Hitting a Sweet Spot that Makes Sense for You

This score is meant to be a benchmark for you as a writer to understand the complexity of your sentence structure and grammar. It's also a way to monitor the impact your extensive edits have on your manuscript as a whole. The score is not your complete answer to "am I writing well or poorly." Instead, you must use the Writing Complexity Score along with your intended target audience and other data points supplied on the Story Insights Report, to interpret what this means for the status of your writing.

The Writing Complexity Score is a score developed by Wattpad to analyze the complexity of the grammar and sentence structure of a story. Complexity is measured by how dynamic and varied your sentence structure is, and also how refined your grammar is. It's essential to remember that the Writing Complexity score is based on two criteria: your story's grammar and your story's sentence structure.

The Writing Complexity Score reviews your story as a whole, so making small adjustments to your story will not immediately change this score. Generally, only significant edits to your manuscript will result in changes to your Writing Complexity Score.

In practice, we find that higher Writing Complexity Scores are associated with writers who push the boundaries of their writing and play with their writing craft more intensely than those with lower Writing Complexity Scores do. Stories with lower Writing Complexity Scores are highly associated with stories that are more accessible to wider audiences!

Remember: Low vs High is not the same as bad vs good. If your Writing Complexity is low, that means your story will be more accessible to a younger audience. If your Writing Complexity is high, it likely won't be as accessible to that same audience - which might be what you're aiming to do! On the other hand, a high score is not ideal if you intended to reach a younger audience, and a low score is not suitable if you intended to reach an older audience.

While Low vs. High is not the same as bad vs good, we recommend writers target a score of anything between 4-10 unless they are writing for very young audiences.

To help understand your score, here are guidelines on how to interpret your results:

Low Writing Complexity Score (0-3)
Your score is between 0-3, which means that your story has a simple sentence structure and/or your grammar might need some adjustments. If your story is targeted to a young audience (Middle Grade) your simpler sentence structure may be a benefit to this audience. However, if you intended to target an older audience, or to play more intensely with your writing craft, you can make edits to increase your Writing Complexity Score. To see meaningful changes to this score, comb through your manuscript using the other metrics on the dashboard as a guide (sentence starter words, adverbs, and sentence lengths). This means avoiding repetition in the words you use to describe actions or characters, ensure you vary the length of your sentences according to the pace you are trying to set, and not getting lazy with your descriptions. Also, have a fellow writer help you edit your manuscript for spelling and grammar one more time.

Medium Writing Complexity Scores (4-7)
Your score is between 4-7, meaning your sentence structure and grammar is neither complex or simple. If your target audience is Young Adult or New Adult, then a Writing Complexity of 4-7 indicates you are likely in the right place. However, if you intended to target an older audience, or to play more intensely with your writing craft, you can make edits to increase your Writing Complexity Score. To see meaningful changes to this score, comb through your manuscript using the other metrics on the dashboard as a guide (sentence starter words, adverbs, and sentence lengths). Also try to add more vivid imagery in your sentences, and have a fellow writer help you edit your manuscript one more time.

High Writing Complexity Scores (8-10)
Your score is between 8-10, meaning you've played intensely with your writing craft and your grammar is quite polished. However, a high Writing Complexity Score is not always a great feature if your target audience is very young, and it could mean that your narrative is too complex for them.

If you desire to increase your score, comb through your manuscript using the other metrics on the dashboard as a guide (sentence starter words, adverbs, and sentence lengths). Also try to add more vivid imagery in your sentences, and have a fellow writer help you edit through your manuscript one more time. If you wish to lower your score, find ways to simplify your writing or vocabulary. Take a look at the length of your sentences. If they lean towards being quite lengthy (over 25 words), try to shorten many of them to reduce your Writing Complexity score.