An AI-powered editorial agent for fiction writers preparing novels for publication. Built as a real-world tool for editing a 73-chapter, 700+ page Romance/Drama novel across 16 planned titles.
Professional manuscript editing costs $0.01–0.05 per word — for a 200,000 word novel that's $2,000–$10,000 per title. For an author with 16 novels to publish, this is prohibitive. Existing AI tools treat every chapter in isolation, missing cross-chapter continuity issues that a real editor would catch.
An AI editorial agent that reads your manuscript and returns structured, actionable feedback — not generic writing advice, but specific notes tied to your actual text, your characters, and your story.
- Multi-provider AI — switch between Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini from the sidebar
- Full manuscript upload — upload
.txtor.docxfiles, or paste text directly - 4-dimension editorial feedback — Line Edits & Prose, Scene Structure, Character & Dialogue, Emotional Impact
- Scores + suggested rewrites — every section includes a score out of 10 and a concrete rewrite example from your actual text
- Chapter history tracker — tracks all chapters analysed with average scores across the novel
- Export as Word or PDF — download editorial notes in a format you can work from
- Side-by-side compare — original manuscript next to editorial notes
- API key persistence — keys stored in
.envfile, never re-enter them
See Issues for the full backlog. Key features planned:
- Novel map — auto-extract characters, timeline, plot arcs on first upload
- Full manuscript chunking — auto-split by chapter, process sequentially
- Cross-chapter continuity checks — catch character inconsistencies, plot holes, timeline errors across the whole novel
- Structured JSON output — chapter, line number, issue type, original text, suggestion (token-efficient)
- Highlighted manuscript view — render flagged passages like Copilot track changes
- Persistent memory — agent remembers previous editing sessions and builds on them
- Chat mode — ask questions about your specific novel ("what's wrong with the antagonist's arc in act 2?")
- Multi-novel management — manage 16 titles in one place
| Layer | Technology |
|---|---|
| Frontend & app framework | Streamlit |
| Language | Python 3.14 |
| AI providers | Anthropic Claude, OpenAI GPT-4o, Google Gemini |
| Document export | python-docx, ReportLab |
| Environment management | python-dotenv |
| Version control | Git / GitHub |
- Python 3.8+
- An API key from one of: Anthropic, OpenAI, or Google AI Studio
git clone https://github.com/nilanjana281/manuscript-editor.git
cd manuscript-editor
pip3 install -r requirements.txt
streamlit run app.pyCreate a .env file:
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...
GEMINI_API_KEY=AIza...
Only fill in the one you want to use. Gemini has a free tier.
Your manuscript
↓
Streamlit UI (upload / paste)
↓
Python builds editorial prompt
↓
AI provider (Claude / ChatGPT / Gemini)
↓
Structured JSON response
↓
Rendered feedback with scores + rewrites
↓
Export as Word / PDF
This is a real tool built for a real problem — not a hackathon demo. The author has a completed novel (73 chapters, 203,000 words) ready for editing and 15 more planned for publication.
Built by Nilanjana Chatterjee — Senior Product Manager specialising in AI-powered products.
Issues and PRs welcome. See Issues for the current backlog.
streamlit: command not found → Use python3 -m streamlit run app.py
ModuleNotFoundError → Run pip3 install -r requirements.txt
429 quota exceeded on Gemini → Link billing account at console.cloud.google.com (free tier still applies)
Invalid API key → Check .env — no spaces around =, no quotes around the key