Anyone want to edit my latest chapter?

I submitted the one before this without it being edited and reading over it I see so many mistakes.

It's my No Such Thing As Time series and I'm almost finished with the next chapter but really want it edited so it isn't a mess like the last one.

So anyone interested? It's a sort of post apocalyptic story, here's a link to the first chapter if anyone wants to familiarize themselves with it, or to see if they want to edit the next chapter.
https://www.literotica.com/s/no-such-thing-as-time-ch-01

Thanks!

No real time to read, but I do have a suggestion for times when you want a little extra help, but can't find a human to do it for you.

Grab a text to speech program. I use Natural Reader's free version. ( Probably going to upgrade to paid, now that my finances are stabilized at last ) You'll be amazed at the errors that jump out and club you in the head with Mjolnir when delivered via audio.

Combine that with grammar check + cold read in a different font face/size and you'll catch enough errors to reduce your after-publication cringing.

Good for sentences that sound fine in your head, but come out clunky as all hell when you hear them read. I've even caught continuity and logic errors that I missed in my cold read.

Always nice to pass the cleanest copy possible to someone when you do have a second set of eyes, too.

RejectReality said:

No real time to read, but I do have a suggestion for times when you want a little extra help, but can't find a human to do it for you.

Grab a text to speech program. I use Natural Reader's free version. ( Probably going to upgrade to paid, now that my finances are stabilized at last ) You'll be amazed at the errors that jump out and club you in the head with Mjolnir when delivered via audio.

Combine that with grammar check + cold read in a different font face/size and you'll catch enough errors to reduce your after-publication cringing.

Good for sentences that sound fine in your head, but come out clunky as all hell when you hear them read. I've even caught continuity and logic errors that I missed in my cold read.

Always nice to pass the cleanest copy possible to someone when you do have a second set of eyes, too.

Click to expand...

Interesting concept, but not sure I want my stuff read out loud with my granddaughter here.

And thanks for the suggestions, but I think I've decided to just not submit anything else. Not really getting any views or feedback anyway, maybe this isn't the right place for me.

One earbud

You pick up everything you need from the reading, and can still hear that telltale silence that precedes little ones about to do something they know damn good and well they're not supposed to be doing.

I've been wondering about a text to speech helper. I've never used or heard one in use...my biggest unknown is; Does the voice program pick up the inflections of a human reader...or does it sound like a bad robot? Also, can it detect slang? I could see where something like this would be really helpful.

Just thought of another question; Do you just listen, or is the text visible as it goes through the story...and allow for pause/correct to the text when something jumps out as needing correction/rewording, etc. ?

ETA: I just gave the free web version a test drive. It sounds a bit like a robot, but I can see where this could be helpful...thanks for bringing it up.

yukonnights said:

I've been wondering about a text to speech helper. I've never used or heard one in use...my biggest unknown is; Does the voice program pick up the inflections of a human reader...or does it sound like a bad robot? Also, can it detect slang? I could see where something like this would be really helpful.

Just thought of another question; Do you just listen, or is the text visible as it goes through the story...and allow for pause/correct to the text when something jumps out as needing correction/rewording, etc. ?

ETA: I just gave the free web version a test drive. It sounds a bit like a robot, but I can see where this could be helpful...thanks for bringing it up.

Click to expand...

I've got a reasonable read-bot on my Office Suite word-clone package, with a quite nice American female accent (Californian I think, to the extent I know Yankee regional accents). I'd prefer an English reading accent, but beggars etc. I occasionally (very occasionally) use it to check the cadence and beat of my writing - because it's a bot it's all at constant speed so it's sometimes handy for that.

I write very clean copy straight up, so I've no idea if it's useful for constructional checks - but the way I see it, if you write crap grammar, hearing it read won't be helpful, because you'll just hear what you've written, and won't know it's crap. What's needed, I reckon, is a reader-bot that sniggers when you write something silly, and outright guffaws when you really cock it up. You'd have to be able to program the voice to read it like the very stern English teacher you had in high school.

Just upgraded, and the paid voices are a little less robotic. Plus, you can edit the pronunciation. It's fiddly, but at least my fantasy character names don't make me cringe every time it says them. Celes, pronounced as Seals? Really?

I need to look deeper into it and see if perhaps there's functionality beyond changing the spelling to get closer to the pronunciation you prefer. Being able to distinguish long vowels and such, for example.

The main thing it helps me with is those ridiculous typos that fly past you no matter how many times you read them. They instead of The. He instead of Her. Things of that nature are like someone sounding an airhorn inside your head when read aloud by a voice not biased by what's supposed to be there.

yukonnights said:

I've been wondering about a text to speech helper. I've never used or heard one in use...my biggest unknown is; Does the voice program pick up the inflections of a human reader...or does it sound like a bad robot? Also, can it detect slang? I could see where something like this would be really helpful.

Just thought of another question; Do you just listen, or is the text visible as it goes through the story...and allow for pause/correct to the text when something jumps out as needing correction/rewording, etc. ?

ETA: I just gave the free web version a test drive. It sounds a bit like a robot, but I can see where this could be helpful...thanks for bringing it up.

Click to expand...