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

The Standings → Muse Spark 1.3 (xhigh)

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Muse Spark 1.3 (xhigh)

xhigh reasoning effort · via OpenCode CLI · judged by Fable 5 and Gemini 3.7 Flash and GPT-5.6 Sol · the setting shown on the standings; also run at medium0.60 high0.58

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

Headline 0.605 compliance × craft
Compliance 0.945 of 1.0
Craft 0.637 of 1.0

The record: 10 items · 30 verdicts · 0 errors · 2,656 words on average · est. generation cost $0.59

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
3.37
Scene
3.67
Integration
3.60
Momentum
3.47
12345
craft mark, 1–5; bars begin at the scale’s floor of 1

Voice is the strongest dimension (3.73); character the weakest (3.37). 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
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
The Awakening
The War of the Worlds
Dracula
Red Harvest
Persuasion
The Moonstone
Leave It to Psmith
The Sun Also Rises
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 0.740.750.750.712,721
The Mysterious Affair at Styles item 017 · after ch. 3 · Agatha Christie 0.710.710.790.622,406
The Awakening item 016 · after ch. 7 · Kate Chopin 0.690.670.790.622,795
The War of the Worlds item 006 · after ch. 1 · H. G. Wells 0.670.630.710.672,660
Dracula item 015 · after ch. 5 · Bram Stoker 0.620.670.710.472,241
Red Harvest item 023 · after ch. 2 · Dashiell Hammett 0.610.670.710.452,271
Persuasion item 001 · after ch. 1 · Jane Austen 0.530.530.630.442,905
The Moonstone item 011 · after ch. 8 · Wilkie Collins 0.500.530.600.373,076
Leave It to Psmith item 022 · after ch. 3 · P. G. Wodehouse 0.500.590.470.423,167
The Sun Also Rises item 021 · after ch. 3 · Ernest Hemingway 0.480.640.450.342,314

  The widest judge split in the run: Fable 5 0.64 against GPT-5.6 Sol 0.34 on The Sun Also Rises (item 021).


§ 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
2,721
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
2,406
The Awakening
2,795
The War of the Worlds
2,660
Dracula
2,241
Red Harvest
2,271
Persuasion
2,905
The Moonstone
3,076
Leave It to Psmith
3,167
The Sun Also Rises
2,314
08001,6002,4003,200
words; the ink tick marks each brief’s maximum

Four of ten items landed inside their brief’s word range. The Secret Garden and The Awakening and The War of the Worlds and Persuasion and The Moonstone and Leave It to Psmith ran over by 321 and 995 and 60 and 305 and 276 and 367 words respectively.


§ IV

Worst Flaws, as Recorded

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

The closing sentence contradicts the scene it caps — Brett has already gone into her hotel and the taxi has driven off empty, yet the chapter ends with "the taxi carrying Brett" — simultaneously creating an internal continuity error and missing the brief's required end state of having put Brett into a taxi.

on The Sun Also Rises, item 021 · Fable 5

The latch-key contradiction is undercooked: Dorcas claims the key hung on its hook all night when the whole household saw Alfred take it the evening before, and Hastings — the narrator who knew this — passes over the discrepancy without a flicker, leaving the chapter's central clue logically unanchored.

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

To engineer the required end state, the closing porter scene rewrites the umbrella-return we already watched — Eve, who pointedly refused to leave her name and left the note behind, is retroactively said to have taken the note back and given her name — an internal contradiction the reader cannot miss.

on Leave It to Psmith, item 022 · Fable 5

The lady in black — a mute background figure in the source — is turned into an oracular mouthpiece whose aphorism (\"Solitude is a prayer that is not always answered\") announces the chapter's theme instead of letting it emerge, the one place the brief's machinery shows through the fabric.

on The Awakening, item 016 · Fable 5

§ V

The Mechanical Docket

Automated screening results across the ten outputs.