Story Analysis
Story Analysis scans your entire project and flags potential issues across four categories. It runs from the Canvas toolbar and displays results in a side panel.
How to Use
- Open any Visual view (Corkboard, Timeline, Matrix, etc.)
- Click the Analyze button in the toolbar
- The analysis panel opens on the right with results grouped by category
- Click the refresh icon to re-run analysis after making changes
Analysis Categories
Pacing
Detects scene and chapter balance issues:
- Very short scenes — scenes under 500 words (draft status or later)
- Very long scenes — scenes over 5,000 words that may need splitting
- Single-scene chapters — chapters with only one scene
- Oversized chapters — chapters with more than 15 scenes
- Empty acts — acts with no chapters
- Empty chapters — chapters with no scenes
Structure
Big-picture story organization:
- Act balance — acts that are significantly shorter or longer than average
- Orphaned scenes — scenes with no character overlap with adjacent scenes
- Unused themes — themes defined in the Story Bible but never mentioned in prose
- Missing structure — projects with no acts or scenes
Character Arcs
Character presence and development tracking:
- Character gaps — characters absent for multiple consecutive chapters
- Missing milestones — main characters (protagonist, antagonist) with no arc milestones defined
- Missing emotional states — main characters with no emotional state tracking
Consistency
Story Bible contradictions (sourced from the consistency checker):
- Character contradictions — conflicting character details
- Timeline inconsistencies — chronological conflicts
- Unresolved plot points — dangling narrative threads
- Tone drift — stylistic inconsistencies
Severity Levels
| Level | Color | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | Red | Must fix — contradictions, major gaps |
| Warning | Amber | Should fix — structural imbalances |
| Info | Blue | Optional improvement — pacing suggestions |
Navigating to Issues
When an issue references a specific scene or chapter, the location appears as a clickable link. Clicking it opens that scene in the manuscript editor.
Story Analysis vs. Consistency Check
Proseweave has two review tools. Here's how they compare:
| Story Analysis | Consistency Check | |
|---|---|---|
| How it works | Rules-based heuristics — no AI involved | AI reads every scene and compares it against your Story Bible |
| What it finds | Pacing imbalances, structural gaps, character arc holes, unused themes | Contradictions, timeline errors, dropped plot threads, tone drift |
| Speed | Instant | 1–3 minutes (depends on manuscript length) |
| Cost | Free | Uses AI tokens |
| Results saved | No — computed fresh each time | Yes — full history with resolution tracking |
| Where it lives | Side panel in the Canvas views | Dedicated page (⌘5) |
The Consistency category in Story Analysis surfaces open issues from your last Consistency Check scan. If you haven't run a scan yet, that category will be empty.
Run Story Analysis periodically as you write to catch structural issues early. It works best once you have at least a few chapters with content.