If a word processor can’t identify errors with their/there, maybe try a different word processor. Both Apple Pages and Microsoft Word appear to flag usage problems with those and other pairs reliably. Word also catches double spaces between words and mildly suggests “Only one space between words is better.”
Word also makes grammar and phrasing suggestions, although if you’re writing poetry or dialogue, it might be what you intended.
The site writersdiet.com is intriguing. You can test text up to 1000 words for free to see if your prose has any big problems. Click the “run the test” button with no text to see their example of howler-filled writing.
Apple’s Pages has a text-to-speech function. Although it will read your document (or selected text) in a slightly disembodied voice (several voices available), it will be a different voice than your own and a possible way of identifying text that doesn’t read smoothly enough.
These tools won’t replace a bonafide editor, but they can catch a lot of obvious things. (Note Word doesn’t recognize bonafide as one word, but Pages thinks it’s okay, so sometimes you still need a dictionary.)
Cali - congrats on the book! I’m going to get a copy. If you have an interest, mine’s on sale for 99 cents on kindle until 11/15. Rock gods & messy monsters. I so agree with everything you wrote. Great article! I’m currently reviewing some books thru goodreads and the first one couldn’t have been edited at all. I wonder how many first drafts have been published as books. And don’t get me started on marketing. I’m doing a BookBub ad, kindle countdown deal, Facebook ad, and Amazon ads all right now. I figure I’ll learn through fire, but I’ve taken on too much. so I’m taking myself out for lunch today and to a museum. Thanks for sharing the article!
I keep pushing back my own timeline because 1) I have a full-time job, 2) I have a family, 3) my beta readers have added a lot of really good notes and I need to go back to work on some of my memoir/essay chapters. I want to self-publish sooner than later, but quality is more important to me than timing. I want it to make a difference, not just be sent out into the void.
If a word processor can’t identify errors with their/there, maybe try a different word processor. Both Apple Pages and Microsoft Word appear to flag usage problems with those and other pairs reliably. Word also catches double spaces between words and mildly suggests “Only one space between words is better.”
Word also makes grammar and phrasing suggestions, although if you’re writing poetry or dialogue, it might be what you intended.
The site writersdiet.com is intriguing. You can test text up to 1000 words for free to see if your prose has any big problems. Click the “run the test” button with no text to see their example of howler-filled writing.
Apple’s Pages has a text-to-speech function. Although it will read your document (or selected text) in a slightly disembodied voice (several voices available), it will be a different voice than your own and a possible way of identifying text that doesn’t read smoothly enough.
These tools won’t replace a bonafide editor, but they can catch a lot of obvious things. (Note Word doesn’t recognize bonafide as one word, but Pages thinks it’s okay, so sometimes you still need a dictionary.)
Cali - congrats on the book! I’m going to get a copy. If you have an interest, mine’s on sale for 99 cents on kindle until 11/15. Rock gods & messy monsters. I so agree with everything you wrote. Great article! I’m currently reviewing some books thru goodreads and the first one couldn’t have been edited at all. I wonder how many first drafts have been published as books. And don’t get me started on marketing. I’m doing a BookBub ad, kindle countdown deal, Facebook ad, and Amazon ads all right now. I figure I’ll learn through fire, but I’ve taken on too much. so I’m taking myself out for lunch today and to a museum. Thanks for sharing the article!
I keep pushing back my own timeline because 1) I have a full-time job, 2) I have a family, 3) my beta readers have added a lot of really good notes and I need to go back to work on some of my memoir/essay chapters. I want to self-publish sooner than later, but quality is more important to me than timing. I want it to make a difference, not just be sent out into the void.