Prose checks › Readability Pro

Prose check: readabilityEasy to read isn’t the same as simple.

Readability scores are built for manuals and web pages. For fiction, Falcontext uses the classic Flesch readability score, but with lines set for novels.

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What the score is

The Flesch reading ease score works out how easy a text is from two things: how long the sentences are, and how long the words are. Higher is easier.

It’s not a quality mark. A literary novel can score lower than a thriller and be no worse for it. Fit it to your readers.

What’s normal readability for fiction?

Flesch himself put popular fiction at 70 to 90, back in 1948, and a study of more than 9,000 novels (Bizzoni and others, 2023) found the same range.

The 38 published books I measured: the middle one scored 76.4, and the lowest 60.3.

Where these numbers come from.

How Falcontext checks readability for fiction

Guidelines, not rules. A score, not a verdict. Write for your readers, not for Flesch.

Falcontext’s Edit tab beside Perch’s writing pad: the Readability check open, finding a single sentence that is very difficult to read, marked in the text.
Finds
The Flesch reading ease of the text you check, with its grade level.
Traffic light
  • 70 or more
  • 60 to 70
  • Below 60

Most other tools go green from 60, because they’re made for plain English on the web. For a novel that told you nothing, so the line moved up.

Readability is one of the sentence-level checks in pass 3 of the five-pass self-edit, after the structure and the scenes are settled.

Do you check readability, or trust your ear?

Questions about readability for fiction.

What is a good Flesch score for a novel?

Published fiction usually scores between 70 and 90. Falcontext is green from 70, orange from 60 and red below that.

Does a low readability score mean bad writing?

No. It only measures sentence and word length. A demanding book can score low on purpose. It’s there to make you aware, not to judge.

Related checks

Sentence rhythmUncommon wordsParagraph lengthRepetitive openers

In Falcontext

Self-editing guideWhat to do in each passEditing passesRun the checks scene by sceneHow the lights are setLines from published fiction

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