I’ve been continuing to use ProWritingAid. And it continues to be a mixed bag. On the upside it has some handy features. For example, I’ve fallen in love with its report on ‘Overused Words’ and ‘Repeats’. It’s inevitable when writing a novel that a bunch of phrases and words get repeated over and over again. (Hee, hee, see what I did there, ProWritingAid.) It’s hard to remember that I’ve described a tree the same way sixteen times. Or started a sentence with ‘Besides,’ an embarrassing nineteen times.
ProWritingAid points that out though, lovingly highlighting every word in Word with different colors. My manuscript looks like a toddler attacked the pages with a set of markers. The colors startle me into another rewrite where I curse my limited ability with the English language.
On the downside, because ProWritingAid needs the Interwebs, I find myself running the reports and staring at the results in alarm before watching YouTube videos to offset the anxiety.
Oh, ProWritingAid, you little minx, you giveth and taketh away so much.
