Professional-grade craft analysis. On every entry. For every writer.
The Craft Engine™ is Inkladder’s proprietary craft analysis system — a suite of purpose-built analytical protocols, each one engineered against a specific, named writing theory. It’s a developmental tool, entirely separate from competition judging. It doesn’t give you opinions. It gives you a structured diagnostic of your narrative architecture, character mechanics, voice, subtext, pacing, and more. The same analytical process a professional script editor or dramaturge uses — built into a system that delivers it at scale. It uses AI to power the analysis. It never uses AI to write for you.
What makes this different
Some writing competitions and feedback services have started using AI to provide feedback on entries. Most simply run your work through a general-purpose language model and return generic observations — the same output anyone could get by pasting their story into ChatGPT. The Craft Engine™ does something fundamentally different. Each protocol is a hand-built analytical tool containing:
Named theoretical foundation
Every protocol is grounded in a specific, published framework — Yorke, Harmon, Snyder, McKee, Vorhaus, Kaplan, and others. The theory does the thinking. The AI delivers it.
Structured detection patterns
Not vague observations. Specific, named patterns the protocol is looking for — single-trait characters, on-the-nose dialogue, missing midpoints, broken story circles, inert subtext. Each pattern has a defined failure mode and a clear explanation of why it matters.
Diagnostic output, not rewriting
The Craft Engine identifies what’s broken and asks you the questions you need to answer to fix it. It never rewrites your work. It never suggests new scenes. It never imposes its voice on yours. Your craft, your choices — it just shows you where the machinery isn’t working.
Framework-specific analysis
Your entry isn’t run through one generic tool. It’s analysed against the specific framework most relevant to what you’re writing — and you can choose which lens you want applied. Want to know if your character has a functioning Yorke fracture? Ask for the Yorke protocol. Want to check your story circle? Ask for Harmon. The analysis is as specific as the theory it’s built on.
Built protocol by protocol
Each framework has its own dedicated analytical protocol. Here’s what’s inside.
John Yorke — Dramatic Architecture
Into the Woods
What it analyses
Character fractures (simultaneous conflicting traits), want vs. need, five-act structure, midpoint function, subtext layers, scene-level power dynamics. Identifies where plot is imposed ON characters rather than emerging FROM them.
Key detection patterns
Single-trait characters, sequential rather than simultaneous traits, stated rather than demonstrated fractures, on-the-nose dialogue, missing midpoint truth, symmetrical exchanges, theme stated rather than dramatised
Dan Harmon — Story Circle
Channel 101 / Story Structure
What it analyses
Eight-step narrative cycle — comfort zone, desire, unfamiliar situation, adaptation, finding what was sought, paying the price, return, change. Identifies where the circle breaks, stalls, or shortcuts.
Key detection patterns
Missing steps, reversed order, character unchanged at return, price not paid, desire unclear, adaptation skipped, change stated rather than earned
Blake Snyder — Save The Cat
Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need
What it analyses
Fifteen-beat structure from opening image through dark night of the soul to final image. Identifies missing beats, misplaced beats, and structural imbalance.
Key detection patterns
Missing catalyst, absent B-story, no dark night, theme not stated, opening and closing images identical, midpoint false victory/defeat absent
Robert McKee — Story Principles
Story: Substance, Structure, Style
What it analyses
Scene-level turning points, value changes, the gap between expectation and result. Identifies scenes without value change, predictable outcomes, and absent turning points.
Key detection patterns
Static scenes (entry state = exit state), telegraphed outcomes, missing gap between expectation and result, absent progressive complications
John Vorhaus — Comedy Architecture
The Comic Toolbox
What it analyses
Comic premise, clash of context, commitment to the game, escalation patterns, comic perspective. Identifies where comedy mechanics are missing or inconsistent.
Key detection patterns
Missing comic premise, abandoned game, flat escalation, character not committed to perspective, clash of context absent
Steve Kaplan — Hidden Tools of Comedy
The Hidden Tools of Comedy
What it analyses
Winning, non-hero, metaphorical relationship to truth, active emotion, straight line/wavy line dynamics. Identifies where comedic architecture is structurally absent beneath surface-level humour.
Key detection patterns
Character too competent for comedy, missing non-hero quality, emotion performed rather than active, no straight line for wavy line to play against
More protocols are in development. The Craft Engine grows as Inkladder grows — new frameworks, deeper detection, sharper diagnostics. Every protocol is hand-built by writers, for writers.
What you actually receive
When you submit a competition entry, The Craft Engine analyses your work and returns a structured craft report. Here’s what’s in it.
Framework selection
You choose which analytical lens to apply — or let The Craft Engine recommend one based on your format and genre. Short story entered to FRESH? Yorke’s dramatic architecture might be the best fit. Flash fiction entered to NODU? The Story Circle could reveal where your 300 words lose momentum.
Diagnostic analysis
The protocol examines your work against its specific detection patterns. It identifies what’s functioning (active fractures, working subtext, earned character change) and what isn’t (single-trait characters, on-the-nose dialogue, missing structural beats). Each finding references the theoretical principle behind it — so you’re not just told ‘this doesn’t work,’ you’re told WHY it doesn’t work according to a named, published framework.
Questions, not rewrites
The output gives you the questions you need to answer to strengthen your work. Not new sentences. Not suggested scenes. Not AI-generated alternatives. Questions. Because the answer has to come from you — it’s your story. The Craft Engine sharpens your thinking. It never replaces it.
It doesn’t have opinions. It has diagnostics.
Human feedback is subjective. A competition judge might not like your genre. A workshop peer might not connect with your subject matter. A mentor might have stylistic preferences that don’t match yours. That’s not a flaw — it’s the nature of human response. But it means the feedback you receive is always, at some level, opinion.
The Craft Engine™ doesn’t judge your work — we have judges for that. It diagnoses it. It doesn’t have favourites. It doesn’t prefer literary fiction over crime, or comedy over tragedy. It examines whether your character has a functioning internal fracture. Whether your dialogue operates on more than one level. Whether your narrative arc completes. Whether your midpoint functions as a glimpse of truth. These are structural questions with diagnostic answers — not matters of preference.
The Craft Engine sits in the Learn layer of Inkladder, not the Compete layer. It’s entirely separate from the judging process. Your competition entry is judged by human judges on its merits. Your Craft Engine analysis is a developmental tool — delivered after every entry, win or lose, to help you understand your craft and grow as a writer. One decides the competition. The other develops the writer. They never overlap.
That’s what makes it more trustworthy than human feedback for one specific job: telling you whether the machinery of your writing is working. It doesn’t replace the human reader who tells you whether your story moved them. It tells you whether the engine under the bonnet is firing on all cylinders. Both matter. Only one can be objective.
The boundary
The Craft Engine™ is:
- •A proprietary analytical system built protocol by protocol
- •Grounded in named, published writing theory
- •Objective — it analyses structure, not subject matter
- •Diagnostic — it identifies what’s working and what isn’t
- •Developmental — it sits in the Learn layer, separate from competition judging
- •Question-based — it asks, it doesn’t rewrite
- •Available on every entry, to every writer
- •A tool that makes professional-grade craft analysis accessible for the first time
The Craft Engine™ is not:
- •Part of the judging process — judges and diagnostics are entirely separate
- •A chatbot or generic AI writing assistant
- •Subjective — it has no opinion on your genre, style, or subject matter
- •An opinion generator
- •A rewriting tool — it never touches your words
- •A replacement for human editors — it’s a complement to them
- •A grammar or spelling checker
- •A tool that writes for you in any way, ever
See it in action.
Competition #1 opens soon. Every entry receives a full Craft Engine™ analysis — not just the winners. Join the waitlist and be the first to experience professional-grade craft feedback on your writing.