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The built-in reviewers cover the fundamentals: grammar, clarity, structure, voice. Every genre has its own concerns a generic editor won’t catch. This guide builds one, start to finish.

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Start from a template or blank

In the Review tab, click the + to open the new-reviewer drawer. You can start from a template like Hemingway or Worldbuilding, or build entirely from scratch.
The new-reviewer drawer with templates and fields for name, tier, description, instructions, and examples

Creating a reviewer: start blank or from a template, then set its name, tier, instructions, and examples.

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A worked example: a world-consistency checker

Say you’re writing fantasy and want to catch a magic rule or a piece of geography contradicting something from three chapters ago, not grammar. No built-in reviewer does that. Here’s how to build one that does.
1

Start blank and name it

Something specific: World Consistency Checker, not just “Consistency.”
2

Pick the right tier

This is a structural concern, not a line-level one, so Developmental is the right tier: it judges the story, not the sentences.
3

Write a one-line description

This is what surfaces under the name in the panel: Flags contradictions in magic rules and world lore.
4

Write specific instructions

Vague instructions get vague comments. Be concrete about what to check and what NOT to do: Check every mention of magic, geography, or timeline against the Story Atlas. Flag it, don't rewrite prose.
The new reviewer form filled in with a World Consistency Checker: name, Developmental tier, description, and instructions

A filled-in reviewer: a specific name, the right tier, and instructions that name exactly what to check.

Notice the instructions say “don’t rewrite prose.” A consistency checker’s job is to flag a contradiction, not fix it, that decision is yours. What a reviewer should not do is as worth specifying as what it should.

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See it live in your panel

Once you save it, your reviewer appears in its tier alongside the built-in ones, and runs the same way: toggle it on, and it joins the next review you run.
The Review Room's Developmental tier showing the newly created World Consistency Checker reviewer, marked custom and toggled on

The custom reviewer live in the panel, toggled on alongside another custom reviewer.

Look for the custom badge next to a reviewer’s name any time you want to spot the ones you’ve built.

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Iterate on your reviewer

The first version of a custom reviewer is rarely the last. After a review run, look at what it actually flagged:
  • Too noisy? Narrow the instructions. “Check every mention of magic” might need to become “check only magic system rules, not incidental references to spells.”
  • Missing things? Add an example or two under Examples. A couple of good input-to-rewrite pairs teaches the reviewer your specific standard faster than more prose in the instructions.
  • Wrong tier? Edit it and move it. A reviewer that’s really about voice belongs in Line, not Developmental, regardless of where you first put it.
Reviewers are saved to your account, so once one earns its place, it’s available on every manuscript you write, not just this one.

Next: Exporting and Sharing

Get your manuscript out of Quarkle and in front of readers.