Cow Pasture Chronicles : Editing Made Easy – 7 Free Tools for the Writer

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One of the most annoying, time-consuming and necessary aspects of writing is editing.

For me, after writing a piece, I find it difficult to spot all the things I might need to revise or eliminate.

Because I can’t afford to hire an editor for every short story or chapter I write, I use editing tools available to me via software downloads.

Each tool has pros and cons, and it’s worth repeating, no software can take the place of a good pair of editing eyes, but it’s a start and a good resource to have at your fingertips.

My top 7 Free Editing Tools

Hemingway App – assesses the number of adverbs, complex words, passive voice, and readability.
ProWritingAid – provides analysis, identifies overused words, sentence length, redundancies, clichés, plagiarism, consistency, and writing style.
EditMinion – one of my favorite, uncomplicated tools. It checks for weak and overused words, passive voice, adverbs/prepositions, homonyms, and more.
Word & Phrase Frequency Counter: This tool does exactly what it says, counts the number of time you use a word or phrase.
Readability Score – indicates reading ease, grade level, text statistics, and keyword density.
Cliché Finder – afraid you might have used a cliché or two? Identify them with this handy tool.
The Writer’s Diet – Is your writing flabby or lean? This simple, automated feedback tool provides a quick look at some of the sentence-level grammatical issues which weigh writing down.

My top 3 Paid Editing Tools

Grammarly – Enhances clarity and meaning, identifies most writing errors, vocabulary enhancer, contextual spelling checker, and offers a Safari extension. A little pricey for the premium plan @ $139.95/yr. – a monthly and quarterly plan is also available ranging from 29.95/mo. – $59.95/quarterly.
Ginger – Basic- $ 61.20/yr. – Offers a browser extension, unlimited grammar checker, translations, and definitions. An upgrade to $111/yr. will give you sentence rephrasing, analysis of mistakes, text reader and more. The software is available on a month-to-month basis ranging from $8.30 -$14.60/month.
AutoCrit – An online manuscript editing tool specifically for fiction writers. Ranging from $60 – $144/yr. This tool provides analysis in 25 areas in your work, highlights key elements, fiction style errors, repetition, pacing, word choice, and a comparison of your manuscript to published fiction.

There you have it, my favorite editing tools. Although it will never replace a good set of eyes, any one of these will make the process of editing easier, faster, and smoother.

I’d love to hear your comments. Talk to me. Tell me your story. You can find me on Facebook at SheilaMGood, Pinterest, Bloglovin, Twitter@sheilagood, and Contently.