Software Review: Marlowe

We all use artificial intelligence (AI) in our everyday lives. Don’t believe me?

Use the fingerprint scan or facial recognition to open your phone.

Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Now look at your apps. Have a ride share option? How about navigation? Can you take a 3-D photo? Can you do a google search? Does your phone have some kind of smart assistant?

Yep, every app and function listed above are examples of AI.

Since I’m a big fan of using tools to make my life easier, AI options that can help my writing always pique my curiosity. Other AI writing tools I’ve played with in the past include ScoreIt, Fictionary, and ProWritingAid.

What (or Who) is Marlowe?

Marlowe is an AI developed by Authors AI specifically to evaluate long-form fiction (>20,000 words). To use Marlowe is as simple as creating an account, answering a few questions, and uploading a clean version of your manuscript.

Authors AI offers a basic Marlowe report for free, and the pro versions are available on a month-to-month (currently $29.99) or annual (currently $199) subscription. According to the Authors AI site, pro subscribers get promotional opportunities on the BingeBooks.com site, but I haven’t explored what opportunities are available yet.

What Does Marlowe Provide?

The basic (free) report summarizes the following:

• Dialogue vs Narrative
• Explicit Language
• Possible Cliches
• Repetitive Phrases
• Sentence Stats and Readability Score
• Frequent Adverbs
• Frequent Adjectives
• Verbs and Passive Voice
• Punctuation
• Possible Misspellings

The pro (paid) report includes the above but also provides metrics on:

• Plot Structure (archetype, conflict/resolution)
• Narrative Beats
• Pacing
• Character Personality Traits
• Primary Emotion Color Wheel
• Compilation of Major Subjects
• Book Comps for Subject Matter
• Book Comps for Linguistic Style and Voice
• Top 4 Comparable novels

Does Marlowe Work?

For comparison, I’ve run three reports; a basic and pro report on the finished manuscript for Oil and Dust, and a pro report on my current draft of Graphite and Turbulence.

Disclaimer, this is where I geek out about data and compare/contrast the reports Marlowe generated for my novels. You’ve been warned.

Reports: Comparison of Oil and Dust (Pro Report) vs Oil and Dust (Basic Report)

First, I wanted to show a comparison between the basic and pro report. This is a screenshot capture of sentence-length distribution in Oil and Dust. While the data behind each is the same, the image provided in the pro report is a little clearer and shows the range for top sellers vs my novel. The basic report does the same (showing the top books in the peach highlighting) but I find the pro report easier to read.

The next comparison is the adverb graphic. Again, the top image is from the basic report and the bottom from the pro. While I like how the pro report displays where my adverb usage lands in the overall scheme of top selling books, I actually find the basic report provides a better list of adverbs I’d try to eliminate from my novel. The adverbs listed in the pro report are more nuanced / less gratuitous and most aren’t words I’d worry about removing unless my usage fell outside of the cluster generated by top selling books.

Pro Reports: Comparison of Oil and Dust vs Graphite and Turbulence

As a data nerd, it fascinated me to see how Marlowe compared Oil and Dust (book 1 in series) to Graphite and Turbulence (book 2 in series). Note, the published version of Oil and Dust is roughly draft 9, while Graphite and Turbulence is currently on draft 3.

The difference between the finished book and a work in progress was most noticeable in the narrative beats graphic Marlowe generated. According to the report, novels with a driving plot have beats evenly spaced across narrative time. While the “heartbeat” of Oil and Dust is regular, the reading for Graphite and Turbulence is far more irregular, showing I need to do some work on conflict and resolution.

Pacing

Something else I found interesting was the pacing model Marlowe generated for each book (peaks show fast pace and valleys show slower moments).

Since these books are in a series and meant to be read in order, I wouldn’t expect them to be similar. Lining the two graphs in series gave me a glimpse of how the story is progressing through the series. I’d hoped to pick up the series narrative at the start of book 2 in much the same tone as I’d left it at the end of book 1, and this graphic shows I did a decent job of it.

Since I’m new to writing series and I plotted both novels using a modified version of the 4-act structure, I’d been a little worried my books would feel formulaic. Marlowe’s plotline comparison model reassured me that while similar, the two stories are different.

According to Marlowe, Oil and Dust has a plotline similar to The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, while Graphite and Turbulence’s plotline is most similar to Cut and Run by Fern Michaels. I haven’t read either book, so I can’t verify, but I’ve added both to my To Be Read (TBR) list.

Character Continuity

Another aspect of comparing my books I found interesting was looking at the change in major personality traits for my protagonist, Matthew Sugiyama. Since a character should grow and change throughout a novel (and series), I was happy Marlowe identified personality differences between the two books.

Book Comps

Okay, now let’s talk about the juiciest bits of the report. As a new author with few reviews (hint hint), I’m not sure yet what books my novels compare with. Seeing what Marlowe picked as comps for my books was thrilling. Since I’m writing a series, I was also interested to see if the same books would pop up for each novel. Note, the shorter the distance, the more similar the book was to mine.

For subject matter, three novels showed up in the comps for each book. I’d read three of the books Marlowe listed, but none of the novels most closely related to mine.

Four novels matched my linguistic style and voice in both of my books.

I had read none of these books, but they’re all going into the TBR list too.

Now if these two books lists weren’t enough, Marlowe also provides the top 4 books your novel matches, based on five features: Tone, Subject, Style, Mood, and Agency.

I’ve read none of these either, so please don’t let me buy any other new books until I get caught up…or people buy a lot of copies of Oil and Dust.

What I Like

The Marlowe reports are fast. Their website says 15 minutes, but I received my pro reports in ten minutes, and the basic report in less than five minutes.

The user interface is simple. The questions you fill out are minimal: Your name, the title, the genre, the POV character, and three other major characters. Don’t spend a lot of time on this; the report will feature a max of 4 characters; for my first-person manuscript, it gave me the narrator and 3 others.

I also like that I can run multiple drafts through Marlowe to see if I’m bringing my novel more in line with top selling novels. Interestingly, none of the comps Marlowe matched Oil and Dust to were on the three comps returned by the ScoreIt manuscript assessment which included Contrition by Maura Weiler, Bittersweet by Miranda Beverly Whittemore, and The Lost Sisterhood by Anne Fortier.

I’m also really impressed that Authors AI provides the basic report for free. While ProWritingAid can also generate lists of adverbs, repetitive words, and passive verbs, running your manuscript through Marlowe’s basic report gives you a colossal head start when you’re ready to work on your line edits.

Last, I LOVE the book comps. According to their reports, they are continually adding data to the model, so while my comps may evolve as the model matures, the consistency in both subject matter and tonal quality tells me these are books I should take a look at. (Sorry, TBR and wallet!)

What Could be Better

I’d love to see Marlowe provide a list of characters as part of the report. This is something that the Fictionary software does when you upload a manuscript, and I find it extremely useful.

I’m also not sure why the list of adverbs is so different between the pro and basic report when the list of adjectives was exactly the same in both reports.

Another thing I’m not sure I agree with is specific excerpts of text Marlowe classified as fast and slow pacing. Two excerpts it picked from Oil and Dust to demonstrate slow pacing were where the protagonist was physically fighting with another character. Either Marlowe’s model needs some tweaking, or she found my fight scenes dull.

Final Thoughts on Marlowe

Like all the AI programs I’ve tried, Marlowe will not write your novel for you or take the place of an editor. However, I really like how the generated report provides an objective look at your novel, at a fraction of the cost of a developmental editor. The report also analyzes where your novel does/doesn’t compare to top selling novels. What you do with that information will really depend on where you are with your writing journey.

If you’d like to try a pro report from Marlowe, you can get a discount $20 discount by using my referral link. They’ll also give me a $20 discount, so we both win.

Have you used AI tools to evaluate your writing?

Header Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash