A Writer’s Journal: What’s your favorite tool?
Huge, loud thunder storm last night interrupted sleep. Took a while to go back to sleep, so I allowed myself a bit more sleeping time this morning.
Now, I’m feeling the crush of time, but the clock keeps ticking nonetheless.
Funny, these are words I just deleted from my manuscript:
Ah well. Time heals all wounds. Fuck that. Time is a cruel bitch. Time cares not for those it affects the most.
Yup, that’s true.
This morning, I figured out how to upload a document to ProWritingAid. I uploaded chapters 3–10 of Matching Time. I spent most of my writing time going through the suggestions.
Truthfully, there’s nothing huge.
I guess that I use a lot of ‘that’s in my writing. So I took out most of them. And I guess that it works better without.
It is interesting now that I know this idiosyncrasy I can probably prevent that error in the future.
ProWritingAid also suggested some changes to weak words, like great.
The nice thing is that it offers the suggestions just by hovering over the highlighted word.
Not a two-step process like in Word. Or maybe three step.
After I worked through the document, I figured out how to download it, and now Word has more suggestions to work through. Mostly these are ‘blue squiggly underline’ suggestions. Not spelling errors, although it did take exception to water-closet as a hyphenated word.
The take away: I guess it’s a good step to go through. I’m still going to put the rest of the document through the same test.
Will I invest in this? IDK.
Tools are just tools. They might have features that I don’t even need.
Tools also help you to see your own faults.
I’m still conflicted about the term ‘water-closet’ but its intention is to imply something archaic. Powder room doesn’t do it for me. Half-bath doesn’t do it. So for today, it stays.
Last night, I met with my Writers Three group by Zoom.
They discussed chapter three of AfterProm.
They suggested that it be a historical fantasy set in the 1990s. They suggested that a lot of adults read YA now and it would appeal to 30–40 year olds as nostalgic.
This would allow me to keep the language that reads a bit outdated.
It also allows me to maintain some of the features of a small town’s prom.
Did you know that breathalizers are common at today’s prom? I didn’t know that.
This is why I’m so grateful that my writer’s group is comprised of young people. They keep me honest.
Take away: Be sure that your readers are of the right age. Duh!
Okay, gotta get on with my day now.
A bientot.
