Typical… My computer, a stack of stuff to edit, a black pen and a marker, and in the background, a beer and another book to read.
A writer’s life…
Category: editing
Do Self Published Authors Suck?
Yet again, I was party to a discussion about traditional publishing fiction vs. self-publishing fiction. The question was if self-published authors are any good? And yet again, the discussion had several flawed assumptions:
– If you are traditionally published you write well. If you write well you will be traditionally published.
– If you self-publish, you can’t write and you did a poor job of preparing your manuscript. People who self-publish do so because they are not good enough to traditionally publish.
As in most such discussions, there is some truth to all assumptions, but when the generalizations become gospel thoughtful discussion ends. So what is the truth of the matter?
The New AutoCrit editing software: A Review
I have written about grammar checkers and style checkers before. I continue to believe they are a powerful tool in a writer’s tool bag. AutoCrit has revised their editing software product and has an active marketing campaign underway. I signed up for their trial membership for $1 for a week. Yesterday I spent about 3 hours working on my upcoming novel with their cloud-based app. In the end, I had two strong opinions about their updated writing software.
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Hemingway Editor + Grammarly App = Nirvana (almost)
Writers always need help with editing, so this is pretty damn cool: Two of my favorite tools are now working together for free. The Hemingway App has always been free, and Grammarly has a free version. But now, with the Grammarly Chrome extension, not only can you use both of them, you can use both of them together. It’s not the same as having a human editor, but if you are trying to figure out how to write a book, this combination can be a big help. Let me explain…
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Grammar Checkers and Style Checkers: Can they help?
We are writers, not editors
Few of us think of ourselves as editors. Of course, we all want our submissions to be grammatically correct and stylistically clean and easy to read while being true to our voice. It is hard, though, to get it right. The great news is that there are powerful tools that can help, some of which are free.
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Best Grammar Checker Poll: Which one is most helpful?
Which are the best Grammar Checkers? Which one is most helpful to you? Do you prefer a Microsoft Word Plug in or something that works online with Chrome, for instance? Do they help your writing craft?
I’m interested in your feedback. And your feedback will guide other writers to the most effective tools.
Vote in the Grammar Checker poll on the next page.
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How to Improve Your Writing with Text To Speech (TTS) software. Are you listening (to yourself)?
Text to Speech (TTS) software is a surprisingly powerful tool to help you improve your writing. Whether you are writing a book, poetry or a business letter, hearing your words will allow you to perceive your words and sentences in a different way. Reading what you have written is one mental process. Hearing your words is a different process. There are subtle but important differences between the two. Listening to your words will enable you to detect errors and clunky sentences in your writing that you can’t “see” when you read your work. There are Microsoft text to speech tools, but those are not the only ones. Find — and use — one that works for you.