Vol. I · No. 1 · MMXXVI
NextChapterBench A Benchmark of Literary Continuation
23 models · 10 items · 1 judge

The Standings → Gemini 3.1 Pro

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Gemini 3.1 Pro

high reasoning effort · via Antigravity CLI · judged by Claude Sonnet 5

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

Gemini 3.1 Pro scores 56 on craft, 7 points below the field’s 63 and 37 points short of the authors themselves. Its shape differs from the field’s: relatively strong on momentum and building scenes, relatively weak on restraint and sentence-level prose. On the mechanical checks it kept to the brief’s word range on 3 of 10 items and leans on stock phrases more than most.

Headline 53.4 of 100 · compliance × craft
Compliance 95 of 100
Craft 56 of 100

The record: 10 items · 10 verdicts · 0 errors · 2,792 words on average · est. generation cost $2.26

Read the chapters in full

§ I

Craft by Dimension

Eight dimensions, each 0–100, averaged over ten items; the author’s real chapter was in the room every time.

Craft by dimension, 0–100 · judged by Sonnet 5 beside the author’s real chapter

Voice
56
Prose
56
Character
57
Scene
60
Integration
57
Momentum
62
Restraint
42
Specificity
59
0255075100
reader’s score, 0–100 · hollow tick: field average · filled tick: the authors themselves

The authors themselves average 93 on the five writing dimensions, the field 63, this model 56. Hover or focus a bar for the field and the authors on that dimension.

In plain words, item by item

The judge’s one-sentence best quality and worst flaw for each chapter, written for a general reader.


§ II

Per-Item Results

Headline, compliance and craft for each chapter, 0–100.

The same ten items in figures, with word counts.
Item Headline Compliance Craft Words
Leave It to Psmith item 022 · after ch. 3 · P. G. Wodehouse 65.4100653,101
The Secret Garden item 013 · after ch. 2 · Frances Hodgson Burnett 58.495622,367
The Sun Also Rises item 021 · after ch. 3 · Ernest Hemingway 54.5100552,781
The War of the Worlds item 006 · after ch. 1 · H. G. Wells 54.195572,929
The Mysterious Affair at Styles item 017 · after ch. 3 · Agatha Christie 53.495563,088
Persuasion item 001 · after ch. 1 · Jane Austen 52.4100522,986
Dracula item 015 · after ch. 5 · Bram Stoker 49.780623,112
Red Harvest item 023 · after ch. 2 · Dashiell Hammett 49.395522,600
The Awakening item 016 · after ch. 7 · Kate Chopin 49.295521,726
The Moonstone item 011 · after ch. 8 · Wilkie Collins 48.195513,235

§ 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
Leave It to Psmith
3,101
The Secret Garden
2,367
The Sun Also Rises
2,781
The War of the Worlds
2,929
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
3,088
Persuasion
2,986
Dracula
3,112
Red Harvest
2,600
The Awakening
1,726
The Moonstone
3,235
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. Leave It to Psmith and The Sun Also Rises and The War of the Worlds and The Mysterious Affair at Styles and Persuasion and Dracula and The Moonstone ran over by 301 and 181 and 329 and 288 and 386 and 512 and 435 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 states feelings outright instead of showing them ('I felt cold and completely hollow inside') and strings together too many near-identical stops (Select, Bois, Halles, Crillon) that read like a checklist of a night rather than one shaped scene.

on The Sun Also Rises, item 021 · Claude Sonnet 5

The narration frequently stops to tell the reader exactly what a character is feeling ('He was touched... indicating a nobility of soul he found deeply appealing'), which flattens jokes that should be left for the reader to catch themselves.

on Leave It to Psmith, item 022 · Claude Sonnet 5

The narration keeps stopping to explain exactly what Edna is feeling and what it all means (a 'fierce, wild thrill of exultation,' an 'unfathomable horizon'), which spells out emotions the original author would have left implied.

on The Awakening, item 016 · Claude Sonnet 5

The big final clue (a scrap of cardboard tied to 'the geometry of shadows') is explained by Poirot in a way that sounds like nonsense rather than a real, teasing mystery clue, so the ending confuses instead of intrigues.

on The Mysterious Affair at Styles, item 017 · Claude Sonnet 5

§ V

The Mechanical Docket

Automated screening results across the ten outputs.