Self-Editing~ Love it or Hate it? A Game of Thrones (Autocrit Score)

I don't know about you, but I don't love editing. Well, that's not true. I love editing when I have some direction (like from my critic group or an editor) and makes sense. I found something that helps me fix my story and I LOVE it! And yes, I asked to become an affiliate because I really do love AutoCrit.

I copy and paste one or two chapters at a time. This gives me a feel for which words I use most or how my pacing is. After I upload my words, I hit the button Run Summary Report and I get an overall report, almost like a report card. Down the page, I'd find areas I could work on. One of the taps is my favorite and helps me the most: Strong Writing. Under that tab are others like, adverbs, showing vs. telling, cliches, etc. I can then look at the overused words and make my writing cleaner. This also gives me the chance to read through my story and fix other problems as I go. Autocrit is a great editing tool for me. 

Over on their blog, they used Game of Thrones to show how their system works (I only copied and pasted a teeny bit of the post, so you might want to click on the link and read the rest!):

What’s the Score? – A Game of Thrones (Series Comparison!)

Categories: The Craft of Writing, What's the Score?

We’re off to the fantastical lands of Westeros for this edition of What’s the Score, as we welcome genre titan George R.R. Martin to the AutoCrit family!

The popularity of Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series needs no long-winded introduction – so let’s get to it, knock down the doors of the Red Keep and see exactly what’s going on inside the literary shadows of A Game of Thrones.

How will the AutoCrit suite react to Martin’s weighty tome? Does the author sport a certain set of words he likes to use – or perhaps overuse? What can we learn from this particular novel that we can use in our own editing endeavors? It’s time to find out!

Stick around at the end for a summary score breakdown of the series so far – including A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, and A Dance with Dragons.

 

DISCLAIMER: Note that this series is not designed to provide any kind of qualitative judgment nor a critique of the works dissected. As an exercise in exploration, What’s the Score? offers unique insight for us word nerds as to the linguistic makeup of specific novels, and evokes discussion of possible editing strategies in retrospect. All novels chosen for inspection have already proved immensely successful and stand as a testament to the author’s talents.

Summary Score and Fingerprint

Starting with steady poise, A Game of Thrones comes out swinging with an excellent summary score of 79.99 using AutoCrit’s General Fiction comparison. This puts it right around where we expect to see bestsellers in our investigations –usually in the region of 75 to 85.

(Click here to catch up with the rest of our inspections if you’re new to the blog.)

Looking at the fingerprint, you might be alarmed at the high numbers in each category. Remember, though, that A Games of Thrones is a very long book, so it’s only natural to see higher numbers.

It’s also worth remembering that each marker is simply an indicator. It doesn’t necessarily mean there are definitely problems – instead, AutoCrit simply thinks you would do well to give these particular things your attention.

So let’s get our editor’s hat on and do just that!

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