Apps and stuff

What's the Hemmingway App? Is it editing software or does it help you organize your writing ideas?

I like zenwriter... not because it's "distraction free" or even because of the sounds, but because I often write short stories from picture prompts, and you can set a custom picture as the background you write on. Also the day/night setting is nice if you often write at night. However it's kind of expensive now, for what it is...

God, there are far too many. I think I've tried at least a dozen, and none of them are any good, including the Hemingway app.

Isn't there another thread currently gathering posts about this same software?

Edgar A. said:

Whelp, that's disappointing. Now I'll have to trust myself to edit, and I don't trust myself.

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As a writer, you are going to have to learn a certain amount of editing. You can't rely entirely on another person or software to do everything.

BenPanced said:

As a writer, you are going to have to learn a certain amount of editing. You can't rely entirely on another person or software to do everything.

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This. X10000 this.

As a society, especially among younger people, we have become weirdly dependent on "apps", and have done that, to some extent, by abandoning straightforward brain skills that are very useful.

We just bought a new car, for the use mainly of my wife (I get the older one now). It's a very nice car, a Subaru Forester, with all manner of doodads, including one that signifies, via a little red LED display in the rearview mirror, what direction the car is pointed in. Fortunately, she can turn it off, but the default is ON, every time the car is started.

If you don't know what direction you're going in a car, you really need a thing called a MAP.

. . . . . . . oh . . . . . . wait . . . . . . . . . . there's an app for that, isn't there.

Never mind.

caw

Edgar A. said:

Whelp, that's disappointing. Now I'll have to trust myself to edit, and I don't trust myself.

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I don't understand this at all. Part of learning to become a writer is learning how to edit what you wrote.

Edgar A. said:

lets face it--pens are dated).

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They continue to function, damn well, don't require a plug batteries, and you can use them anywhere, as long as you have paper. Trust me. I know about this.

And unless you are a significant computer programmer or database manager, I suspect I know as much about computer usage as you do. I use them all the time, for business as well as writing purposes. But when it comes to editing, I trust only Brain 1.01.

Unless I'm very tired.

caw

Eh, I think any tool that makes the job easier is a useful tool, as long as you can use it adeptly and don't let it run the show instead of you. Maybe our ancestors built perfectly fine houses with hammers and handsaws, but power drills and skillsaws are darn nice things to have.

Here is a handy editing tool that analyzes your writing to detect redundant/overused vocabulary and cliches, among other things. Obviously it's not an infallible guide to How To Write (tm) but I've found it useful for helping me recognize turns of phrase that I overuse so I can be alert for them.

There's actually quite a bit of grammar-checking functionality built into Word ... which I never use, because I hate Word with the burning passion of a thousand fiery suns and write everything in the most bare-bones text editors that I can find, but it might be worth checking the documentation to see what Word can actually do, because it's quite a powerful program in many ways. For example, turning on invisible characters can be quite useful at certain stages of the editing process.

Here: http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=300058

Edgar A. said:

because--lets face it--pens are dated

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Ha! I write on a typewriter, how dated is that? The pen makes it more intimate in my opinion, but then again, to each their own.

Edgar A. said:

This has convinced me that there's a schism in the community. That some believe that these sorts of apps are good and others think that these ruin good writing.

I'm on the "A tool is a tool" side, not on the "the old way is best."

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I'm not on a side. My admittedly limited experience with these things is that they often dole out incorrect editing advice. They also waste time by flagging intentional sentence structures and word choices as "bad form". The day may come when they are capable of correcting my grammar — and I will squeal with joy when they can get my commas right — but that day is not here.

When that day comes, how long will it be before there'll be a computer program to write my book for me? I am not really looking forward to that.

"Written any good books lately?"

"Where ya been, fool? There's an app for that now."

Edgar A. said:

Sorry, lads, I think you misunderstand. I have always edited my own work and am not in the habit of trusting software (beyond simple word processors, because--lets face it--pens are dated). I just found that this app does make some things stick out, and it would be a shame to toss away any advantage just because it's new, different, or might, potentially, make me lazy.

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Ok, the bolded part sounds supremely aragant to me. How exactly are pens dated? I tend to switch from wordprocessor to pen and notebook depending on the project. Some things just work better the oldfashioned way for me. The difference between me and someone app bound? I can write anywhere long as I am determined enough to do so, and I don't have to worry about my pen running out of battery. Ink doesn't last forever, but you can make it if ever in a pinch.

I tend to use both. I compose first on my MacBook then print it out and edit using pen and paper.

I've played around with a couple of those apps, but that's all it's been--play. I don't have anything against them. They're interesting and good for a little procrastinating when Facebook is quiet. I just don't find them all that useful for me.

I don't use pens much either, but I know a lot of people who love them. Hey, whatever works. I just think we're lucky to live in a time where we have so many tools available.

I like the idea of an app helping to pinpoint redundant words, or grammar etc. Not so I can be lazy and let something do the work for me, but so I can eventually learn to find these things myself. I'm going to try the app out...thanks for the heads up. Hadn't heard of it!

I've never used apps to help me edit. My Microsoft Word used to give me the squiggly red and green lines, but while the spelling corrections made sense, the grammar suggestions were awful. Do these apps actually make good suggestions or no? I had an app on my phone to help me keep track of my daily word count, but deleted it.

Ulysses is a good one if you use Mac. I like it because it's clutter-free, well-organized and simple when it comes to editing. Well, Ulysses is more a productivity tool for writers than just an editing app I think it will be better for you to try the demo and decide if it works for you.

Edgar A. said:

This has convinced me that there's a schism in the community. That some believe that these sorts of apps are good and others think that these ruin good writing.

I'm on the "A tool is a tool" side, not on the "the old way is best."

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Looks to me like the greener folks are, the more inclined to trust these things they are. I find it incredibly hard to believe these tools would not suck the voice and style out of a piece, stand in the way of developing your own skills, etc......all for a very questionable payoff in terms of quality. Writing is more complex than you can whip up an algorithm for and "wrote by rote" seems sort of bound to reduce things to cookie-cutter.