{"id":38639,"date":"2019-12-30T06:00:25","date_gmt":"2019-12-30T11:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/?p=38639"},"modified":"2020-03-03T15:00:59","modified_gmt":"2020-03-03T20:00:59","slug":"autocrit-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/?p=38639","title":{"rendered":"AutoCrit Identified This Author\u2019s Novel\u2019s Biggest Flaw &#8212; Could It Help Your Draft?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Drafting your novel is only the first step in the writing process.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many authors complete several rounds of revision followed by multiple copyediting passes before they even think about <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/ultimate-guide-to-beta-readers\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">sending their book to beta readers<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and then complete another pass or two before querying an agent. Some writers even hire editors or look to some of the best <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/automatic-editing-tools\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">grammar checker tools<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to help them work through their draft and make it as strong as possible.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now there\u2019s an option for writers who want to improve their drafts before sending them out into the world: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/autocrit.samcart.com\/referral\/RjUnsEmf\/8ejoMPwCbDC7ooLL\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AutoCrit<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This online software is designed to help authors identify their draft\u2019s strengths and weaknesses while offering specific suggestions for improvement. Of course, like any online service, AutoCrit has its own strengths and weaknesses \u2014 so let\u2019s take a close look at what AutoCrit does well, where it falls short and whether authors should add AutoCrit to their toolkits.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is AutoCrit?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AutoCrit<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is an online book editing program that calls itself the \u201cfiction writer\u2019s secret weapon.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/autocrit.samcart.com\/referral\/RjUnsEmf\/8ejoMPwCbDC7ooLL\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Create a free AutoCrit account<\/a> to access interactive editing tools and automatic suggestions to help you improve your manuscript. Upgrade to a $30\/month Professional account to receive more than 30 interactive editing reports along with an AutoCrit Summary Score (we\u2019ll get to that), or invest in the $80\/month Elite account and start taking courses on the craft of revision and the art of publishing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here\u2019s what the $30\/month Professional account offers:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fully-featured word processor and editing suite<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No word limits\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Spelling &amp; grammar checker<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Proven editing guidance based on extensive research into real-world publishing standards<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Secure online storage for your manuscript<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">30 interactive editing reports<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tackle weak writing, useless filler, repetitive phrasing, shifts in tense and point of view, and even slow or uneven story pacing.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Expert guidance by genre, including Romance, Sci-Fi, Young Adult, and more.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Compare your word choices to the style of best-selling authors like Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, James Patterson, Danielle Steel, and many more.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Track your progress with the unique AutoCrit Summary Score<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Can AutoCrit really help you edit your novel? Do its suggestions hold up, or is writing too subjective to be evaluated by software? I got the chance to test-drive a Professional account, and here\u2019s what I learned.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>AutoCrit identified my novel\u2019s biggest flaw<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When I put the first 4,000 words of my self-published novel <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Biographies of Ordinary People<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> into AutoCrit, I received an AutoCrit Summary Score of 64.18. Essentially, a D. Not great, especially for a book that has 4.05 stars on Goodreads, received 5 stars from Foreward Clarion Reviews and is a Library Journal Self-e Selection.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Does that mean AutoCrit doesn\u2019t know good writing when it sees it? Or did I mistakenly believe my book was better than it actually is? I decided to test a second book \u2014 a certified literary classic \u2014 and compare the results.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The elevator pitch for <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Biographies of Ordinary People<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is \u201ca Millennial-era <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Little Women<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,\u201d so I dropped in the first 4,000 words of Louisa May Alcott\u2019s famous text. AutoCrit gave it a score of 89.47 \u2014 much better than the score my novel had received.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then I started comparing the AutoCrit reports side-by-side. In many cases, Alcott\u2019s text and mine hit the exact same metrics: both 4,000-word excerpts included roughly the same number of sentences (231, 217) and the same average sentence length (18 words). Both excerpts used just over 800 \u201cuncommon words\u201d and neither had an excess of adverbs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The big difference? Pacing. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Little Women<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> had zero \u201cslow-paced paragraphs;\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Biographies<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> had 19. This ties right in with the most common criticism I received about the book: although the writing was beautiful, the story itself was occasionally too quiet\/slow.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>In other words, AutoCrit correctly identified the most significant problem with my novel.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When I began digging into the interactive editing reports, I noticed that each slow-paced paragraph had been highlighted\u2014plus, AutoCrit provided a series of visuals that helped me understand how my story\u2019s slow paragraphs were affecting the narrative. In this graph, every slow paragraph is represented by an orange valley (and there are a lot of orange valleys).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-38640\" src=\"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Autocrit-screenshot-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1282\" height=\"436\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Autocrit-screenshot-1.jpg 1282w, https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Autocrit-screenshot-1-300x102.jpg 300w, https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Autocrit-screenshot-1-1024x348.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Autocrit-screenshot-1-768x261.jpg 768w, https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Autocrit-screenshot-1-1080x367.jpg 1080w, https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Autocrit-screenshot-1-1280x435.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Autocrit-screenshot-1-980x333.jpg 980w, https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Autocrit-screenshot-1-480x163.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1282px) 100vw, 1282px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I am currently working on a mystery novel, and when I fed the first 6,000 words of this new book into AutoCrit, the reports indicated I was doing a much better job with my pacing. I took the criticism of my first book to heart, and clearly learned from it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-38641\" src=\"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Autocrit-screenshot-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1412\" height=\"496\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Autocrit-screenshot-2.png 1412w, https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Autocrit-screenshot-2-300x105.png 300w, https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Autocrit-screenshot-2-1024x360.png 1024w, https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Autocrit-screenshot-2-768x270.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1412px) 100vw, 1412px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That said, those 6,000 words still only received an AutoCrit Summary Score of 67.69. This time, the editing reports revealed that AutoCrit wanted me to work on \u201cstrong writing.\u201d For example: AutoCrit thought I was using too many passive indicators, suggesting I rewrite sentences like &#8220;I already told Ed you&#8217;d be there\u201d because of the contracted <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">you would<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This brings me to my biggest criticism of the AutoCrit system: that it analyzes your writing word-by-word, without understanding that \u201cI already told Ed you\u2019d be there\u201d isn\u2019t a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/clunky-sentence-structures\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">clunky passive-voice sentence<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. (You can\u2019t add \u201cby zombies\u201d to the end of it, after all \u2014 and if I\u2019m going to use the <a href=\"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/passive-voice\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">passive voice<\/a>, there had better be zombies involved.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let\u2019s look a little more carefully at this issue.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>AutoCrit doesn\u2019t always consider context<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If your AutoCrit Summary Score is lower than you were expecting, it might be because your manuscript needs a lot of improvement \u2014 or it might be because AutoCrit is reading your manuscript without context.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When I gave AutoCrit the first 6,000 words of the mystery novel I\u2019m currently drafting, the program dinged me for using the dialogue tag \u201cglanced\u201d twice. However, when you look at the use in context, the word choice becomes deliberate rather than accidentally redundant:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cA rolling stone,\u201d Harrison said. \u201cI admire it. Sometimes I wish I\u2019d lived in a few more places.\u201d He glanced at Larkin again, eyes crinkling to match his smile. \u201cI suppose there\u2019s still time.\u201d Then he glanced at his watch; silver, not smart. \u201cSpeaking of which\u2014\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Likewise, AutoCrit told me I should remove the cliches \u201cbaked\u201d and \u201cplastered,\u201d even though they refer to actual baked goods and actual plaster \u2014 not, as I\u2019m assuming AutoCrit believes, marijuana and alcohol use.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The AutoCrit team is aware that its program doesn\u2019t read for context. Here\u2019s a more detailed description of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.autocrit.com\/editing\/support\/passive-voice-indicators\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the way AutoCrit analyzes a text for passive indicators<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rather than performing a simple verb combination check to determine passive voice (ie. an auxiliary verb followed by a past participle verb), when running AutoCrit\u2019s Passive Indicators report, you will instead be given highlighting to draw your attention more closely to the past-tense passages you\u2019ve written.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The intention behind this report is to give you greater control over your editing experience, and make you think more deeply and professionally about your writing. It should not be treated as a strict passive phrase detector.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you feel like AutoCrit is judging your writing too harshly \u2014 or spotting problems that aren\u2019t really there \u2014 check out its <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.autocrit.com\/editing\/support\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">support section<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. You\u2019ll learn how AutoCrit evaluates writing for issues like word choice, repetition and momentum, and you might end up feeling a little better about whatever score your novel might have received.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Still, it\u2019s worth pointing out that even though some of AutoCrit\u2019s individual critiques were a little off, its overall assessment that my mystery novel needs stronger writing is, once again, accurate. It\u2019s something I\u2019ve been taking notes on myself, as I\u2019ve worked my way up the word count. Right now I\u2019m focusing on getting to the end of the first draft, and then I\u2019ll go back and figure out how to make it better.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Use AutoCrit to help you think more carefully about your writing<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you\u2019re interested in using <a href=\"https:\/\/autocrit.samcart.com\/referral\/RjUnsEmf\/8ejoMPwCbDC7ooLL\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">AutoCrit<\/a> to help you edit and revise your novel, here\u2019s my advice:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Focus on trends over details.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> When you\u2019re reading through AutoCrit\u2019s editing reports, don\u2019t get hung up on the details. Pay less attention to AutoCrit\u2019s recommendation that you remove 110 \u201cpassive indicators\u201d from your draft, and more attention to where the majority of AutoCrit\u2019s editing recommendations are clustered. Does your novel have pacing issues? Repetition issues? Point-of-view issues?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Click on everything.<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> When I clicked on AutoCrit\u2019s \u201cPacing and Summary\u201d tab and then clicked on \u201cParagraph Variation,\u201d I got a bar graph showing me the number of words in each paragraph\u2014but no information on how to contextualize that data. It was only when I clicked on \u201cView Summary\u201d that I was able to access the paragraph\/pacing chart I shared above (the one with the peaks and valleys in it) and understand how my paragraphs were affecting my reader\u2019s journey through the story.<\/span><\/b><\/li>\n<li>Take AutoCrit\u2019s suggestions literally.<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> AutoCrit\u2019s suggestions are just that: <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">suggestions<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Some of them will be incorrect. Some of them will be so obviously correct that you\u2019ll immediately implement them. The rest will require you to ask yourself: <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Can this sentence be a little better? Is there a way to improve this paragraph? Or am I happy with the draft as it currently stands?<\/span><\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AutoCrit isn\u2019t designed to be a prescriptive tool. Instead, it\u2019s designed to make you think more carefully about your own writing; to read through the scores and suggestions and learn where your writing can be improved.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bottom line of our <a href=\"https:\/\/autocrit.samcart.com\/referral\/RjUnsEmf\/8ejoMPwCbDC7ooLL\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">AutoCrit<\/a> review: Once you\u2019ve run your draft through AutoCrit, you\u2019ll have a good idea of where your novel\u2019s strengths and weaknesses are and what you need to do next \u2014 whether that\u2019s giving your book another revision pass, sending it to a critique partner, asking for feedback from a group of beta readers, querying an agent or prepping your finished book for self-publication.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i>This post contains affiliate links. That means if you purchase through our links, you\u2019re supporting The Write Life \u2014 and we thank you for that!<\/i><\/p>\n<p><em>Photo via GuadiLab \/\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.shutterstock.com\/photos\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.shutterstock.com\/photos&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1577455127333000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGg6bFB4ZuPxigF47TehYT4jbQ0uQ\">Shutterstock<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If your novel is ready for review, but you\u2019re not quite ready to involve other humans yet, AutoCrit will edit your draft. This is our honest review of the software.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":117,"featured_media":38642,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-craft"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/117"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}