Last time we talked, I was just finishing draft 4.0. That’s the last draft with no grammar checking.
With 4.0 done (woohoo!), I can dive into what may be my least favorite part of writing a book… a computer telling me how bad my English is. It’s time consuming, tedious, and torturous. To call it a necessary evil may be correct, but it’s not exactly how I feel about this step. I try to look at it like a learning from a tough-love master, who may bring me near tears at times, but always has my best interests in mind.
I appreciate that such tools are available and are so thorough. Likewise, I’m grateful that they can significantly raise the quality of my work without either becoming a grammar wizard myself, or hiring one. Not that I ever want to put anyone out of job, but when you’re an unknown part-time writer, hiring a real editor is out of the question.
My tool of choice is Grammarly. Back when I first started writing, there were two major players and the other was Pro Writing Aid. For a time (a year, to be exact), I had both. And with my first book, I was so obsessed with being perfect that I ran each chapter through both.
FYI - This is not meant to be a comparison review—that ship sailed 5+ years ago.
The difference was stark to me and the choice was easy. Pro Writing Aid was crazy powerful and customizable, but it was also bewildering. It was as though I needed to be an English professor to know how to use it. While Grammarly was simpler. It didn’t seem to catch as much, but it caught the big stuff. It seemed more focused on meeting my goals rather than following every last language rule.
Grammarly has evolved to the point where I no long find a ton of value in its more advanced features. Some opinions are fine and welcome, but if you’re not careful, it will rewrite everything multiple times. It’s so smart that it corrects itself. Before you know it, you have a mess that at worst is incomprehensible, and at best is plastic and devoid of personality.
I still use and would recommend it, but I just caution that it’s still just a tool. You need to guide it and make decisions as you see fit. Don’t let it boss you around.
What I’ll do is leave this post completely untouched. Then I’ll run it through the program, letting it do what it thinks is right, and paste that below. I don’t know what we’ll get, but it will be fun to find out!
Rewritten by Grammarly…
The last time we talked, I was just finishing draft 4.0, which is the last draft without grammar checking.
With 4.0 done (woohoo!), I can dive into my least favorite part of writing a book… a computer telling me how bad my English is. It’s time-consuming, tedious, and torturous. Calling it a necessary evil may be correct, but it’s not how I feel about this step. I try to look at it like learning from a tough-love master, who may bring me near tears at times but always has my best interests in mind.
I appreciate that such tools are available and are so thorough. Likewise, I’m grateful that they can significantly raise the quality of my work without either becoming a grammar wizard myself or hiring one. Not that I ever want to put anyone out of a job, but hiring a real editor is out of the question when you’re an unknown part-time writer.
My tool of choice is Grammarly. When I first started writing, there were two major players: Grammarly and Pro Writing Aid. For a time (a year, to be exact), I had both. With my first book, I was so obsessed with perfection that I ran each chapter through both.
FYI - This is not meant to be a comparison review—that ship sailed 5+ years ago.
The difference was stark to me, and the choice was easy. Pro Writing Aid was crazy powerful and customizable, but it was also bewildering. It was as though I needed to be an English professor to know how to use it. While Grammarly was simpler. It didn’t seem to catch as much, but it caught the big stuff. It seemed more focused on meeting my goals rather than following every last language rule.
Grammarly has evolved to the point where I only find a little value in its more advanced features. Some opinions are fine and welcome, but if you’re not careful, it will rewrite everything multiple times. It’s so intelligent that it corrects itself. Before you know it, you have a mess that, at worst, is incomprehensible and, at best, is plastic and devoid of personality.
I still recommend it, but I am cautious that it’s still just a tool. You need to guide it and make decisions as you see fit. Don’t let it boss you around.
I’ll leave this post completely untouched. Then, I’ll run it through the program, letting it do what it thinks is right, and paste that below. I am still determining what we’ll get, but it will be fun to find out!