Can’t I just use ProWritingAid?

I’ve never used writing aids like Grammarly or PWA, so I had to read up on this. I also asked around and found out that some writers are using the free version of PWA. I really couldn’t tell, because there was still a lot for me to do as a line editor.

One person tells me they routinely send their work out to editors after running it through PWA, the reason being, and I’m quoting here: “it may make a line editor more likely to want to work with you (and maybe quote you cheaper if your manuscript isn’t full of garbage).”

Now, this brought up reasons why people don’t want to use editors. The obvious reason is finances, but Erica came up with an even better reason: “People don’t like asking for help. It’s nerve-racking to have another human judging you. Easier to get help from software.”

Erica has written about the psychology behind all this. I will link to her very insightful post in comments below.

PWA can catch grammar, punctuation and spelling errors, identify passive voice and some basic sentence structure issues. But it also makes mistakes….Erica: “You can’t just hit ‘accept’ on everything. If you blindly follow it, it tends to leave you with sentence fragments and/or extra commas. Yes, it will help with HugeBads but there’s no nuance to it at all.”

So, it sounds rather rudimentary. Here’s feedback from one person who has the pro version: “I have the paid version of PWA and use the spelling and grammar, readability, echo and sentence length functions. That's all. Everything else I ignore. I use if at the self-editing stage. And I ignore everything else because it has no soul and mangles my writing. Or tries to."

All writing aids are tools. If it’s a good tool and you’re using it with thought and care, understanding its limitations, you will learn something. But if you’re blindly accepting every suggestion, you’ll learn nothing and the result may be less than stellar.

It can certainly be used as a step in your writing process, as part of self-editing before sending your work out to your betas and editors. No-one wants to read a manuscript riddled with grammar/punctuation/spelling mistakes. Frankly, it’s not the best use of a line editor’s time.

Maybe one day we’ll have writing software as good as or even better than a human editor. Until then, by all means run your work through PWA if you need help with grammar, punctuation and basic sentence structure, but I very much doubt it can help you with figurative language, word choice, nuance, colour and texture, subtext and theme - all the lovely things that enhance fiction.

Check out my youtube vids where I screen capture my line edits for Rebecca and Erica. You will see that a line editor’s job is much more than correcting grammar and punctuation. If that’s all you’re using a line editor for, you’re not making the most of their expertise.