I had no idea such a thing existed. Want. Really badly want. More than the robot hoover, and I really wanted that.
Tracey from The People’s Friend has asked me to submit the pocket novel I pitched in December. So I’m polishing the remaining thirteen chapters, tweaking characters, ironing out a crinkly plot and cutting 4000 words. This is a huge job that I’m streamlining with help from style editor ProWritingAid.
ProWritingAid’s many tools highlight weaker areas of writing. To target my tendency to waffle, I like ‘overused words’ and ‘sticky words’.
‘Overused’ is pretty obvious. It highlights common words you rely on when scampering through your first draft: have, just, think, know, for example. I want to focus on stickiness.
It took ages to understand ‘sticky’, or glue, words. Sticky is ProWritingAid’s term for non-content words. This includes prepositions (in, on, over), articles (a, the) and some verbs. How can I leave these out? By being more creative, that’s how!
To understand non-content words…
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Just waving 