Anyone used Autocrit? Thoughts/opinions?

[joeyjax]

It purports to be an “editing platform” and analyzes twenty-ish different elements like spelling, grammar, use of adverbs, repetition, ‘readability’, etc.

Just wondering if anyone has used it before and how it compares to things like grammarly or scrivener.

Supposedly free but I see a paid level-up available. Not sure if either is worth it, though. (??)

Finding editors for Lit stories is difficult. Especially to find one that’s well-qualified. So I wonder how something like this would do in lieu of a human editor.

All thoughts and opinions welcome, especially comparisons to other options. I’m just trying to improve my writing before I publish my next story and wondering if I can do better than grammarly.

 

[SyleusSnow]

Hmm. First I've heard of it.

"instantly suggests improvements in over twenty areas of fiction writing and compares your work to millions of successful novels by bestselling authors."

Obviously, comparing and conforming to other authors has benefits and drawbacks. But it's an interesting idea. Have to try it out.

Link: https://www.autocrit.com/

 

[Bramblethorn]

It purports to be an “editing platform” and analyzes twenty-ish different elements like spelling, grammar, use of adverbs, repetition, ‘readability’, etc.

Just wondering if anyone has used it before and how it compares to things like grammarly or scrivener.

From a glance at their website, doesn't look like there's much overlap with Scrivener. Scrivener is primarily a tool for organising your work, not for styling it.

Here's a mostly-positive review with some examples of the kind of feedback Autocrit gives: https://michellerichmond.com/sanserif/autocrit-review/

Seems like a large part of the product is comparing things like word frequencies to a large corpus of books in the chosen genre and helping get your work closer to a typical style for that genre. This page makes me wonder how well the product would handle erotica, given that their main advice on sex scenes is "if in doubt, leave it out".

 

[eroticstoryspinner]

Never heard of it. I use a mix of Grammarly and Pro writing aid. Plus beta readers.

 

[joeyjax]

Never heard of it. I use a mix of Grammarly and Pro writing aid. Plus beta readers.

Beta readers are awesome. I LOVE them.

On the editing side, though, I'm trying to find something to help me shore things up better, along the lines of some of the things mentioned in their short blurbs (spelling and grammar, of course, but also repetition, overuse of adverbs, etc.)

I'll have to check out Pro writing aid. I've not heard of that one. My writing world has been pretty limited (mostly just Word, grammarly, and beta readers).

 

[29wordsforsnow]

Please don't replace beta-readers with artificial intelligence

 

[eroticstoryspinner]

Beta readers are awesome. I LOVE them.

On the editing side, though, I'm trying to find something to help me shore things up better, along the lines of some of the things mentioned in their short blurbs (spelling and grammar, of course, but also repetition, overuse of adverbs, etc.)

I'll have to check out Pro writing aid. I've not heard of that one. My writing world has been pretty limited (mostly just Word, Grammarly, and beta readers).

I liked Pro Writing Aid enough to subscribe to it. Its not perfect, but is good at catching things. Especially passive voice. It has a free trial, which is good.

 

[eroticstoryspinner]

Please don't replace beta-readers with artificial intelligence

Absolutely. Nothing is as good as the Mark 1 eyeball. It is just getting to the point that people will give you good beta reads.

 

[KimGordon67]

Beta readers are awesome. I LOVE them.

On the editing side, though, I'm trying to find something to help me shore things up better, along the lines of some of the things mentioned in their short blurbs (spelling and grammar, of course, but also repetition, overuse of adverbs, etc.)

I'll have to check out Pro writing aid. I've not heard of that one. My writing world has been pretty limited (mostly just Word, grammarly, and beta readers).

Have you tried reading your writing out loud? You would spot quite a few of these issues yourself.

 

[SyleusSnow]

Have you tried reading your writing out loud? You would spot quite a few of these issues yourself.

THIS. Reading out loud helps enormously in catching errors the eyeballs refuse to see.

Text-to-speech helps too... there's one built into the latest version of MS Word, and I use a free one called Balabolka that works well.

ProWritingAid is very helpful... I've subscribed to it going on 4 years now. Be sure to set the writing style to "creative" or you get much the same business-level tongue clucking Word's grammar checker barfs out.

It might be artificial intelligence, but it combats the natural stupidity my writing is filled with

 

[RejectReality]

Absolutely text to speech. Makes a huge difference. Even if you have beta readers/editors, be kind and use it first.

 

[BarracudaSwordfish]

I've been amazed by Word's immersive reader and text to speech since someone kindly pointed it out on here a couple of weeks ago. The speech is a little stilted and mechanical but it highlights so many errors that otherwise would have gone unnoticed.

It can also be unintentionally hilarious reading HTML and can't quite keep up with French in my latest magnum opus, but dear old Hazel has given my stories life and hearing her read the naughty bits is really quite a turn-on.

 

[joeyjax]

Please don't replace beta-readers with artificial intelligence

Never!!!! :-D

Text-to-speech helps too... there's one built into the latest version of MS Word, and I use a free one called Balabolka that works well.

Agreed! I didn't mention Balbolka, but I've been using it religiously since discovering it. I even use it to read stories back to me that I'm simply interested in reading but after spending all day every day staring at a computer screen, I just can't keep looking at a screen to do some reading for fun.

I've tried reading out loud to myself, but since the only person in my fam who knows I write is my wife, I have to make sure no one else is around and that rarely happens. Balabolka is great for that.

And yes, the stilted reading is sometimes really comical, rarely to the point of actual annoyance, though. And it has helped me catch countless issues with my writing, hearing my words 'read' back to me.

As much as that's helped (mostly to find words I'd completely left out in a sentence), I still need help with actual editing things, like my neverending battle with comma-abuse and overuse of the word 'just'.

 

[soulhouse]

On the editing side, though, I'm trying to find something to help me shore things up better, along the lines of some of the things mentioned in their short blurbs (spelling and grammar, of course, but also repetition, overuse of adverbs, etc.)

I'll have to check out Pro writing aid. I've not heard of that one. My writing world has been pretty limited (mostly just Word, grammarly, and beta readers).

I've tried it out. I found it useful for finding repetition etc, but not greatly beyond that, frankly. It made me realise how many adverbs I'd used on the first part of a story, but by the next part I'd learnt my lesson to the point it barely found any. I'm in two minds as to whether it's worth the money, but I might use it again to help sharpen things up a bit. I'm tempted to give Pro Writing Aid now to compare.

 

[ScrappyPaperDoodler]

Never heard of Autocrit, but when I was in varsity we used every tool under the sun (Grammarly, Pro Writing Aid, etc.). They're all pretty good at what they do, but I often wonder if the paid versions are worth it for creative writing. The 'premium' issues that they'll pick up are often more relevant to formal writing, and if you rely too much on these apps you sometimes run the risk of the work becoming stale (if not weird). Once a student I was tutoring in a law class came to me after she'd discovered the thesaurus function in Word, and her essays became indecipherable.

Basically, I'd say the best approach is to have a human editor(s) + some basic (probably free) proofreading software.

 

[txblush]

Bumping this thread for writers who may be looking for proofreading software. Autocrit.com does overused words like worditout.com

 

[BobbyBrandt]

It purports to be an “editing platform” and analyzes twenty-ish different elements like spelling, grammar, use of adverbs, repetition, ‘readability’, etc.

Just wondering if anyone has used it before and how it compares to things like grammarly or scrivener.

Supposedly free but I see a paid level-up available. Not sure if either is worth it, though. (??)

Finding editors for Lit stories is difficult. Especially to find one that’s well-qualified. So I wonder how something like this would do in lieu of a human editor.

All thoughts and opinions welcome, especially comparisons to other options. I’m just trying to improve my writing before I publish my next story and wondering if I can do better than grammarly.

I tried Autocrit and found it more of a pain than it was worth, primarily due to the nagging emails and promotions that they sent multiple times a day once they had my address.

Their spell and grammar checks weren't any better than the free version of Grammarly, but they did offer suggestions on words repeated too many times, and things like that, which I mostly ignored.

 

[Ada Stuart]

I did test a 1-month free trial of AutoCrit, but it was too troublesome to use and it didn't help much either: ignoring passive voice and lots of red marking on sentences that were correct.

I did also test Wordrake, ProWritingAid and Hemingway editor.
Wordrake looks great in the beginning but after one try it stops searching for errors.
Hemingway editor is great and since they have a free version I use that one whenever I need a second opinion to Grammarly.
ProWritingAid - I considered buying this one, but since I already have Grammarly Premium, it didn't make sense to have another tool doing the same job.

Still, I discovered that I could change some settings on Grammarly and achieve better (more brutal) editing, so bottom line, that solved my problem in the short run.

It can never replace a person, but it's an amazing tool if you have English as your second language and want to fix as much as possible before sending it to your editor.

And the premium version also looks for sentence length and how easy it is to read, so it's very useful for improving your writing.

 

[29wordsforsnow]

Not sure if anyone likes a few tips from a non-native speaker:

• use abbreviations with care; while they might be household names like PBJ to any US/UK resident, 'outsiders' might find less common ones confusing when they try to look them up, e.g. I once was told 'AHTH', one of the first search results I got was American Human Trafficking Hotline, while the intended meaning was always happy to help
• on 'how easy it is to read' you might want to ask a non-native speaker for feedback, there are some complex sentences that might have flown from the author's hand, but if it takes several rereads to get half the meaning, that's something I would find worthy to leave a comment in the feedback
• adding a lot of slang? while a few can even broaden one's vocabulary, looking up every second line of dialogue can spoil the fun

 

[BiscuitHammer]

I've been playing D&D and other RPGs since the late 1970s, and when I saw the title, my mind went to a completely different concept.

I'm terrible at self-editing, and I doubt a program would help in that regard. I have an editor/proofreader who keeps me on the right path.

Autocrit... that would terrify my players...

 

[Morm]

Not sure if anyone likes a few tips from a non-native speaker:

• use abbreviations with care; while they might be household names like PBJ to any US/UK resident, 'outsiders' might find less common ones confusing when they try to look them up, e.g. I once was told 'AHTH', one of the first search results I got was American Human Trafficking Hotline, while the intended meaning was always happy to help
• on 'how easy it is to read' you might want to ask a non-native speaker for feedback, there are some complex sentences that might have flown from the author's hand, but if it takes several rereads to get half the meaning, that's something I would find worthy to leave a comment in the feedback
• adding a lot of slang? while a few can even broaden one's vocabulary, looking up every second line of dialogue can spoil the fun

I've found non-native English speakers know the mechanics of English grammar much better than me. I mostly just go with what sounds good, having somebody who actually knows the rules is really helpful!

I have never tried Autocrit, but I did give the free version of Grammarly a spin. I uninstalled it after 3 hours. The suggestions and corrections were unhelpful (or just plain wrong) so often, it was actively distracting. Maybe the paid version is better, but my experience was quite negative.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Not sure if anyone likes a few tips from a non-native speaker:

• use abbreviations with care; while they might be household names like PBJ to any US/UK resident, 'outsiders' might find less common ones confusing when they try to look them up, e.g. I once was told 'AHTH', one of the first search results I got was American Human Trafficking Hotline, while the intended meaning was always happy to help
• on 'how easy it is to read' you might want to ask a non-native speaker for feedback, there are some complex sentences that might have flown from the author's hand, but if it takes several rereads to get half the meaning, that's something I would find worthy to leave a comment in the feedback
• adding a lot of slang? while a few can even broaden one's vocabulary, looking up every second line of dialogue can spoil the fun

I never heard PBJ before after living my whole life in the United States. Peanut butter and jelly. New Yorkers from before about 1980 would use IRT, BMT, and IND, although officially they had been merged in 1940. They still appeared on maps in the 1970s. New Yorkers would still know PATH and LIRR (on the rail side) and BQE (on the highway side).

Oh, for food, BLT is commonly used in America.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I tried Autocrit and found it more of a pain than it was worth, primarily due to the nagging emails and promotions that they sent multiple times a day once they had my address.

Their spell and grammar checks weren't any better than the free version of Grammarly, but they did offer suggestions on words repeated too many times, and things like that, which I mostly ignored.

I would consider the free version of Autocrit, but if it's the same as the free version of Grammarly, then maybe not. (I have pointed out that Grammarly, although useful, can require some picky judgment calls.) I'm not paying $40 per month for the next version up.

That double-posting thing on Lit forums is annoying as hell.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I've found non-native English speakers know the mechanics of English grammar much better than me. I mostly just go with what sounds good, having somebody who actually knows the rules is really helpful!

I have never tried Autocrit, but I did give the free version of Grammarly a spin. I uninstalled it after 3 hours. The suggestions and corrections were unhelpful (or just plain wrong) so often, it was actively distracting. Maybe the paid version is better, but my experience was quite negative.

I learned to never have Grammarly on while actually writing. You're right about it being too distracting, and frequently wrong, largely due to it analyzing incomplete sentences or paragraphs.

I do turn it on when I review my work, either as I finish a chapter or section, or when doing the final review and edits. It just works much better for me that way.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I learned to never have Grammarly on while actually writing. You're right about it being too distracting, and frequently wrong, largely due to it analyzing incomplete sentences or paragraphs.

I do turn it on when I review my work, either as I finish a chapter or section, or when doing the final review and edits. It just works much better for me that way.

So is there a better alternative to Grammarly? At this time, I'd have some trouble affording anything that is not a free version of a program, but at least I'd like to know what is best.