Arjuna Badger PressArjuna Badger Press
NovelBench — the read-only manuscript scorer
Part of the technology exposé. The instrument that turns "this feels off" into "this number moved."
NovelBench is a genre-aware scorer that grades a finished manuscript on craft dimensions against per-genre targets. Its defining discipline: it is read-only. It scores; it never rewrites. That separation is the whole point — a tool that measures can be trusted, because it has no stake in the edit it's judging.
What it measures
| Dimension | What it asks |
|---|---|
| Tension | does the scene pull forward, or sit? |
| Pacing | is the energy modulated, or flat? |
| Agency | does the protagonist act, or get acted upon? |
| Structure conformance | does the chapter match its blueprint node (arrive → obstacle → cost → key …)? |
| Voice | is the cast distinct, or homogenised? |
| Over-explanation | does the prose trust the reader, or spell it out? |
Each dimension is scored against a per-genre target — an adventure-thriller wants different numbers than a literary character study — so "good" means "good for this kind of book," not a single abstract bar.
Two tiers
flowchart LR
M[Finished manuscript] --> L[Local pass<br/>deterministic, free<br/>sentence-layer metrics]
M --> A[LLM scorecard<br/>metered, deeper read]
L --> R[(Score report<br/>numbers + deltas)]
A --> R
R --> J{Did the revision<br/>improve the book?}
J -->|score up| KEEP([keep the edit])
J -->|score down| REVERT([it just changed it])
- A free local / deterministic pass (sentence-layer metrics) runs on every build — no cost, always on.
- A metered LLM scorecard gives a deeper, human-like read when a section is worth the spend.
Why read-only is the invention
The studio's one invariant is tools measure and sound the alarm; they do not generate, and they do not drive. NovelBench is that rule made concrete. Because it never edits, its score is an honest referee on every other pass: the de-LLM loop can claim it removed a tell, and NovelBench is the neutral party that says whether the book actually got better — or just got different.
← Back to the technology exposé · feeds the de-LLM loop.
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