Spell Check Yay or Nay?

[haileytraynor]

Do you use any spell check/grammar checks for your works like Grammarly or even just running it through the spell check on Google Docs/Word? I’m genuinely curious how far everyone goes with editing/proofreading/making sure everything’s crisp or not. This isn’t a test, I’m just curious so feel free to say you don’t use anything at all.

 

[haileytraynor]

I usually write my works in Google Docs because I have learned my lesson about just typing it all in CHYOA’s editor. So I will go through the automatic spell checks. I do have grammarly installed, but I don’t usually use it for my erotic works.

 

[insertnamehere]

No spelling/grammar checker is more accurate than the human mind, so I prefer not to use any. That said, many human minds on CHYOA could at least take notes from such software.

 

[Warden-Yarn15]

Personally, as a non-English speaker, and someone who types fast and never proofread, something telling me where I need to put a comma or proper spelling does help a lot. But as insertnamehere says, the human brain is a better judge of character of their own writing, but it doesn't hurt to have a

I do hate using Grammarly sometimes. Hate how judgemental it is...

 

[gene.sis]

Having a second set of eyes never hurts.
If your language skills are good enough to know better than the program, you can simply ignore the suggestion.
And in all other cases, you obviously made a mistake and didn't realize it on your own. (Though that depends on when you run the spell checker.)

 

[SeriousBrainDamage]

I generally don't use any tool. No grammarly(not even sure what it is...) no autocorrection, no word.

I'd love to say that I do because I feel very confident about my writing skill, but to be honest the truth is I just never took the habit.

A while ago, I used to write everything in drafts on word so there I had the thingy that marks with red your typos, but eventually I started loosing tracks of diffrent version I had here an there and got back to just write directly here.
Lately I do that 90% of the time.

That said, my opinion may feel biased on this, but I think it's best to write 'free' if you care enough to try to improve. After all, I did learn to write in my mother language that way.

Also, I'm a little afraid that a tool that checks the readability of my writing suggesting a better structure for my sentences (read more common) could hider any impulse or passion or personality or whatever you want to call it that I feel it needs to be put in it, even if it's just third grade smut.

Anyways, who knows, maybe one day I'll give it a try and won't be able do without anymore.

 

[Shiromi17]

I never proofread before it's already published. I don't know if it's just me, but when I'm writing erotica, I enter a status of arousal and I would be basically tying things that my brain tells me to type. By the time I'm finished, I do not have the mental clarity to proofread anything. I just want to publish it and get my story approved ASAP and get a quick release before going to bed.

The real proofreading occurs during the time the story is being reviewed. My writing is casual at best so I check for the typos and misspellings only. As long as I don't cringe while reading through it I don't change anything else.

That being said, if I don't enter that status of arousal during writing that usually means I'm churning out some shitty boring content and I'd better rewrite the whole thing.

 

[YveltalWarrior]

An old friend once told me, "Write drunk, edit sober." That being said, I have continued to abide by that little rule of thumb and I always make sure to spell-check my work to make it look a little nicer.

 

[gene.sis]

grammarly(not even sure what it is...)

A browser add-on that checks the spelling and grammar in input text fields of your browser.
There's also a desktop app that is a simple editor with Grammarly integrated.

That said, my opinion may feel biased on this, but I think it's best to write 'free' if you care enough to try to improve.

If you want to learn from your errors, the first step is to recognize them.

 

[SeriousBrainDamage]

If you want to learn from your errors, the first step is to recognize them.

Without a doubt, but honestly I think autocorrection dosen't make you improve, it just makes you even more lazy and prone to errors.

 

[gene.sis]

Without a doubt, but honestly I think autocorrection dosen't make you improve, it just makes you even more lazy and prone to errors.

Grammarly doesn't do autocorrection.

Though I agree that you might get lazy if you completely rely on Grammarly or the like.

So if you want to avoid that, write your content, proofread it, and when you think you've done everything right, use a spellchecker.

 

[RejectTed]

I've heard that Grammarly can overcorrect or make the wrong suggestions. While I know I can certainly improve my use of some punctuation (colons are scary), I'm worried it could make my writing worse.

 

[Warden-Yarn15]

I've heard that Grammarly can overcorrect or make the wrong suggestions

This is true at times. While it's far easier to simply click on the red line that Grammarly chose to underline, I, for a fact, know that what I wrote is correct and just have to deal with the circle in the middle saying "hey dumbass, you have a mistake here" each time I have to use the editor.

Grammarly doesn't do autocorrection.

It does at times, mostly small corrections such as forgetting, or misarranging, certain letters in a word.

Good luck having to type in a different language, just now I typed "bitte" and it autocorrected to bitter.

 

[gene.sis]

Grammarly doesn't do autocorrection.

It does at times, mostly small corrections such as forgetting, or misarranging, certain letters in a word.

Good luck having to type in a different language, just now I typed "bitte" and it autocorrected to bitter.

I just found out that Grammarly indeed has an autocorrect feature, so I was wrong about this.

But it's an option, so you can simply deactivate it.

 

[Cuchuilain]

I'm a native-English (non-American) speaker, so grammarly etc "corrects" the hell out of everything I write. I tend to just go with it though in the assumption that the readership prefers words that end ized and ored rather than ised and oured. I guess I use these things more as a language translator than a spellchecker.
However if I'm being lazy or half-assing a chapter in a more light-hearted story I will just wing it instead and write without the aid of a parachute, safety net or spell-checker.

 

[gene.sis]

I'm a native-English (non-American) speaker, so grammarly etc "corrects" the hell out of everything I write. I tend to just go with it though in the assumption that the readership prefers words that end ized and ored rather than ised and oured.

Actually.... there is an option to tell Grammarly what English (American, Australian, British, Canadian) you write in.

 

[Cuchuilain]

Yeah - I would use that, but I try to align what I write to the eyes of the majority of the readers which would be American-English, rather than my own preference and even for those readers with non American-English as their first choice English, its at least everyone's second choice (i.e. if you're Canadian, I'm speculating that you probably dont want to see things written in Australian/Jamaican etc, but would probably tolerate American), so I normally try to use American for that reason - hence the need for grammarly or its ilk.

 

[gene.sis]

to the eyes of the majority of the readers which would be American-English, rather than my own preference and even for those readers with non American-English as their first choice English, its at least everyone's second choice

I don't think readers mind if you use another spelling. You usually understand it anyway.
Additionally, if the story takes place in a certain area or from the view of a certain language user, using the corresponding spelling might have additional merits. Especially if you use local words and phrases as well.