AutoCrit, Editing and the RED Pen

I read other blogs allot and quite recently I stumbled upon a great blog that recommended...

AutoCrit

An editing software.  Now you can try it our free, but you can only paste a minimum amount of words. You can also purchase a package. So it is what it says it is. It is a critique software. I tried it and at first I liked it but when I looked into it, it can do nothing that I can't do myself with a red pen. So I sat down and looked through these specific redundancies, words and cliché phrases I should avoid and piled up a list for you guys to enjoy. I highlight each word in a different color and I find that it REALLY helps for the sentences to be smooth and not overdone. For example adverbs are needed. We should not take away all adverbs yet they should be used sparingly.  So here is...

THE LIST

Convict Telling Words:

Search for past & present

Saw

Heard

Ate

Felt/feel

Thought

Smelled

Scared

Anger

Happy

Annoyed

Adverbs Period. (words ending with ly) such as...

Softly

Gently

Happily

Nicely

Perfectly

ING sentences. Turn them to the NOW. For example...

Staring at him, he grabbed at his head.

He stared at him and grabbed on to his head.

(Weird example but you get the idea)

AND

This and that and that and that. Stop with too many ands. Connect sentences with action instead.

Extra Pest Words to Avoid (not always!)

Could

Had

Have

It/There

Just/Then

Knew/Know

Look

Maybe

WAS (This is a big one)

Notice

I found from my own writing that these are the words that you should be most looking for and perfecting on your last edit (and the first). I placed my text into the AutoCrit and it said that my writing isn't overflowing with these words which was great to know, but I certainly got a lot of help from compiling this list and creating a diagram for every chapter on which words are overused and descriptions I should avoid. Happy Writing! Cheers.