Night's Middle
So I signed up for one of those editing program things that you see online. They've been on my mind recently; one of the Nano winner prizes was a discount and chance to win a free lifetime membership at a similar online program. I didn't win the lifetime membership, and the discount wasn't all that fantastic, but it made me wonder if those types of programs were really worth it. Editing is one of the places in the writing process where I usually have a hard time finding help, and but it's also where I feel like I need the most help. An online automatic program that doesn't involve another person's schedule and also does a good job of helping me? Sign me up.
Then while I was scrolling Tumblr the other day, I saw a post about one - and it was even endorsed by a writer I admire. So I looked into it. This particular site offers a free subscription where it will edit 500 words for you at a time (if you pay for it, then you can have it edit an unlimited number of words at once) and gives you all sorts of reports telling you how to improve your writing. Sentence length, pacing, overuse of cliches, reading comprehension level, etc.
I figured that was a pretty good deal: give it a test run for free with a few 500-word samples, and decide if I want to pay for the whole shebang. Right?
Well. I put in the first 500 words of the next chapter of TNL, because it's more or less done. I might not get back much information - but then, I might, so who knows.
I'm still laughing about the results. It did pick up a few places where I could have made better word choices, and it noted when I used a single word several times within a couple of paragraphs. But it also tagged proper names as misspellings, as well as when one character stutters a reply. "N-n-no," he said. Would you like to replace "n" with these suggested words?)
But I think my favorite suggestion by far was when it said, "Middle of the night is a needlessly wordy statement. Consider replacing with night's middle." And now I can't stop laughing.
So of the 15 or so suggestions the program had for me in the span of 500 words... I accepted maybe three of them, and on the whole, they were pretty minor suggestions. I'm not going to make or break a program on one sampling... but I'm definitely not convinced this program is really that worth it. I'll give it a few more samples, probably from one of the first-draft Nano novels... but in the meantime, I can't stop giggling.
Night's Middle! It sounds like a chapter title in a fantasy book! Didn't Tolkien name one of his Hobbit villages Night's Middle? "Yes, we have to ride to Night's Middle before the Orcs catch up to us!"
*snickers*
Cross-posted from Dreamwidth. Comment in either location.
Then while I was scrolling Tumblr the other day, I saw a post about one - and it was even endorsed by a writer I admire. So I looked into it. This particular site offers a free subscription where it will edit 500 words for you at a time (if you pay for it, then you can have it edit an unlimited number of words at once) and gives you all sorts of reports telling you how to improve your writing. Sentence length, pacing, overuse of cliches, reading comprehension level, etc.
I figured that was a pretty good deal: give it a test run for free with a few 500-word samples, and decide if I want to pay for the whole shebang. Right?
Well. I put in the first 500 words of the next chapter of TNL, because it's more or less done. I might not get back much information - but then, I might, so who knows.
I'm still laughing about the results. It did pick up a few places where I could have made better word choices, and it noted when I used a single word several times within a couple of paragraphs. But it also tagged proper names as misspellings, as well as when one character stutters a reply. "N-n-no," he said. Would you like to replace "n" with these suggested words?)
But I think my favorite suggestion by far was when it said, "Middle of the night is a needlessly wordy statement. Consider replacing with night's middle." And now I can't stop laughing.
So of the 15 or so suggestions the program had for me in the span of 500 words... I accepted maybe three of them, and on the whole, they were pretty minor suggestions. I'm not going to make or break a program on one sampling... but I'm definitely not convinced this program is really that worth it. I'll give it a few more samples, probably from one of the first-draft Nano novels... but in the meantime, I can't stop giggling.
Night's Middle! It sounds like a chapter title in a fantasy book! Didn't Tolkien name one of his Hobbit villages Night's Middle? "Yes, we have to ride to Night's Middle before the Orcs catch up to us!"
*snickers*
Cross-posted from Dreamwidth. Comment in either location.