing aside that Miss Rachel \"does not appear in person in this part of my story,\" which reads as the brief talking rather than Betteredge.

on The Moonstone, item 011 · Fable 5

The brief's scaffolding shows through at the hinge moments — the narration literally echoes the brief's wording (\"speaking aloud and in company,\" \"rejected this plan as outright as he had the former\") and Elizabeth's support for Anne is asserted more than earned — compounded by the raw textual corruption \"tossed it withTemplate slight contempt.\"

on Persuasion, item 001 · Fable 5

The widow's uninvited visit turns into an over-convenient confession — she volunteers that she was in the eleven-hundred block of Hurricane Street at the time of the murder and spells out her own motive (\"Because I am jealous... A wife is a fool\"), doing the plot's work for the detective instead of making him dig.

on Red Harvest, item 023 · Fable 5

The chapter suffers a catastrophic timeline and geographical breakdown at the climax, where a telegram dated 30 May claims Mina married Jonathan that morning and is returning to Exeter, directly contradicting her letter written from Exeter on the very same day preparing for a multi-day journey to Hungary.

on Dracula, item 015 · Gemini 3.7 Flash

§ V

The Mechanical Docket

Automated screening results across the ten outputs.