Do you use editing software?

Shivana said:

I often throw a chapter through 'SlickWrite'.
I find it helpful.
I like the feature which shows how often a word is used, as sometimes, I can get an adjective/noun caught on my brain and I will overuse it.

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That's very nice for being free, and I like free. Thanks for sharing!

msd said:

I found some editing software on the internet that made me think it might be a good tool to test my writing. I know I need to use it with caution. But I tried the trial version of WordRake and it did highlight for me areas where I felt I could do better. I also tried on older version of SmartEdit. This is interesting as well.

Do you use editing software, if so, which one do you recommend?

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Oh, hell no.

I find when I concentrate too much on the craft rather than the story, I think too much about the mechanics instead of the story itself.

Good grammar comes naturally to those who read professionally-edited books. You may not be able to explain a gerund from a hanging participle, but you won't have to, because grammar will be natural to you.

I was a copy editor for (mumble mumble) years, and I have to say sometimes proper grammar is horrible writing.

leifwright said:

Oh, hell no.

I find when I concentrate too much on the craft rather than the story, I think too much about the mechanics instead of the story itself.

Good grammar comes naturally to those who read professionally-edited books. You may not be able to explain a gerund from a hanging participle, but you won't have to, because grammar will be natural to you.

I was a copy editor for (mumble mumble) years, and I have to say sometimes proper grammar is horrible writing.

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But crappy grammar is also horrible writing.

I've always been pretty technically good at writing, but in trying out some of these programs tonight, I think they did illustrate a number of issues. Would I accept every one of them? No. But they put the issue out there so you can consider it.

My rough drafts are crap. Like you, I need to focus on the story, not the mechanics, but at some point you DO need the mechanics.

Catherine_Beyer said:

But crappy grammar is also horrible writing.

I've always been pretty technically good at writing, but in trying out some of these programs tonight, I think they did illustrate a number of issues. Would I accept every one of them? No. But they put the issue out there so you can consider it.

My rough drafts are crap. Like you, I need to focus on the story, not the mechanics, but at some point you DO need the mechanics.

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Everyone is different, and there is never a "right answer."

For me, however, I'd rather questionable grammar slip through in the telling of a masterfully crafted story than have a stale story with excellent grammar.

It depends on the person. I've been reading practically since I could hold a book, but I still miss stuff when I write. I would say 99% of all errors that I make writing are things I do know the rules about. It's just that I don't see it when I'm writing. I have a bit of [FONT=&quot]ADHD and it seems that when I go over what I've written, I miss a lot. It's not that I don't know the rules, it's like I read it how it should be rather than how it actually is. [/FONT]

I really liked Autocrit BUT quite expensive. I did like the amount of detail it gave you but thought maybe prowritingaid would be just as good at more than half the price

becomingabigail said:

I really liked Autocrit BUT quite expensive. I did like the amount of detail it gave you but thought maybe prowritingaid would be just as good at more than half the price

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I think that was kind of my thought too, although they are all kind of running together after looking at so many!

Personally, no. I'm pretty anal about just about everything in my life, especially writing. I have a bad habit of going back and re-reading and editing as I'm in the middle of writing something. Maybe it isn't a bad habit, actually. I don't know. But yea, for me, there's only very slim chance of anything getting by me on even a first draft, because a first draft for me has already been re-read and edited as it's been written. There's virtually no chance of anything getting by me on a second read through. Personally, I don't think it's worth the money.

Has anyone used Serenity Editor? I have tried it on a couple of short things and it seems to flag at lot of things ProWritting Aid and Grammarly missed.

I bought a lifetime subscription for ProWritinAid on Black Friday last year. It's been somewhat helpful to analyze certain things in my writing but it'd be a mistake to not take their reports with a grain of salt.

Not really. My understanding of the technical side of syntax isn't good enough to benefit from that type of correction.

Text-to-speech is handy for identifying spelling issues resulting in incorrect words. I have tried trials of popular software, but like many on this thread, have come to the conclusion that there are too many times issues are raised where the text is correct or creative liberties are used. Then there's the other issue that faulty grammar isn't always caught...
For me, these issues outweighed the benefits.

I used Hemingway for a bit. Just no.

My MS WORD grammar/spell checker is on. I have a bunch of words that WORD doesn't recognize, such as ahungry, atall, etc. So I highlight and click Add to Dictionary.

Now, once my manuscript is in fairly good shape, I run it through ProWriteAid's grammar option. It's really good about catching comma errors, mixing curly and straight quotation marks, and such. Lots of times it will ask "Have you left out a verb/word?" Sometimes I have, most times it's a dialogue style.

Cindyt said:

Now, once my manuscript is in fairly good shape, I run it through ProWriteAid's grammar option. It's really good about catching comma errors, mixing curly and straight quotation marks, and such. Lots of times it will ask "Have you left out a verb/word?" Sometimes I have, most times it's a dialogue style.

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Is it free? If not how much does it cost?

I use the free version of Grammarly.

Laer Carroll said:

... I select a word or phrase, press the right-mouse key, select Google, and this pops up a tab in my browser which displays the Google search findings for that word or phrase. I also occasionally use a similar one which opens a tab to Thesaurus.com with the results. Ditto a call to Dictionary.com. And Wikipedia.org...

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I know this post is over a year old, but it inspired me to write a simple routine for doing this.

Tremendous help with procrastination research (c:

Splendor said:

Is it free? If not how much does it cost?

I use the free version of Grammarly.

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You can use it free, but it will not recognize over 500 words at a time.

The pro is/was $40 per year.

Someone up thread got a lifetime use, but I don't know how much that costs.

You can use the pro as an addon in MS Word. I did that for a while, but didn't like it.

Grammar checkers aren't all that useful for native speakers writing fiction, drama or poetry.

I'd use them with extreme caution. They're particularly likely to be less than helpful in terms of dialog or narration.

They're entirely rule-based; they don't understand what they're parsing, and the "rules" are often idiosyncratic stylistic or usage preferences rather than actual grammar rules.

It's always good to use a few programs.
Grammarly and Hemmingway App works for me, but doesn't catch everything.
Nothing beats having a real person comb through your work too.

To be frank, I've never realised there were so many options for editing. I've mostly used MS Word and its inbuilt checker, but I'll definitively check out some other options. The main fear I have is that I'll use it as a crutch, and lose that common sense od wording if I prioritize what it says and rely too much on its advice.

With an almost final draft I use text to speech to read through while I read through and listen. It helps me pick up things that my eyes seem to skim over such as if I type an instead of and and they and they're and so on.

I personally have never needed it, because I've simply always had good grammar. The grammatical errors I do have are accidental about 99% of the time, and scrivener/google docs is pretty good at catching those. If they miss anything, then I'll almost certainly notice while revising.

The only thing that does make me uncertain sometimes is paragraphs. Mine rarely go past four sentences, yet I see a lot famous authors with huge paragraphs. So if there's any editing software that can detect when I could combine paragraphs, then I'd probably be interested.

Shirokitty said:

I personally have never needed it, because I've simply always had good grammar. The grammatical errors I do have are accidental about 99% of the time, and scrivener/google docs is pretty good at catching those. If they miss anything, then I'll almost certainly notice while revising.

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I've never used one that has been much help to me for actual punctuation, at least. I've had grammar programs tell me something correct is incorrect far more often than I've had them spot mistakes or omissions on my part. Spell checkers are another matter entirely for me, but I have the auto correct turned off, because spell checkers often suggest the wrong word. It's almost as maddening as texting with the word selection feature enabled. I've written texts that are incomprehensible, because so many of the words the program chooses are not the ones I intended.

Some grammar checkers can be handy for spotting things like repeated or overused words, but again, they can't tell when someone is doing something for the sake of rhythm, voice or flow. They are not substitutes for human eyes (or brains).

The only thing that does make me uncertain sometimes is paragraphs. Mine rarely go past four sentences, yet I see a lot famous authors with huge paragraphs. So if there's any editing software that can detect when I could combine paragraphs, then I'd probably be interested.

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That's unlikely to happen or to be of much use if it does. When it's appropriate to change paragraphs is very much based on meaning and context, something software can't really get at. It's also a matter of style, voice, and rhythm, which are very subjective.

Roxxsmom said:

Some grammar checkers can be handy for spotting things like repeated or overused words, but again, they can't tell when someone is doing something for the sake of rhythm, voice or flow. They are not substitutes for human eyes (or brains).

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No, but there is one really valuable thing a grammar checker can do. Which is to flag erroneous typographical homonyms (it's for its, your for you're, there for their, etc.). Your spell-checker won't get those.

caw

Cindyt said:

Someone up thread got a lifetime use, but I don't know how much that costs.

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I think a Lifetime subscription cost $140 but I had 50% off during Black Friday. Might be worth keeping eyes and ears out in November for another discount if anyone's interested in getting PWA.