ProWritingAid sale

[SyleusSnow]

Dunno if this type of post is allowed, but since the topic of proofing tools comes up here regularly I'd like to mention that ProWritingAid is having a big sale for the next few days.

It's helped improve my writing enormously. I've found it much better for fiction writing than the heavily advertised Grammarly, and the new Editor built into MS Word. Those seemed geared to business writing only. After years of paying annually, I finally coughed up enough for a ProWritingAid lifetime license the last time they had a sale.

I'm not affiliated with the company in any way, just the proverbial happy customer. And I'd like to see them stay in business. They don't advertise nearly enough.

 

[RejectReality]

May have to look into that. I used the free version quite a bit before they cut down the features available in it. Last time I looked, I wasn't overly fond of the new repeated words and phrases report, which was my favorite feature. Maybe they've tweaked it.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Hmm, you're right. Never seen them but I use the free Grammarly. It's doing some strange things in Google docs lately so I might just check out PWA.

 

[JGittes]

Dunno if this type of post is allowed, but since the topic of proofing tools comes up here regularly I'd like to mention that ProWritingAid is having a big sale for the next few days.

It's helped improve my writing enormously. I've found it much better for fiction writing than the heavily advertised Grammarly, and the new Editor built into MS Word. Those seemed geared to business writing only. After years of paying annually, I finally coughed up enough for a ProWritingAid lifetime license the last time they had a sale.

I'm not affiliated with the company in any way, just the proverbial happy customer. And I'd like to see them stay in business. They don't advertise nearly enough.

I've used the paid version of Grammarly for consistency and textual analysis.

We've had many threads debating Grammarly's insistence to place one particular comma, with many authors coming down on either side of the debate. My takeaway is that if the usage is consistent, pick one way and use it. Grammarly makes that simple.

The second reason is that I use editing software to force myself to read my story as text on the page and not the story in my mind that I've been working on for months or years. Doing this properly is tedious as fuck. The first time I ran a 20k word story through Grammarly and received 2136 errors was disheartening, to say the least. After four days of slogging through each mistake, I was reminded of a New Yorker cartoon I saw once, where a heavily wounded, one-armed guy on crutches standing in the rubble of a post-apocalyptic, destroyed city says, "I think I won." I couldn't remember much of the story I was trying to write, but I had looked at every sentence and word far more thoroughly than any quick 'proofing read' would allow, and the story was 20% shorter. Two days later, I reread my work, thinking, "Damn, this is pretty good."

I saw SyleusSnow's post while editing a 35k story and thought, why not give it a try? I'd never heard of it before. The basics are similar to Grammarly but with more flexibility in adjusting styles. There are also more customizable features than Grammarly. I have a printed checklist of 70 words, predominately adverbs and adjectives, that I use too damn much. I haven't found a way to plug this list into Grammarly, but it is easy to do in ProWritingAid. I like combining both editing routines into one pass. ProWritingAid also has an integral thesaurus and dictionary aid that can be annoying in real-time use but are helpful when employed after the first draft. There are numerous reporting features I haven't looked at, but they may be beneficial. One slight annoyance is that I write in American English on a UK-purchased computer in the UK. It's tricky setting ProWritingAid up to give American English spellings on the UK English keyboard.

The biggest benefit to ProWritingAid is the cost. There is one more day remaining on their 50% off sale, and with that discount, the lifetime option is only slightly more than the annual Grammarly fee.

 

[SyleusSnow]

Glad you gave it a try JGittes. I wish more fiction writers knew about ProWritingAid. Business writing tools like grammarly do a poor job with fiction... though prowritingaid also suggests inserting commas far more than necessary.

As you point out, the price is very reasonable (even when not on sale it beats grammarly if you pay annually) but I'd pay twice as much considering how much it's helped improve my writing.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Ahhh and it integrates with Google Docs too. I'm doing more and more on Google Docs rather than Word so that's a good feature

 

[SyleusSnow]

Ahhh and it integrates with Google Docs too. I'm doing more and more on Google Docs rather than Word so that's a good feature

Yeah, it's supported Google Docs for a while. Until recently though it didn't support LibreOffice. I use that a fair bit 'cause I'm cheap and don't trust microsoft or google to keep my writing private.

This year they released "prowritingaid everywhere" that automagically adds the real-time checking to Libreoffice and a bunch of other tools like Scrivener, Slack and Evernote. And there's a browser plugin like Grammarly has. You still have to load docs into the desktop or online version to access the full set of review features, though.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Yeah, I just bought it and installed the plugin for Google Docs and ran it over something I've been working on and it had a lot of great suggestions. Did the annual plan rather than the lifetime - I'd have to use it for a few years before the lifetime plan was worth it so going to try it over the next year and see. I have Grammarly but i haven't used it in a while. It argues with me all the time LOL. So we'll see how this goes.

I had Scrivener as well but that was just a pain in the ass in the end. Anyhow, this looks great - thx for highlighting it.

 

[HeyAll]

Thanks for the note.

Does anyone know if these writing sites keep track of what you submit?

I don't want my credit card info associated with my erotica. lol

 

[ChloeTzang]

Thanks for the note.

Does anyone know if these writing sites keep track of what you submit?

I don't want my credit card info associated with my erotica. lol

ProWritingAid does have a warning about that. I'm not 100% sure how it works but you can also pay with paypal I think, which can separate you by a step at least. They do have some good explanations on their site

 

[SyleusSnow]

Thanks for the note.

Does anyone know if these writing sites keep track of what you submit?

I don't want my credit card info associated with my erotica. lol

I worry about that too. The privacy policy for Prowritingaid claims they don't store anything you write, just process it. So theoretically, while they have your identity through your credit card, they (and the feds) would have a hard time tying your writing to you.

However, they say their servers are in the US, so the secret wiretapping allowed by the Patriot Act would apply.

As I understand Paypal, transactions send the buyer's name and email address to the seller, though apparently you can create paypal accounts using fake names, throwaway email and a virtual credit card.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Grammarly has been acting weird lately, so I decided to buy the annual subscription of PWA. Unfortunately the google docs app didn't work so I downloaded a docs file and scanned that. Like Chloe, it's got some good ideas, but I'll retry the GD app.

Thanks for the heads up Syleus.

 

[LongDraw]

I also have been using PWA for about a year or so now and I have no doubt that it has improved my writing significantly. I'm just trying to save up for the lifetime license as I plan to provide it to my kids when they are older for school reports.

 

[SyleusSnow]

I also have been using PWA for about a year or so now and I have no doubt that it has improved my writing significantly. I'm just trying to save up for the lifetime license as I plan to provide it to my kids when they are older for school reports.

I always wonder how long many of these "lifetime" offers really last. Still worth it for this product, though.

It goes on sale around twice a year, so maybe keep an eye open.

 

[LongDraw]

I always wonder how long many of these "lifetime" offers really last. Still worth it for this product, though.

It goes on sale around twice a year, so maybe keep an eye open.

You can always get the 25% off any plan with certain affiliate codes that don't expire. Otherwise, I've seen twice during same 48 hour period a 50% of any plan. Of course I'll admit I have an affiliate account setup, but I don't have it in my signature here.

 

[Sanzas]

I started using it very recently. This is good to know. The lifetime cost is 399. Is there a code for the discount?

 

[LongDraw]

I started using it very recently. This is good to know. The lifetime cost is 399. Is there a code for the discount?

Just confirmed BLOGGINGBEATS25 takes 25% off all plan pricing.