Welcome to the New Age.

I love editing. I love how changing a single word can make you see a sentence in a new light. I’m back reading and editing a short story I wrote last year. A good writing friend of mine told me she uses Grammarly. I’ve always been unsure whether my grammar was correct, so you would think I would jump at the chance to use something which would tell me if I got it right. My problem is my driving need to know how something works and why you do something in a certain way. Having a better understanding of the basics helps you improve.

I always believed you had to pay for Grammarly, so I never checked it out. My friend Dawn explained that the basic program was free, so I googled it. Grammarly has me hooked now. It’s like having a teacher leaning over your shoulder, pointing at different areas, saying, ‘Somethings not right there, Paula, can you see what it is?’ The basic program doesn’t always tell you exactly what you’ve got wrong but highlights areas which need checking. There’s a list of hints as to what the problems might be, too. I like taxing my brain to solve problems rather than having someone tell me the answer. The program allows you to rewrite these areas until you get it right and the highlighted areas disappear. Exercising our brains is like exercising our bodies for them to remain healthy; we need to do it every day.

William Shakespeare

So now I’m using Grammarly every day and it is pushing me to work harder at my writing. Okay, so some might say paying for the complete program means you can write more quickly as you will know straightaway what the problem is, and this is true, but I might miss out on the inspiration that comes when you have to rethink what you’re trying to say.

Some might argue that all these different forms of proofreading programs and Al will have us all writing the same. In the past, authors scribbled down their ideas in notebooks and continued editing them until they were satisfied with the final version. We have access to the writing progress of many of the world’s greatest writers, from William Shakespeare to Jane Austen. Will there be any notebooks or paperwork available from this generation to study how the writers developed their storylines or plots if you can have your first draft proofread and corrected straightaway?

Right, it’s time for me to get back to my editing. Or should I say exercising my brain? Have a great day. Tomorrow is my writing group. It’s great to meet up with the members about books and writing.

Thank you for leaving your comment on whether we will all be writing in the same style in the future.

Bye for now.