August 6

The Art of Correction

Here’s how it works. You sign up to some fancy editing software (I use ProWritingAid for around $US40) and upload your manuscript. This automatically checks for grammatical errors, overused words, poor sentence connections, long paragraphs, etc. Here is one result – plagiarism – for 3 WISE MEN:

Such analytical processes are actually very helpful but should only be treated as a guide. In many cases (e.g. with foreign place names) the software does a poor job. However, you do need to get past the constant reminders and look at the corrections in context. Do the words and paragraphs still flow? Is the dialogue crisp?

In conclusion, online writing tools like these are fine, but there an “Art to Correction”!

 

July 1

Fixng Erors!

The bain of an author’s journey – fixing errors! Why? Because, as you correct spelling, style and grammatical errors, revisit hanging verbs, and carefully go through sentence starters, connectors and length, you are also likely to add more errors! That’s right – fixing errors can lead to creating new ones. What is the solution? I don’t really know except to put the book down for a few days and then go through it again.