Self Editing Tools Writers Actually Use (And Which To Avoid)

Gary Smailes | 5 November 2025

Grammar and Style Checkers: What Works and What Doesn't

Software helps, judgment wins. Treat these checkers like assistants with sharp eyes and narrow tastes. Use them to surface patterns, then decide with your voice in mind.

ProWritingAid

Strengths:

• Repetition finder highlights echo words.
• Sentence length reports show monotony.
• Passive voice alerts catch mushy phrasing.

Weakness:

• Context awareness stays thin.
• Nuance, dialect, and intentional rhythm often trigger false alarms.

Best use:

• Run reports on problem chapters, not whole drafts.
• Focus on Echoes, Sentence Length, Passive Voice.

Quick pass:

1. Open one scene.
2. Run Echoes. If a word repeats three times within a short span, fix or vary.
3. Check Sentence Length. Aim for a mix, short alongside long, not a uniform line of 18 to 22 words.
4. Review Passive Voice. Keep purposeful moments, change the rest.

Example:

• Before: I looked at the door. I looked at the clock. I looked at her.
• After: I studied the door. The clock ticked. She waited.

Tip:

• Build a custom list for names, invented terms, and slang. Add those so the tool stops flagging house style as errors.

Stop rule:

• Fix the top three issues per chapter. Close the report. Return to story decisions.

Grammarly

Strengths:

• Solid grammar checks.
• Clear flags for missing words, agreement, and punctuation.

Weakness:

• Voice suggestions lean toward bland office tone.
• Creative rhythm often gets flattened.

Best use:

• Nonfiction, web copy, emails, proposals.
• For fiction, limit use to objective errors.

Settings worth tweaking:

• Turn off tone rewrites.
• Reduce conciseness and clarity nudges for narrative work.

Example:

• Original: She said nothing, watching the rain.
• Grammarly suggestion: She did not say anything and watched the rain.
• Better choice: Keep the original. Grammar reads fine, tone lands clean.

Fiction workflow:

• Paste one page.
• Accept hard errors, such as a doubled word or missing article.
• Reject style rewrites, unless a line already feels off to your ear.

PerfectIt

Strengths:

• Professional consistency checks in Word.
• Flags capitalization, hyphenation, numbers, abbreviations, and formatting drift.
• Style sheets remember decisions across books.

Weakness:

• Price stings for casual users.
• Setup takes a bit of time.

Best use:

• Series, shared worlds, work with multiple collaborators.
• Late stage passes before copyediting.

What to track:

• Hyphens, e.g., long term vs long-term.
• US vs U.S.
• Toward vs towards, pick one.
• E-mail vs email.
• Character names, place names, invented terms.

Simple process:

1. Run PerfectIt on the full draft.
2. Accept global decisions which match your house style.
3. Update the style sheet for future books in the series.
4. Re-run after major revisions.

Result:

• Fewer continuity slips.
• A cleaner handoff to a copyeditor.

Hemingway Editor

Strengths:

• Highlights dense sentences.
• Exposes weak adverbs and timid phrasing.
• Offers a quick pulse on readability.

Weakness:

• Rewards short and punchy over textured prose.
• Complex narration risks getting sanded down.

Best use:

• Blog posts, newsletters, high-action scenes, dialogue with bloat.
• As a spotlight, not a judge.

How to read the colors:

• Yellow, slightly thick. Consider a trim.
• Red, hard to read. Break or recast.
• Blue, adverbs and qualifiers. Remove or replace with stronger verbs.
• Purple, simpler alternative exists. Accept only when rhythm improves.

Example:

• Before: The hallway, stretching on forever, seemed to swallow sound and thought alike.
• After, trimmed without losing voice: The hallway stretched, swallowing sound and thought.

Practical limit:

• One pass per chapter.
• Fix two red sentences and two blue adverbs.
• Leave at least one long sentence for music and contrast.

A short field test

Pick one scene today.

• Run ProWritingAid Echoes. Change two repeats.
• Paste the same scene into Grammarly. Accept one hard error. Reject style changes.
• Open Hemingway. Break one red sentence.
• If the project involves a series, schedule a PerfectIt pass for the near-final draft.

Then read the scene out loud. If the voice still sounds like you, the tools helped. If the voice starts to sound like a software manual, roll back. Save your voice. Use the tools to clear noise, not to steer the story.

Manuscript Organization and Tracking Tools

Organization saves drafts. Good tools make structure visible, choices trackable, and revisions less painful. Pick what fits your brain, not what looks fancy.

Scrivener

Scrivener shines when a project sprawls. The Binder keeps scenes, chapters, and research in one view. The Corkboard turns scenes into index cards. Split screen lets you compare scenes or draft while glancing at research.

Start simple.

• Create folders for Acts or Parts.
• Use one document per scene. Title each with a short slug, like “Ch 12, Ferry fight.”
• Add a one-line synopsis on each card. State the turn or beat.

Color helps. Use Labels for POV. Use Status for Draft, Revised, Needs work. Custom metadata keeps a timeline tight. Add fields such as Date, Location, and Onstage characters. Sort a collection by date to check continuity.

Snapshots protect lines you love. Before a heavy edit, take a Snapshot. If the new version flops, restore in two clicks.

A quick restructure drill:

• Open the Corkboard for Act Two.
• Write one sentence on each card that states what shifts.
• Drag two slow scenes earlier or later to test energy.
• Read the run in Scrivenings mode to hear the new rhythm.

Ignore Compile at first. Export to Word or PDF later. Use Scrivener for structure and drafting. That avoids the learning wall and keeps focus on the story.

Google Docs

Docs is the friend for feedback. Live comments, Suggestions mode, and Version history make group work smooth.

Set the rules before you share.

• Create a Comment Guide at the top. Three questions you want answered.
• Share with Commenter access, not Editor.
• Ask readers to use Suggestions for line edits and comments for questions.

Name files with a date stamp, like “Novel v0.6 2025-03-10.” Version history lets you revert to an earlier mark if a round goes sideways.

Thread comments keep a debate tidy. Assign a comment to yourself with the checkbox. Resolve when fixed. You leave a trail of decisions without juggling email.

Docs is light on layout. That is fine for feedback rounds. For heavy formatting or submission prep, move to Word near the end. If a draft grows sluggish, split into one file per Act, then merge later.

Microsoft Word

Word is home plate for professional work. Editors expect Track Changes, Comments, and styles that behave.

Set up styles once.

• Heading 1 for chapters.
• Normal for body text.
• Block Quote for long quotes if needed.
• Use the Styles pane, not manual bold or spacing.

The Navigation pane turns headings into a map. Click to jump chapters. Drag to reorder if your structure uses headings.

Track Changes is your ledger. Turn it on before revisions. Keep comments short and directive. Write a decision in the margin, not a debate.

Find and Replace is a scalpel.

• Use wildcards for quotes around straight to curly.
• Search for double spaces, or space before punctuation.
• Audit filter phrases, such as “I felt,” “he noticed,” “seemed to.”

Word bogs down with giant files. A few fixes help.

• Split the book into three parts during heavy editing, then recombine.
• Turn off automatic grammar checking while you revise.
• Save versions with dates. Archive previous rounds in a folder named Old.

When you send to an agent or a freelance editor, follow their specs. Word makes that painless once styles are in place.

Notion or Obsidian

These tools keep worlds straight. Notion uses databases. Obsidian uses linked markdown notes. Both suit big casts, timelines, and rules that need memory.

Start minimal. Build a Series Bible, not a maze.

In Notion, create three databases:

• Characters. Columns for Name, Age, Role, First appearance, Goal, Secret, Last seen.
• Locations. Name, Tag, Description, Rules, Linked scenes.
• Timeline. Date, Chapter, Scene, Who, What shifts.

Link Characters to Timeline. A rollup shows where a character appears and when they drop out. That reveals gaps fast.

In Obsidian, create a note template.

• Front matter with fields, like pov: Dana, age: 34, goal: repay debt.
• A short bio, quirks, voice tics.
• Backlinks to scenes where the character appears.

Use tags for arcs. For example, tag scenes with #heist or #family. The graph view will show clusters. Useful, not sacred.

Resist overbuilding. Add fields only when you need them. If you are writing a stand-alone novel with a small cast, a one-page spreadsheet likely beats a full database.

A small daily habit:

• After writing, log changes in the Timeline. One line per scene.
• Update any character notes with new facts, like a scar or a shift in motive.
• Flag any contradictions with a bold note, then queue a fix in your to-do.

A simple workflow that balances the tools

• Draft and outline in Scrivener. Use labels for POV, synopsis cards for beats, and snapshots before big cuts.
• Share excerpts in Google Docs for beta feedback. Use Suggestions mode and a comment guide.
• Move to Word for line edits and submission prep. Styles on. Track Changes on. Find and Replace for a final sweep.
• Keep a lean Bible in Notion or Obsidian if your world is complex. Characters, locations, and a date-stamped timeline.

Pick the smallest setup that supports the work. When the project grows, expand with intent. Tools serve the story, not the other way around.

Specialized Self-Editing Applications

These tools go beyond grammar fixes. Each one targets a narrow problem, and each one rewards focused use.

AutoCrit

AutoCrit studies genre norms for pacing, repetition, and dialogue tags. Run a single chapter, not the whole book. Reports highlight slow spots, overused words, and a show versus tell ratio. Treat those numbers as hints, not law.

Try this 30-minute pass:

• Load chapter three.
• Open the pacing report. Mark paragraphs flagged as slow.
• In the repetition list, pick one filler phrase, for example, “start to.” Cut or swap three instances.
• Check dialogue tags. If “he said” outruns action beats by two to one, add a gesture or line beat in two spots.
• Rerun the chapter.

Overuse leads to formula. Genre averages describe common practice, not your voice. Use the tool to spot extremes, then decide scene by scene.

Fictionary

Fictionary maps scenes to a story arc and tracks viewpoint, goals, stakes, and setting continuity. Setup takes time, so plan a week for input on a full novel.

Start with three moves:

• Enter scenes with a one-sentence purpose. State who wants what, who blocks, what changes.
• Tag viewpoint and scene date. Add location.
• Open the arc view. Check for long flat stretches between turns. Move or merge scenes to close gaps.
• Scan character summaries. If a lead vanishes for five chapters, add a short reminder scene or trim the absence.

For series work, Fictionary pays off. The timeline and character trackers reduce continuity drift. Data entry tempts stalling. Limit inputs to fields you use in decisions.

SmartEdit

SmartEdit runs fast and focuses on crutch words, phrase repetition, adverbs, and dialogue tags. Reports stay clear, which makes a quick scan painless.

Use the Word add-in or the desktop app.

• Run five chapters.
• Export the list of repeated phrases.
• Pick the top five.
• Fix three each day until the list shrinks.

SmartEdit does not judge context. A repeated phrase in a motif might deserve to stay. Mark phrases for review rather than deleting on sight. Less range than ProWritingAid, more speed.

Readable.com and Flesch-Kincaid

Readable.com and Flesch-Kincaid offer grade-level scoring. Useful for middle grade, YA, and accessibility goals. Less useful for literary prose.

Pick a target range. Middle grade often reads best around Grade 4 to 6. YA often lands near Grade 7 to 9. Nonfiction for general readers often sits near Grade 8.

Run a score on three sample chapters. When a chapter sits above target, try two fixes. Split long sentences. Swap rare words for plain ones where meaning allows. Keep voice and rhythm. A lower number never outranks clarity and tone.

Example:

• Original: Upon reaching the courtyard, Jonathan commenced a perusal of the scattered documents.
• Revision: At the courtyard, Jonathan scanned the scattered papers.

Scores measure surface features. Meaning lives in context and content. A score helps when writing for younger readers or for accessibility reviews. For literary work, treat scores as a glance, then trust ear and test pages with real readers.

Use specialized apps in short bursts. One targeted pass per week beats endless dashboards. Pick one question, run one report, make one meaningful change.

Free and Simple Solutions That Actually Help

The best editing tools cost nothing and hide in plain sight. Writers spend hundreds on software when their computer already holds everything needed for solid revision work.

Text-to-Speech

Your computer reads aloud. Windows calls it Narrator. Mac calls it VoiceOver. Both catch problems your eyes skip.

Set up takes two minutes:

• Open your manuscript in Word or Google Docs.
• Select a paragraph.
• Hit Ctrl+Shift+U on Windows or Cmd+F5 on Mac to start reading.
• Adjust speed to match your natural reading pace.

Listen for three things:

• Missing words. Your brain fills gaps when reading silently. The computer voice stumbles on incomplete sentences.
• Rhythm breaks. Long sentences that work on paper sound breathless when spoken. Short choppy sentences sound like a grocery list.
• Wrong words. "Their" instead of "there" sounds wrong even when it looks right.

Try this exercise: Play the first page of chapter one. Mark spots where you wince or want to interrupt. Those marks show real problems.

The robot voice takes getting used to. After twenty minutes, you stop hearing the mechanical tone and start hearing your prose. Writers who resist this method miss the fastest way to catch awkward phrasing.

Find/Replace in Word

The Find/Replace box turns into a surgical editing tool when you know what to hunt.

Start with filter words. These weak phrases distance readers from action:

• "I felt" (replace with the actual emotion or cut entirely)
• "She saw" (show what she saw, skip the seeing)
• "He heard" (give us the sound)
• "They thought" (give us the thought directly)

Search for weak verbs next:

• "Was walking" becomes "walked" or "strode" or "shuffled"
• "Went to" becomes "visited" or "entered" or "climbed"
• "Got" becomes the specific action

One productive hour: Pick three crutch words from your writing. Search each one. Fix half the instances you find. Your prose tightens without losing voice.

Advanced moves work with wildcards and formatting searches. Find all instances of "ly" to spot adverb overuse. Search for quotation marks to review dialogue tags. Find all italic text to check for consistency.

Print and Red Pen

Physical pages show different problems than screens. Print chapter three. Grab a red pen. Mark anything that stops your reading flow.

Paper editing catches:

• Paragraph length variety. A page of short paragraphs looks choppy. A page of long blocks looks dense.
• White space balance. Dialogue breaks up description. Action breaks up introspection.
• Scene transitions. Abrupt jumps between scenes stand out more on paper.
• Repetitive sentence structure. Four sentences starting with "She" in one paragraph jumps off the page.

Circle words you use too often. Draw arrows to connect cause and effect. Cross out entire sentences that add nothing. The physical act of marking creates different mental engagement than clicking and typing changes.

Print every fifth chapter, not the whole manuscript. Red ink on paper costs less than software subscriptions and works better for structural problems.

Style Sheets and Checklists

A style sheet prevents the small mistakes that make manuscripts look amateur. Create a simple Word document with three sections:

Character details:

• Names, ages, physical descriptions
• Relationships, occupations, key traits
• Consistent spellings and facts

World details:

• Place names, distances, geography
• Technology level, social rules, magic systems
• Timeline of major events

Style choices:

• Numbers spelled out or numeral (twenty vs 20)
• Time format (8:00 AM vs 8am vs eight o'clock)
• Capitalization decisions (Detective Smith vs detective Smith)
• Hyphenation choices (year-old vs year old)

Update the sheet during first draft. Reference it during revision. A character with green eyes in chapter two and blue eyes in chapter twelve destroys credibility faster than plot holes.

Build checklists for common problems. Before submitting any chapter, check:

• Character names spelled consistently
• Timeline makes sense
• Scene goals clear
• Viewpoint steady
• New information introduced properly

Free tools work when you use them systematically. Pick one method. Use it for a week on your current project. Master simple solutions before buying complex software.

Tools to Approach with Caution

Some tools promise speed and polish, then flatten your voice or waste your week. Use them, but keep your hands on the wheel.

AI writing assistants for editing

Helpful for ideas, weak for nuance. Feed one a scene and you often get tidy sentences, fewer quirks, and a voice that sounds like a brochure. Genre habits go missing. Humor goes beige. If you want a chorus of “As a large language model,” you know where to find it.

Use AI for:

• Brainstorming ten titles or chapter headings.
• Listing sensory details for a location.
• Summarizing feedback from three beta readers.
• Generating comp titles or market comps to research on your own.

Avoid AI for:

• Line edits on your prose.
• Voice choices for a character.
• Genre-specific beats without human judgment.

A quick guardrail: give it a paragraph, ask for three ways to raise tension, then close the window. Rewrite the paragraph yourself using any useful ideas, not the wording. Keep your fingerprints on every line.

Privacy matters too. If the tool stores your text, treat sensitive work with care. Redact real names. Keep key scenes offline.

Comprehensive writing suites

All-in-one packages promise plotting, character sheets, research binders, and a happy ending. The pitch sounds great. The reality often means a maze of features, hours of setup, and a file format no one else uses.

Before you commit:

• List your must-haves on a sticky note. Three items, max.
• Download the trial. Give yourself one afternoon.
• Build one scene, one character, and one location.
• Export to .docx and .txt. Check the output.

If you spend more time choosing a theme than writing a paragraph, walk away. If your export breaks italics or scene breaks, walk away. You need tools that respect your time and play nice with editors and collaborators.

A simple stack beats a flashy suite. Scrivener plus Word plus a style sheet often outperforms an “everything” app.

Beta reader platforms with scoring

Stars and scores feel tidy. Fiction is not tidy. A 3.8 rating on “pacing” tells you nothing about where the drag starts or why it happens. Gamified systems reward quick takes and hot takes. Your draft needs thoughtful notes.

Build a small circle instead. Three to five readers who know your genre and will tell you the truth. Give them a short brief and a deadline. Ask targeted questions:

• Where did you pause or skim?
• Which character felt thin?
• What promise does chapter one make, and does chapter five pay it off?
• Point to one favorite line and one you would cut.

Collect responses in a simple form if you want structure. Google Forms works. No avatars. No scores. Real sentences only. Then meet one reader on Zoom or over coffee and talk through sticky spots. Ten minutes of conversation beats a dashboard of stars.

Expensive plotting software

Plot maps look gorgeous. Color-coded arcs. Timelines. Character heatmaps. Your brain gets a hit of progress before a single scene improves. That is the trap. The tool becomes the project.

Try a lightweight test first:

• Twelve index cards. One for each key beat or scene.
• One spreadsheet column for timeline, one for POV, one for location.
• A cheap wall calendar for day-by-day events in a mystery or thriller.

If those simple tools move you forward, keep going. If you still feel lost, identify the exact pain. Examples:

• You juggle four POVs and lose track of what each person knows.
• The series timeline drifts across three books.
• Clues appear too early or too late.

Now trial a plotting app with features aimed at that pain. Timebox it to two hours. Build only the piece you need, not the entire universe. Export to open formats and print a summary. If the tool helps you make a decision on one scene, keep it. If it sends you hunting for color palettes, delete it.

A quick rule of thumb

If a tool makes you write more and worry less, keep it. If a tool turns you into a project manager for your own novel, set it aside. Your voice pays the bills. Protect it from anything that tries to smooth off the edges.

Building Your Personal Self-Editing Toolkit

Keep it lean. Fewer tools, more pages. Start with a small stack you will use every week, then add pieces only when a problem keeps biting you.

Start minimal

Use three things:

• Word or Google Docs for the manuscript.
• A simple style sheet.
• Text-to-speech.

Word or Google Docs

• Turn on Track Changes for any serious pass. Comments hold questions for later, not rabbit holes for now.
• Use Word’s Navigation Pane or Docs’ Outline to hop between scenes.
• Learn Find and Replace with wildcards. Search for filter verbs, was, went, felt, saw. Build a list of your top ten tics and keep it nearby.
• Version history in Docs saves you from panic. In Word, save new versions with dates.

A simple style sheet

Create one page in Word or Docs. Headings which work:

• Names and spelling choices, Jon or John, OK or Okay, email or e-mail.
• Hyphenation choices, high school or high-school, login or log-in.
• Numbers, numerals for ages, words for one through nine.
• Capitalization, Internet or internet, Mum or Mom.
• Timeline, chapter-to-day mapping, holidays, moon phases if you write crime or fantasy.

Fill it as you write. Five minutes at the end of each session, add anything you decided. Future you will thank you during revisions and across a series.

Text-to-speech

• Mac, System Settings, Accessibility, Spoken Content, enable Speak Selection. In Word, Review, Read Aloud.
• Windows, Word has Read Aloud under Review. Edge reads a web page and a PDF. Narrator works in a pinch.
• Mini exercise, select one page from your latest chapter, listen while following on paper, mark stumbles, repeats, and missing words. Fix, then read once more.

This trio covers most line-level issues with no drama.

Match tools to the stage

Drafting

• Scrivener helps with structure, scene cards, and research at your elbow. If your book has multiple POVs or timelines, split-screen view will save your head.
• Keep the style sheet open, but light touch. Add a name choice here and there. Do not micromanage commas while trying to find the story.
• Use text-to-speech when a scene feels flat. Listen for dead air.

Big-picture revision

• Build a scene list in a spreadsheet or in Scrivener’s corkboard. For each scene, jot goal, conflict, outcome, POV, location. You will spot gaps fast.
• Move scenes in Scrivener, or copy and paste between Docs sections. Do not worry about prose yet. Fix order, stakes, and payoffs.

Line edit

• Move the working draft to Word. Track Changes on. Do a Find pass for weak verbs and filler phrases. Review the style sheet as you go.
• Run ProWritingAid on two problem chapters, not the whole book. Review only reports which match your goals, repeats, long sentences, passive constructions. Ignore style advice which steamrolls your voice.
• Read aloud with text-to-speech. Mark clunky spots. Tighten.

Final sweep

• PerfectIt, if you have it, for hyphenation and capitalization issues. If not, run a manual check against your style sheet.
• Print a clean copy and read with a pen. Mark only pacing and continuity fixes. Transfer those notes in one session.

Budget decisions

Free options often match paid tools for daily work. Spend money where a human brain makes a difference.

• Use Word from work or school if licensed. LibreOffice handles Track Changes for zero cost, though Word remains the standard for editors and agents.
• Google Docs is free and strong for comments with beta readers and developmental editors.
• ProWritingAid and PerfectIt offer trials. Schedule a focused test week late in revision, run targeted checks, then decide.
• Scrivener is a one-time purchase. Worth it for complex projects. If your book is short and linear, keep writing in Docs or Word and skip it.
• Save for a pro editor. One strong edit beats five subscriptions.

Quick test before paying

• Will this tool save one hour every week, or solve a pain which stalls you every session?
• Does it export to .docx cleanly?
• Does it respect your voice during a sample chapter?

If the answer is not clear, wait a month. Write more pages. Revisit the choice with fresher eyes.

Integration workflow

Tools should work together without drama. Build a path and stick to it.

File naming

• BookTitle_v03_2025-11-05.docx. Numbers rise, dates sort. No FinalFinal2.
• Keep a Changelog at the top, three lines, what changed, date, who did it.

Folders

• Manuscript.
• Research.
• Style Sheet and Timeline.
• Feedback, one folder per reader, with date.

Backups

• One cloud service, one local copy. Sync daily. Zip the project on Fridays and email yourself the file. Future you again sends thanks.

Round trips

• If you draft in Scrivener, compile one chapter to Word. Check italics, scene breaks, headings. Make two edits in Word, then bring the text back into Scrivener. If the round trip breaks formatting, adjust settings now, not after 90,000 words.
• If you revise in Google Docs, download a .docx and open in Word. Check comments and spacing. Smooth this path before a deadline.

Beta workflow

• Share a locked Google Doc for each reader, one per round. Title with date and version. Ask for comments, not edits. Pull notes into your master Word file after the round ends. Close that version, move to the next.

Personal rules

• One tool per task. Draft in Scrivener or Docs. Line edit in Word. Consistency check in one app. No hopping mid-pass.
• Timebox experiments. Twenty minutes to test a feature with 500 words. Keep if it helps, delete if it distracts.

A simple starter kit

• Word or Google Docs, active use of comments and Track Changes.
• One-page style sheet with names, spelling, hyphenation, numbers, and timeline.
• Text-to-speech set up and mapped to a shortcut.
• A spreadsheet scene list for the structural pass.
• Optional, Scrivener for complex books, ProWritingAid for late-stage consistency.

Use these pieces until they feel boring. Boring is good. Boring means the tools have disappeared and the work is on the page, where it belongs.

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