Auto-editing with Autocrit

Paula loves the Autocrit editing website!

No one is paying me to say this, so you can believe me when I say that Autocrit Wizard is by far the best editing programme I have found online. I first joined about three years ago, and to start with, paid the minimum subscription which allowed me to upload 1,000 words at a time for analysis. I found it so useful that I upgraded to the ‘platinum’ subscription which meant I could upload a complete chapter at a time. Last year, just before the site was revamped, I was offered a life membership to the ‘professional’ package at a very good price i.e. they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse!

The programme analyses your writing under various headings e.g. Pacing and Momentum, Dialogue, Strong Writing, Word Choice, and Repetition. Some of these are more useful than others.

The Dialogue section highlights dialogue tags and adverbs in dialogue (meaning adverbs tagged on to ‘he said’ etc). On the whole I’ve weaned myself away from synonyms for ‘said’, and tend to use actions if I need to show which character is speaking, but after looking at the Autocrit analysis, I can spot the places where I need to remove a dialogue tag and/or rephrase something.

‘Strong Writing’ includes adverbs generally – and I’ve realised how many times my characters say ‘probably’! It also highlights clichés, although I would argue that some of the words it highlights are not what I would call clichés e.g. in my latest chapter, it highlighted ‘in the main’ which I accept could be called a cliché, but I was using it in the phrase ‘in the main street’ which is different! Unnecessary filler words are also highlighted – the dreaded ‘that’, ‘then’, and ‘just’, amongst others.

Word Choice includes generic terms like ‘very’, ‘really’, ‘nice’ etc. I must admit I do keep some of these in dialogue, because it’s often how people talk, but I try to keep them to a minimum. I’ve realised I use ‘He (or she) looked’ too often. I tend to alternate between ‘looked’ and ‘glanced’ – but I know I need to find some better words! And I won’t admit to the number of times I use ‘maybe’–ouch!

Probably the most useful section (to me, anyway) is the Repetition section – repeated words and phrases. These are shown in different ways i.e. when the same word or phrase has been used twice or more within four or five lines, and also how many times a word or phrase appears in a chapter. I never realised before how often my characters smile, grin, or nod!

Another section allows me to list the words I already know I use too much i.e. ones which might not be picked up in the analysis. Although I’m aware of these, they still manage to creep into my manuscript.

It probably takes me two or three hours, sometimes more, to go through each chapter, but it is time well spent. After I’ve done all the corrections, deletions, rephrasing etc, I know I have a more tightly written chapter – and I know what to watch out for in the future, so it’s a good learning curve.

Having said all this, Autocrit only looks at the ‘technical’ aspects of writing. For advice about the plot and characters, and suggestions to improve the storyline, I continue to rely on my much valued critique partners.