I'm in Edit mode with my novel right now. I've got plenty left to write, of course, but my manuscript also got to the point where it needed some serious smoothing out. I realised that the day I discovered that someone who did something in Chapter 34 had actually been killed in Chapter 22. Ouch.
I've been using a tool in this process which I really like: SmartEdit. It's FREE. The full SmartEdit version can be downloaded and used for ten days, then either purchased OR you can opt for the free-forever package which contains the most used features of the larger product.
WHAT IS IT? SmartEdit is a new, first-pass editing tool for writers. Not a replacement for a human editor or good proofreading, it's an aid--and easy helper for when you begin editing your work.
WHAT DOES IT DO: SmartEdit takes text or reads from an rtf file and runs all these checks on your document and produces a list. Imagine your surprise when you discover (as did I) that you have way too many adverbs or you've actually used the word 'actually' ten times in a chapter.
Or that 14 sentences begin with 'Mother had said'. Ouch. You can go through and change--or not change--them. I've found it a very useful writing tool, too, since it's identifying some things I do again and again.
WHAT ABOUT SELF-PUBLISHING: We all have a hard time catching our own mistakes. If you're self-publishing, and you don't have a strong plan for outside editing, I think this is brilliant. It picks up things from a library of commonly-misused words (capital vs capital, for instance) and makes it simple to catch those before your first readers do. The dialog tag counter is great, too. Does your hero 'exclaim' or 'declare' everything? Give the boy a choice with some SmartEditing!
WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE: Here's a sample. Oh, those pesky adverbs! See all the sample pages in the SmartEdit gallery for a closer look.
