Run: 2026-04-24-01KQ0G8HSGF4BSKYSKW3NF99E5

Run Details

Model:: Claude Opus 4.7 (Reasoning)
Test:: Bad Writing Habits
Scenario:: Fantasy: entering an ancient ruin
Duration:: 39.8s
Cost:: $0.078125
Provider:: Amazon Bedrock

Evaluation summary

Score	Evaluator	Details Link
18.18%	Adverbs in dialogue tags	(details)
81.52%	AI-ism adverb frequency	(details)
100.00%	AI-ism character names	(details)
100.00%	AI-ism location names	(details)
67.65%	AI-ism word frequency	(details)
100.00%	Cliché density	(details)
100.00%	Emotion telling (show vs. tell)	(details)
100.00%	Filter word density	(details)
100.00%	Gibberish response detection	(details)
100.00%	Markdown formatting overuse	(details)
100.00%	Missing dialogue indicators (quotation marks)	(details)
100.00%	Name drop frequency	(details)
50.00%	Narrator intent-glossing	(details)
100.00%	"Not X but Y" pattern overuse	(details)
100.00%	Overuse of "that" (subordinate clause padding)	(details)
100.00%	Paragraph length variance	(details)
99.95%	Passive voice overuse	(details)
71.79%	Past progressive (was/were + -ing) overuse	(details)
0.00%	Em-dash & semicolon overuse	(details)
79.83%	Purple prose (modifier overload)	(details)
100.00%	Repeated phrase echo	(details)
100.00%	Sentence length variance	(details)
79.49%	Sentence opener variety	(details)
100.00%	Adverb-first sentence starts	(details)
100.00%	Pronoun-first sentence starts	(details)
70.17%	Subject-first sentence starts	(details)
84.75%	Subordinate conjunction sentence starts	(details)
27.65%	Technical jargon density	(details)
100.00%	Useless dialogue additions	(details)
59.09%	Dialogue tag variety (said vs. fancy)	(details)
83.0023%	Overall

Model input

System

You are an expert novelist with a gift for vivid, immersive prose. You write in tight third-person limited point of view with a strong narrative voice. Your prose is clean, precise, and engaging — you favor strong verbs, concrete details, and natural-sounding dialogue.

You will be given a story bible (codex) containing canonical details about characters, locations, items, and lore. Use these details to ground your writing in the established world. Stay consistent with the codex.

Write only the prose of the scene. Do not include titles, chapter headings, markdown formatting, or any commentary before or after the scene.

User/Human

<codex>
<character id="4412" name="Aurora Carter" aliases="Rory, Laila, Aurora, Carter, Malphora" pronouns="she/her" species="Human" storyRole="Protagonist">
  <eyeColor>bright blue</eyeColor>
  <hair>straight shoulder-length black</hair>
  <height>5'6"</height>
  <age>25</age>
  <scar>small crescent-shaped scar on her left wrist from a childhood accident</scar>
  <description>Aurora, referred to by her friends as Rory, is cool-headed, intelligent, and known for quick out-of-the-box thinking.</description>
  <backstory>Born in Cardiff to an Irish barrister father (Brendan Carter) and Welsh teacher mother (Jennifer Carter née Ellis), Rory reluctantly pursued Pre-Law at Cardiff University. She fled to London at the behest of her childhood friend Eva after leaving an abusive ex named Evan. By day, Rory works part-time as a delivery person for Yu-Fei Cheung's Golden Empress restaurant. She lives in a flat above Silas' bar.</backstory>
</character>

<character id="4418" name="Nyx" aliases="Nyx, the Shadow, Nightwhisper" pronouns="they/them" species="Shade" storyRole="Wild Card">
  <eyeColor>faintly glowing violet</eyeColor>
  <height>approximately 6'2" in solid form</height>
  <age>ageless</age>
  <form>humanoid silhouette of living shadow, can shift between solid and incorporeal</form>
  <voice>sounds like a whisper carried on the wind</voice>
  <description>A being of living shadow, existing between the mortal plane and the spaces between realms.</description>
  <backstory>Nyx was once a human sorcerer named Aldric who became trapped between realms during a failed summoning ritual in 1643. They now exist as a Shade, bound to the mortal plane but able to slip between shadows.</backstory>
</character>

<character id="4424" name="Isolde Varga" aliases="Isolde, the Seer" pronouns="she/her" species="Half-Fae" storyRole="Oracle">
  <eyeColor>pale lavender</eyeColor>
  <hair>silver, reaching her waist</hair>
  <height>5'5"</height>
  <age>300 years old</age>
  <appearance>ethereal, ageless</appearance>
  <speech>speaks in riddles</speech>
  <footprints>leaves no footprints when she walks</footprints>
  <compulsion>cannot lie (Fae compulsion) but can mislead</compulsion>
  <description>A Half-Fae seer exiled from the Fae Courts for sharing visions with mortals.</description>
  <backstory>She now lives in a hidden grove in Richmond Park, offering cryptic prophecies to those who seek her out.</backstory>
</character>

<location id="853" name="Dymas (Gluttony)" aliases="Dymas, gluttony, Dymasian" realm="Hel" sin="Gluttony">
  <ruler>Prince Belphegor</ruler>
  <skyColor>warm amber</skyColor>
  <description>A place of excess and indulgence. Sprawling vineyards, orchards, and gardens provide exotic ingredients for master chefs — often helbound souls contracted from Earth. Grand feasts and culinary competitions are common.</description>
</location>

<location id="861" name="The Fae Grove" aliases="Isolde's grove, Richmond grove, the Grove" realm="Earth (Fae-touched)">
  <parkLocation>Richmond Park</parkLocation>
  <standingStones>ancient oak standing stones mark the boundary</standingStones>
  <timeBehavior>time moves differently — an hour inside can be minutes or days outside</timeBehavior>
  <flora>wildflowers bloom year-round</flora>
  <description>A hidden clearing that exists in a pocket between Earth and the Fae realm.</description>
</location>

<item id="2001" name="Heartstone Pendant" aliases="the pendant, Heartstone" type="Artifact" origin="Dymas">
  <gemstoneColor>deep crimson</gemstoneColor>
  <chainMaterial>silver chain</chainMaterial>
  <size>roughly the size of a thumbnail</size>
  <behavior>pulses faintly with warmth when near a Hel portal</behavior>
  <glow>faint inner glow</glow>
  <description>Given to Aurora by an unknown benefactor.</description>
</item>

<item id="2006" name="Fae-Forged Blade" aliases="the Fae blade, Isolde's gift" type="Weapon" origin="The Fae Courts">
  <material>moonsilver</material>
  <shape>slender, leaf-shaped dagger</shape>
  <temperature>always cold to the touch</temperature>
  <glow>faintly luminescent in moonlight</glow>
  <power>can cut through magical wards; particularly effective against demons</power>
  <givenTo>given to Aurora by Isolde as a gift</givenTo>
  <description>A weapon of the Fae Courts, rare and highly coveted.</description>
</item>

<lore id="7001" name="The Veil" aliases="the Veil, the Barrier, the Boundary" category="Cosmology">
  <solsticeEffect>weakens during the winter solstice, strengthens during the summer solstice</solsticeEffect>
  <appearance>faint shimmering distortion visible only to those with supernatural sight</appearance>
  <monitoring>rift points (tears in the Veil) are monitored by the Wardens</monitoring>
  <description>The Veil is the metaphysical barrier separating Earth from Hel and the Fae Realms.</description>
</lore>
</codex>

Write a fully fleshed out scene of at least 1000 words in the fantasy genre.

A small group enters an ancient, otherworldly place for the first time. The environment is alien and wondrous. Describe their exploration — what they see, hear, and feel as they move deeper. Include moments of discovery, unease, and wonder. Let the world-building emerge through the characters' experience rather than exposition.

Use the codex entries above as your world reference for characters, setting, and lore.
Only include the prose of the scene without any markdown or commentary.

Model response

The standing stones rose out of the bracken like the teeth of some long-buried animal — five crooked oaks petrified into pale grey rock, each one taller than Aurora, each one humming at a frequency she felt in her molars rather than her ears. She stopped at the threshold with one hand braced on the nearest stone. The bark-that-was-not-bark felt warm, almost skin-warm, and she pulled her palm away before she could think about that too long.

"This is it?" she said. Her voice came out flatter than she'd meant it to. Richmond Park stretched behind her in its usual Sunday-afternoon hush, dog-walkers and dappled light, but the space between the stones showed a different sky. Not a different view — a different *sky*. Pollen-gold, the colour of beech leaves in October, when by rights it ought to have been the washed-out grey of a London February.

"This is the Grove." Nyx's voice came from the hollow of her own shadow, which was longer than it should have been. "Do you want me solid or not?"

"Solid, please. If I'm going to walk into a fairy circle I'd like something I can grab onto when it bites."

The shadow peeled itself up out of the grass. Nyx resolved into their tall humanoid shape at her shoulder, violet eyes faintly lit, every line of them drinking the winter light and giving back nothing. They inclined their head toward the stones. "After you. The threshold won't like me going first."

She stepped through.

The cold went out of her bones between one footfall and the next. She hadn't realised how cold she'd been until it was gone — the kind of dank February cold that lives in your marrow — and in its place came a soft, honey-thick warmth that smelled of cut grass and something sweeter beneath it, like crushed apple. She breathed in and felt her chest loosen. She breathed out and tasted wildflower on her tongue.

"Oh," she said, very quietly.

The Grove spread before them in a shallow bowl of meadow ringed with more of the crooked oaks. Every inch of the ground was flowering. Bluebells in thick drifts that by any reasonable calendar shouldn't exist for another three months, threaded through with cowslip and vetch and poppies and a dozen things she didn't have names for — tiny silver-petalled stars that trembled without wind, trumpets of pale green that leaned toward her when she passed, as though listening. A brook she hadn't seen from the threshold threaded down the middle of the bowl, too bright, water catching light from a sun that wasn't quite where it ought to be.

Nyx came through behind her. They paused at the stones — she saw their shoulders stiffen, the faint glow of their eyes dim and brighten — and then they stepped forward, and for the first time since she'd known them she saw their shadow-self cast a shadow of its own. A thin one, grey and ordinary. It made them look, in that instant, almost human.

"Careful," they murmured. "Don't eat anything. Don't drink anything. If something offers you a gift—"

"Refuse it politely. I remember."

"Good."

They walked. The meadow gave under Aurora's boots with a spring that felt wrong — too forgiving, as though the earth itself wanted her to stay. When she glanced back at the stones, her own footprints trailed behind her in crushed grass, plain as any path. Nyx, two paces back, left nothing at all. The bluebells they'd passed through had already sprung upright again, unbent.

"You're not really here, are you," she said.

"I'm here." Nyx's voice was careful. "The Grove is only choosing to notice one of us."

A bird called, somewhere off in the canopy, and the sound struck her as wrong before she understood why: it repeated itself exactly, note for note, three beats later. Echo, she thought. Then it repeated again, and again, each time a little further away, until it trailed off into the trees like something running. The Heartstone at her throat had been quiet since they'd left her flat. It stayed quiet now. Wherever the edges of this place leaned — and she could feel it leaning, the way a room leans when someone you haven't seen yet is standing behind you — it wasn't leaning toward Hel.

They crossed the brook on stones that were too flat and too evenly spaced. On the far bank the flowers thinned and the trees thickened, old oaks with trunks as wide as cars, their roots knotted up out of the ground in great arthritic fists. Aurora ducked under a low branch and caught her sleeve on a twig. A single drop of blood welled up on the back of her wrist, just above the crescent scar, bright as one of the poppies.

The nearest tree shivered.

Not in the wind — there was no wind. A slow, attentive shiver, the way a cat's flank twitches when it's decided to be interested. Somewhere deeper in the wood, she heard something answer: a creak of wood settling, maybe, or maybe not.

"Rory." Nyx's hand closed around her uninjured wrist. Their skin was cool, dry, startlingly solid. "Don't bleed in here."

"I didn't mean to—"

"I know. Wipe it. Put the cloth in your pocket. Don't leave it."

She obeyed, pressing her sleeve to the cut. When she lowered her arm the scratch was already closing, the skin knitting faster than it had any right to. She wasn't sure whether to be grateful or terrified.

They went on. The trees opened again, more slowly this time, and the light changed — went thicker, more amber, like sunset pouring through honey — and Aurora realised with a small internal lurch that she had no idea how long they'd been walking. Ten minutes. An hour. The shadows on the ground lay at angles that kept subtly shifting when she wasn't watching them directly.

In the centre of the second clearing a woman was waiting for them, seated on a fallen oak as though she had been sitting there a long time, or had only just appeared. Silver hair fell past her waist. Her eyes, when they lifted, were the pale lavender of the first crocus of spring.

"You took the long way," said Isolde Varga, and smiled without showing her teeth. "But then, you always will."

Aurora felt Nyx go very still beside her.

"I haven't done anything yet," she said.

"No," the Seer agreed pleasantly. "Not yet."

Around them, the Grove held its breath, and listened.

Evaluation details

Result

Evaluator

Details

Meta Data

18.18%

Adverbs in dialogue tags

Target: ≤10% dialogue tags with adverbs

totalTags

adverbTagCount

adverbTags

0	"Nyx's hand closed around [around]"
1	"the Seer agreed pleasantly [pleasantly]"

dialogueSentences

tagDensity

0.409

leniency

0.818

rawRatio

0.222

effectiveRatio

0.182

81.52%

AI-ism adverb frequency

Target: <2% AI-ism adverbs (58 tracked)

wordCount

1082

totalAiIsmAdverbs

found

adverb	"very"
count	2

adverb	"really"
count	1

adverb	"slowly"
count	1

highlights

0	"very"
1	"really"
2	"slowly"

100.00%

AI-ism character names

Target: 0 AI-default names (17 tracked, −20% each)

codexExemptions	(empty)
found	(empty)

100.00%

AI-ism location names

Target: 0 AI-default location names (33 tracked, −20% each)

codexExemptions	(empty)
found	(empty)

67.65%

AI-ism word frequency

Target: <2% AI-ism words (290 tracked)

wordCount

1082

totalAiIsms

found

word	"resolved"
count	1

word	"footfall"
count	1

word	"warmth"
count	1

word	"trembled"
count	1

word	"echo"
count	1

word	"could feel"
count	1

word	"lurch"
count	1

highlights

0	"resolved"
1	"footfall"
2	"warmth"
3	"trembled"
4	"echo"
5	"could feel"
6	"lurch"

100.00%

Cliché density

Target: ≤1 cliche(s) per 800-word window

totalCliches	0
maxInWindow	0
found	(empty)
highlights	(empty)

100.00%

Emotion telling (show vs. tell)

Target: ≤3% sentences with emotion telling

emotionTells	0
narrationSentences	66
matches	(empty)

100.00%

Filter word density

Target: ≤3% sentences with filter/hedge words

filterCount

hedgeCount

narrationSentences

filterMatches

"look"

hedgeMatches

(empty)

100.00%

Gibberish response detection

Target: ≤1% gibberish-like sentences (hard fail if a sentence exceeds 800 words)

analyzedSentences	78
gibberishSentences	0
adjustedGibberishSentences	0
longSentenceCount	0
runOnParagraphCount	0
giantParagraphCount	0
wordSaladCount	0
repetitionLoopCount	0
controlTokenCount	0
repeatedSegmentCount	0
maxSentenceWordsSeen	54
ratio	0
matches	(empty)

100.00%

Markdown formatting overuse

Target: ≤5% words in markdown formatting

markdownSpans

markdownWords

totalWords

1095

ratio

0.001

matches

"sky"

100.00%

Missing dialogue indicators (quotation marks)

Target: ≤10% speech attributions without quotation marks

totalAttributions	9
unquotedAttributions	0
matches	(empty)

100.00%

Name drop frequency

Target: ≤1.0 per-name mentions per 100 words

totalMentions

wordCount

973

uniqueNames

maxNameDensity

0.72

worstName

"Nyx"

maxWindowNameDensity

1.5

worstWindowName

"Nyx"

discoveredNames

Aurora	5
Park	1
Sunday-afternoon	1
October	1
London	1
February	2
Grove	2
Nyx	7
Heartstone	1
Hel	1
Isolde	1
Varga	1
Seer	1

persons

0	"Aurora"
1	"Sunday-afternoon"
2	"Nyx"
3	"Seer"

places

0	"Park"
1	"October"
2	"London"
3	"Grove"
4	"Hel"

globalScore

windowScore

50.00%

Narrator intent-glossing

Target: ≤2% narration sentences with intent-glossing patterns

analyzedSentences

glossingSentenceCount

matches

0	"as though listening"
1	"quite where it ought to be"

100.00%

"Not X but Y" pattern overuse

Target: ≤1 "not X but Y" per 1000 words

totalMatches	0
per1kWords	0
wordCount	1095
matches	(empty)

100.00%

Overuse of "that" (subordinate clause padding)

Target: ≤2% sentences with "that" clauses

thatCount	0
totalSentences	78
matches	(empty)

100.00%

Paragraph length variance

Target: CV ≥0.5 for paragraph word counts

totalParagraphs

mean

35.32

std

32.42

0.918

sampleLengths

0	77
1	70
2	29
3	21
4	51
5	3
6	76
7	5
8	110
9	65
10	15
11	5
12	1
13	65
14	8
15	16
16	106
17	82
18	4
19	43
20	19
21	4
22	13
23	37
24	66
25	54
26	19
27	8
28	7
29	7
30	9

99.95%

Passive voice overuse

Target: ≤2% passive sentences

passiveCount

totalSentences

matches

0	"was gone "

71.79%

Past progressive (was/were + -ing) overuse

Target: ≤2% past progressive verbs

pastProgressiveCount

totalVerbs

156

matches

0	"was already closing"
1	"wasn't watching"
2	"was waiting"

0.00%

Em-dash & semicolon overuse

Target: ≤2% sentences with em-dashes/semicolons

emDashCount

semicolonCount

flaggedSentences

totalSentences

ratio

0.115

matches

0	"The standing stones rose out of the bracken like the teeth of some long-buried animal — five crooked oaks petrified into pale grey rock, each one taller than Aurora, each one humming at a frequency she felt in her molars rather than her ears."
1	"Not a different view — a different sky."
2	"She hadn't realised how cold she'd been until it was gone — the kind of dank February cold that lives in your marrow — and in its place came a soft, honey-thick warmth that smelled of cut grass and something sweeter beneath it, like crushed apple."
3	"Bluebells in thick drifts that by any reasonable calendar shouldn't exist for another three months, threaded through with cowslip and vetch and poppies and a dozen things she didn't have names for — tiny silver-petalled stars that trembled without wind, trumpets of pale green that leaned toward her when she passed, as though listening."
4	"They paused at the stones — she saw their shoulders stiffen, the faint glow of their eyes dim and brighten — and then they stepped forward, and for the first time since she'd known them she saw their shadow-self cast a shadow of its own."
5	"The meadow gave under Aurora's boots with a spring that felt wrong — too forgiving, as though the earth itself wanted her to stay."
6	"Wherever the edges of this place leaned — and she could feel it leaning, the way a room leans when someone you haven't seen yet is standing behind you — it wasn't leaning toward Hel."
7	"Not in the wind — there was no wind."
8	"The trees opened again, more slowly this time, and the light changed — went thicker, more amber, like sunset pouring through honey — and Aurora realised with a small internal lurch that she had no idea how long they'd been walking."

79.83%

Purple prose (modifier overload)

Target: <4% adverbs, <2% -ly adverbs, no adj stacking

wordCount

973

adjectiveStacks

stackExamples

0	"soft, honey-thick warmth"
1	"tiny silver-petalled stars"

adverbCount

adverbRatio

0.04933196300102775

lyAdverbCount

lyAdverbRatio

0.010277492291880781

100.00%

Repeated phrase echo

Target: ≤20% sentences with echoes (window: 2)

totalSentences	78
echoCount	0
echoWords	(empty)

100.00%

Sentence length variance

Target: CV ≥0.4 for sentence word counts

totalSentences

mean

14.04

std

11.72

0.835

sampleLengths

0	44
1	13
2	20
3	5
4	10
5	24
6	8
7	23
8	22
9	7
10	21
11	9
12	26
13	7
14	9
15	3
16	13
17	46
18	8
19	9
20	5
21	18
22	7
23	54
24	31
25	5
26	45
27	6
28	9
29	3
30	12
31	5
32	1
33	2
34	24
35	20
36	8
37	11
38	8
39	6
40	10
41	29
42	3
43	22
44	13
45	4
46	35
47	14
48	31
49	13

79.49%

Sentence opener variety

Target: ≥60% unique sentence openers

consecutiveRepeats	3
diversityRatio	0.5
totalSentences	78
uniqueOpeners	39

100.00%

Adverb-first sentence starts

Target: ≥3% sentences starting with an adverb

adverbCount

totalSentences

matches

0	"Then it repeated again, and"
1	"Somewhere deeper in the wood,"

ratio

0.034

100.00%

Pronoun-first sentence starts

Target: ≤30% sentences starting with a pronoun

pronounCount

totalSentences

matches

0	"She stopped at the threshold"
1	"Her voice came out flatter"
2	"They inclined their head toward"
3	"She stepped through."
4	"She hadn't realised how cold"
5	"She breathed in and felt"
6	"She breathed out and tasted"
7	"she said, very quietly"
8	"They paused at the stones"
9	"It made them look, in"
10	"It stayed quiet now."
11	"They crossed the brook on"
12	"Their skin was cool, dry,"
13	"She obeyed, pressing her sleeve"
14	"She wasn't sure whether to"
15	"They went on."
16	"Her eyes, when they lifted,"

ratio

0.288

70.17%

Subject-first sentence starts

Target: ≤72% sentences starting with a subject

subjectCount

totalSentences

matches

0	"The standing stones rose out"
1	"She stopped at the threshold"
2	"The bark-that-was-not-bark felt warm, almost"
3	"Her voice came out flatter"
4	"Richmond Park stretched behind her"
5	"Pollen-gold, the colour of beech"
6	"Nyx's voice came from the"
7	"The shadow peeled itself up"
8	"Nyx resolved into their tall"
9	"They inclined their head toward"
10	"She stepped through."
11	"The cold went out of"
12	"She hadn't realised how cold"
13	"She breathed in and felt"
14	"She breathed out and tasted"
15	"she said, very quietly"
16	"The Grove spread before them"
17	"Every inch of the ground"
18	"Bluebells in thick drifts that"
19	"A brook she hadn't seen"

ratio

0.78

84.75%

Subordinate conjunction sentence starts

Target: ≥2% sentences starting with a subordinating conjunction

subConjCount

totalSentences

matches

0	"Wherever the edges of this"

ratio

0.017

27.65%

Technical jargon density

Target: ≤6% sentences with technical-jargon patterns

analyzedSentences

technicalSentenceCount

matches

0	"The bark-that-was-not-bark felt warm, almost skin-warm, and she pulled her palm away before she could think about that too long."
1	"She hadn't realised how cold she'd been until it was gone — the kind of dank February cold that lives in your marrow — and in its place came a soft, honey-thick…"
2	"Bluebells in thick drifts that by any reasonable calendar shouldn't exist for another three months, threaded through with cowslip and vetch and poppies and a do…"
3	"The meadow gave under Aurora's boots with a spring that felt wrong — too forgiving, as though the earth itself wanted her to stay."
4	"In the centre of the second clearing a woman was waiting for them, seated on a fallen oak as though she had been sitting there a long time, or had only just app…"

100.00%

Useless dialogue additions

Target: ≤5% dialogue tags with trailing filler fragments

totalTags	9
uselessAdditionCount	0
matches	(empty)

59.09%

Dialogue tag variety (said vs. fancy)

Target: ≤10% fancy dialogue tags

totalTags

fancyCount

fancyTags

0	"they murmured (murmur)"
1	"the Seer agreed pleasantly (agree)"

dialogueSentences

tagDensity

0.318

leniency

0.636

rawRatio

0.286

effectiveRatio

0.182

83.0023%