Hello to all writers,
A month ago, I splurged on the complete Grammarly package for writing while editing my newest 42,000-word book. I hoped to refine my book enough to not sound like a total idiot when sending it to my professional editor after completing the plot, character development, and overall story.
I opened the rough draft of The Antidimension in Grammarly, expecting to catch all my mistakes in one day. The little icon in the lower left-hand corner showed 999+. Two hours later, after completing two chapters, the icon still showed more than a thousand problems with my work. To complicate my work, the icon disappeared and refused to show again. I closed the file and reopened it to see the icon nestled in the corner once more. I watched as Grammarly added the blunders until it hit the top number of 999+. I gave up for the day.
I opened the newest book the next day after my morning tea. The icon showed the same unforgiving number of errors. To make things worse, the first chapter had red and blue lines, which I thought was complete the day before. The first two chapters went by quickly as the errors were minor and quick to solve. Chapters three and four became as arduous as the day before. Towards the end of chapter four, the icon vanished from the screen, with all the red and blue lines highlighting my inaccuracies.
I broke the work into chapters on the third day of using this new program. I brought up the new book, opened a new page, and copied chapter one to the blank sheet. It showed ten errors, which I quickly dispatched. Finally, the icon only showed the green G for satisfying the rigorous program. I repeated the process to chapter five, which showed fifty-five errors for 1,700 words. It took a half hour, but the green G appeared as approval of a job well done. I completed the corrections for the entire story over the next week.
The time comes from the program not understanding the overall story. In one scene, the narrator has two mugs ready for coffee. One of the mugs has an ounce of milk and a teaspoon of sugar. Grammarly wanted to change it to one mug with sugar and the other with milk. This would not happen since the narrator likes his black coffee, which is unadorned with extras. His wife likes to cut the bitterness by adding the extras. It takes time to sift through the changes so as not to change the story but to make it easier to read.
My initial thought was that Grammarly was a worthwhile expense for improving my writing. I still have to write the story, but now I have a tool to make it more enjoyable.
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God bless,
Danny Mac
Beautiful!