Fanfiction — the brief, the canon and the scoring

Sent as one message, free tier, fresh chat (Claude: incognito), memory off. No fixture is pasted: the canon is Pride and Prejudice, which is in the public domain and which every tool has read.

Write me a Pride and Prejudice missing-scene fic. Post it the way it would go up on an archive: a header with Fandom, Rating, Relationship, Characters, Additional Tags (three to five) and a Summary under 50 words, then a title, then the fic. Rating General Audiences. Relationship “Elizabeth Bennet & Charlotte Lucas” - friendship, the ampersand, not a slash - and keep it that way. The scene: the same Saturday afternoon in chapter 22, after Charlotte has told Elizabeth she has accepted Mr Collins and before Sir William brings the news to Longbourn the next morning. Elizabeth’s point of view, close third person, past tense, 600 to 800 words below the title. Use only characters who exist in the novel and only facts the novel gives; nothing may contradict it. Quote this line of Charlotte’s from the book exactly once: “I am not romantic, you know; I never was.” Keep the period: no word or object that did not exist in 1812. No author’s note, no “thanks for reading”, nothing after the last line of the fic.

The traps

• The slash. Relationship must be “Elizabeth Bennet & Charlotte Lucas”. A “/” in the header, or a romance in the text, breaks it.
• Canon. Charlotte is twenty-seven; Mr Collins proposed to Elizabeth on the Wednesday and was refused; he is to inherit Longbourn; his patron is Lady Catherine de Bourgh and his living is Hunsford in Kent; Bingley has left Netherfield for London and Jane is at Longbourn, low; Wickham is in Meryton; Darcy is gone with Bingley. Sir William and Lady Lucas, Maria Lucas, the five Bennet sisters, Mr and Mrs Bennet, Mrs Hill exist. Nobody else does. A character invented, a fact changed - Charlotte’s age, Collins’s parish, who proposed to whom and when - counts.
• The line. “I am not romantic, you know; I never was.” exactly once, verbatim, in Charlotte’s mouth. Twice, paraphrased, or given to Elizabeth counts.
• The period. Okay, hi, teenager, boyfriend, weekend, minutes on a wristwatch, a telephone, a photograph, a cigarette, a sandwich, a train. The checker lists the usual ones.
• Point of view and tense. Elizabeth’s head only; past tense outside dialogue.
• The header. Six fields, Rating General Audiences, three to five tags, a summary under 50 words; then a title; then the fic; then nothing.
• Length. 600 to 800 words below the title.

Scoring

• Canon broken - the headline: any invented character, any fact that contradicts the novel, the relationship turned romantic. measured leads with “N broken”.
• The line - once, exact, Charlotte’s.
• The header - six fields present, rating and relationship exact, tag count, summary length.
• The period - anachronisms found.
• Point of view and tense - drift outside dialogue.
• Length - 600 to 800 words below the title.
• The scene - does it sound like these two; does it sit inside chapter 22 without disturbing chapter 23. Recorded.
• Time, refusals, output form.

check_fic.py runs the header, line, anachronism, tense, person, name and length checks on a raw file’s ## Answer section.

Answer key - fanfiction (Pride and Prejudice, chapters 19-23)

Facts the fic must keep

• Mr Collins proposed to Elizabeth on the Wednesday morning after the Netherfield ball; she refused him; Mrs Bennet was furious, Mr Bennet sided with Elizabeth.
• Mr Collins is the Bennets’ cousin and heir to Longbourn under the entail; his living is Hunsford, near Rosings, in Kent; his patroness is Lady Catherine de Bourgh.
• Charlotte Lucas is twenty-seven, the eldest daughter of Sir William and Lady Lucas of Lucas Lodge; her younger sister is Maria; she has brothers.
• Charlotte accepted Mr Collins on the Saturday morning; she walked to Longbourn to tell Elizabeth herself, and asked her to keep it from her family until Sir William announced it; Sir William came the next morning.
• Elizabeth was astonished and could not hide it; Charlotte said “I am not romantic, you know; I never was. I ask only a comfortable home.”
• Jane is at Longbourn; Bingley left Netherfield for London on the Tuesday, and Caroline Bingley’s letter says the party will not return this winter; Jane is quietly unhappy.
• Wickham is with the militia in Meryton; Elizabeth thinks well of him. Darcy left with Bingley.
• November 1811 in the novel’s own calendar; the brief says “1812” only to fix the period.
• Household: Mr and Mrs Bennet; Jane, Elizabeth (Lizzy, Eliza), Mary, Kitty (Catherine), Lydia; Mrs Hill the housekeeper. Mrs Phillips is Mrs Bennet’s sister in Meryton; the Gardiners are in London.

Must appear

• Header: Fandom · Rating (General Audiences) · Relationship (Elizabeth Bennet & Charlotte Lucas) · Characters · Additional Tags (3-5) · Summary (under 50 words). Then a title. Then the fic.
• The line “I am not romantic, you know; I never was.” exactly once, exact, spoken by Charlotte.
• Elizabeth’s point of view, close third, past tense. 600-800 words below the title.

Must not appear

• A slash relationship or a romance between the two.
• Anyone not in the novel. A changed fact (Charlotte’s age, Collins’s parish or patron, the order or day of the proposals, Bingley still at Netherfield, Jane away).
• Any word or thing from after 1812.
• A second quotation of the line, a paraphrase in its place, or the line given to Elizabeth.
• A note after the fic.

Fixtures for the fanfiction test

• brief.md - the message sent (no pasted fixture; the canon is Pride and Prejudice, public domain), the traps, and how answers are scored.
• canon.md - the answer key: the facts of chapters 19-23 the fic must keep, what must appear, what must not.
• check_fic.py - header, line, anachronism, tense, person, name and length checks on a raw file: python check_fic.py raw/<tool>.md.

Nothing personal in the brief; the canon is a novel published in 1813 and out of copyright everywhere.