Menolyricathingamy - word assist

I mentioned previously that, as I approach serious editing, rewriting, cropping, culling, extinction of 'the novel', I downloaded a couple of bits of software to assist the process. At the time of writing, I have not yet tried out the Hemingway (beyond a trial run, which does look promisingly useful).

The Chrome plug-in of Grammarly, though... well, that is doing stuff I didn't know it could. Even as I type this it is busy checking my every tap.

I wonder if any of you know or use this crazy little app? Found it in the 'store', having been pointed to it by someone at NaNoWrimo. It turns out that there are also 'native' (ie on your computer only) versions which can be downloaded and there is a 'premium' version, which requires payment. I may upgrade to that if the experience proves worth it.

This early usage, though, is interesting. I mention it because it has had an effect even when I am commenting on all your bloggies! If you have a pop-out version of comments on Blogger, and on all WordPress blogs, Grammarly is active, underlining all mistakes in red and flashing a red button at the bottom of the screen, mounting up the numbers along with the "errors". Which is fine except when it gets it wrong. Yes, I sometimes disagree with it! In the first couple of weeks, it took me some time to recognise that I could change it from US English to 'British' English. This at least stopped many of the 'spelling mistakes' being notified. However, it is assessing purely on technical grammar and there is no adaptation for personal style. Therefore, if I wish to use some of my own truncated language to give an emphasis or mood, Grammarly gets highly agitated and the page looks like a blood-bath! Then there are the times it wants to change something because it cannot understand context. For example, the word 'language' in the sentence just written. It wants it changed to 'languages' - completely wrong! As for the 'language of Blogville' - well, it's nearly having a breakdown over that! It does at least give the option to 'add to dictionary' so that when I write the word bloggies now, it doesn't get slashed. There is also the nasty tendency to enforce the use of the Oxford comma. Trust me, I know when and when not to use the darned thing and do NOT subscribe to its use at all times.

Why the rant? Well, I think this is actually rather a useful little bit of kit and if you have Chrome (I think there are other options for Mac as well), the app might be of interest to you - particularly as FFF gets going in 2018 (news on that next week). It even works on Gmail and if you download the native things, you can have full coverage - there is even plug-in for MSWord.

At times I am cussing it for being so in my face - but for the most part it is improving the standard of my output and am rather pleased with the thing.

Fancy a go? CLICK HERE!

NB - no affiliation; this is entirely my own point of view.

ADDENDUM - another blogger has mentioned that she did use Grammarly for a while for her work as a technical writer - then trashed it because it was nearly driving her mental. I scheduled this post two weeks back and so have a bit more experience with the thing. It can indeed be very annoying if one gets caught up in not wanting to see red. However, I am learning to ignore the red lines when I am sure of wanting to keep what I have entered. I am also learning to not take too seriously the 'weekly report card' which appears in my email from the teacher in the cloud! When the father asked what I want for Christmas, I asked for a year subscription - yes, am going to take the plunge and see what happens! A year is a long time if it sends me off the edge - but am discovering that there are things I can switch off and that I don't have to accept what it tells me at all times. The final choice is still mine. The real test will come this time next year when renewal is due!