Cool Tool for Writers

Hey gang!  Going to keep this short and sweet today ...

I stumbled across this extremely interesting and (probably) useful little tool the other day and wanted to share it with you fine folks.

Every writer has their own personal brand of crack when it comes to overusing words and phrases.  Some love "the" others "however", and I personally find it ridiculous how many times I can use the phrase "she couldn't" in a single short story.  Anywho, I  found a little gadget to help you find your word crutch and kick its verbose little tush.

CLICK ME, I'M FRIENDLY AND COOL

Basically, you just copy/paste whatever text you want it to analyze into the little box and it spits out all of this crazy data.  It'll tell you the number of sentences you use, how many syllables were used, the most frequently used phrases (starting with 8 words and going down), and even provide a list of every single word you used and count how many times it appears.  Is there ever REALLY a need to have the word plethora in a work of fiction?  I think not ...

Apparently I have a real thing for the word "the", because in the sample I used it popped up 698 times!  (nearly 5% of the words used)  Seriously, it's like I'm stuttering with my keyboard or something.  I thought you might find some practical use for it, or maybe just use it as an excuse to not do laundry or something.

Hope you're all well!

~EJW~

26 comments:

  1. I'm scared to plug my work in. There will probably be a plethora of looked, saw, turned, liked, and was.

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  2. I need that! Although I figured out how to find those words in Word.

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  3. I love taking out my overused words. I use just too much.

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  4. Interesting- I have it bookmarked so i can use it later. Thanks for the link

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  5. I've found some good tools, too--Dropbox and Evernote. I have them on my computer and my smartphone, so I can work anywhere and have everything when I need it!

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  6. Awesome tool, E.J.! Got it bookmarked. Thanks for sharing!

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  7. Thanks for sharing, someone passed me autocrit.com so I'll share it with ya all because it rocks like that too. Lots of fun things it can do with your text.

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  8. I've heard of that and it is such a good idea. I use "Gently" way too often. In real life, I do nothing gently.

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  9. Hmmm... I use the verb "to want" in various forms a LOT. Good to know.

    But... I don't think it works too well :P I don't think the phrase "lyrics lyrics lyrics lyrics lyrics lyrics lyrics lyrics" appears multiple times in my novel! LOL!

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  10. Sounds like an awesome tool but I'd be afraid to try it with all the crazy stuff I write....

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  11. Hehehe yWriter has something similar built in. :-)

    I know that I have some crutch words that I'll have to get rid of later.. But first, I want to sort out story.

    :-)

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  12. I've seen more and more of these sort of sites.

    In my WIP I found that I over use the word feel or felt in the first two chapters, so I went back a revised. It reads so much better now!

    Great tool, I bookmarked it! Thanks.

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  13. I have an overabundance of nows in my text!

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  14. Thanks I sent a link to myself. Cool little gadget.

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  15. That's pretty neat. I use a tool called autocrit (on www.autocrit.com) to find those pesky repetitive words and phrases. I overly rely on could.

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  16. Writers have crutches? I never woulda known. Color me shocked.

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  17. I have a lot of literary crutches I use. Usually I don't even see them until my third pass through, and then I'm groaning in embarrassment.

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  18. This is going on my bookmark list. It will come in handy when I start to revise my short stories and what not.

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  19. Very interesting. I know that I'm guilty of "really," and "even," or "even so," and probably a few more. I'll try the tool. Thanks.

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  21. Hehehe the worst thing is that people are carrying on about this, while most of us video gamers and violent book readers seem to grow up quite well balanced...

    So that makes me think one big question: What is the point?

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  22. Awesome! Thanks EJ. I'm a little scared to use it, but I know it will be a learning experience.

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  23. Oh, neat tool! I'll have to try it out...and try not to let myself get distracted by it in the process. ;)

    (New follower--just found your blog. :))

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  24. Sounds useful. Thanks for the link. I'll have to try it out sometime.

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