The Publishing Performance Show

Tom Wilde of ProWritingAid - Why Your Grammar Checker is Holding You Back from Writing a Best Seller

• Teddy Smith • Episode 57

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Tom Wilde is the Head of Partnerships at ProWritingAid, a comprehensive toolkit for storytellers that helps authors improve their writing through advanced analysis and AI-powered features. With a background in English teaching, he brings deep insight into how writers can elevate their craft through technology.

In this episode:

  • Evolution of ProWritingAid from grammar checker to complete writing toolkit
  • Understanding passive vs active voice
  • Key reports and features for writers
  • AI-powered tools for story development
  • Integration with popular writing platforms
  • Privacy and security considerations


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[00:00:00] Teddy Smith: ProWritingAid isn't just another tool that checks your grammar and makes sure that your words are in the correct order. It actually does a lot more. It uses AI to check your writing, to make sure that the tone is good, to make sure that it's using good language, and also to make sure that it's interesting to read.

[00:00:18] Teddy Smith: Another interesting thing that it does is it looks at how authors can avoid using something called the passive voice. Now I'm sure this is something that has confused a lot of writers before and it even confused me. So in this episode, we talked about how you can avoid using the passive voice and how you can use AI and use ProWritingAid to help avoid some of these things as well.

[00:00:36] Teddy Smith: So it's a really fantastic episode. Really looking forward to your reactions to hearing Tom Wilde from ProWritingAid. Hi everyone and welcome to the Publishing Informant show. Today I'm joined by Tom Wilde who is the Head of Partnerships at ProWritingAid which is a really great tool for helping you to improve your writing.

[00:00:52] Teddy Smith: So thank you for joining us, Tom. 

[00:00:54] Tom Wilde: Oh, you're welcome, Teddy. Nice to be here. Yeah, it's great be able to talk to you about everything to do with writing and self publishing. 

[00:01:01] Teddy Smith: Yeah, great. And it's nice to speak to someone from the UK. It was easier to arrange our times a bit more. 

[00:01:07] Tom Wilde: Yeah, it does make a difference.

[00:01:08] Tom Wilde: And on a nice day as well. 

[00:01:10] Teddy Smith: Yeah, for a change. Well, could you just give us a bit of a really quick overview about what ProWritingAid is before we get into some of the specifics? 

[00:01:19] Tom Wilde: Yeah, absolutely. So pro writing aid is, is a toolkit for storytellers really. Right? So it's, it started life as a kind of a. a grammar checker 10, 12 years ago, but now it's developed into much, much more.

[00:01:34] Tom Wilde: And it's a tool that works with writers at any stage of the writing journey, but it works with them wherever they're writing and it helps them reach their potential. It helps them understand where they can tighten their prose, where they can write a more engaging story, where they can. Add yeah, elements that they may not have thought of.

[00:01:58] Tom Wilde: So it's like the, it's almost like the editor that sits on their shoulder pointing out everything from weaknesses to corrections to yeah, possible improvements so that when they hit publish the book is as good as it can possibly be. 

[00:02:15] Teddy Smith: And when you say it works with you, wherever you're writing, do you mean like where you are in the world or like which tool you're using to write?

[00:02:21] Teddy Smith: Or both. 

[00:02:22] Tom Wilde: Well, both, really. So, yeah, I mean, we, we did, we looked into this not long ago. We have users in, I think, every country around the world. So it does work all the way, all the way around the world. But the point, the key point really is that it works wherever you write. So writers, as you know. Use all sorts of different software, Microsoft Word, Google Docs are the, the obvious ones, but actually there are tools that are, you know, built specifically for creative writers like Scrivener, Atticus, and we build integrations that work with all of those.

[00:02:53] Tom Wilde: So you don't have to leave your writing environment to use ProWritingAid. It's not like this standalone app that you have to import into. It works, yeah, it works seamlessly in your, in your writing environment. 

[00:03:06] Teddy Smith: Right. Okay. So it's more like a plugin or like a Chrome extension in the way that it works.

[00:03:10] Teddy Smith: A bit like, you know, when you're typing, it will make suggestions to what you're already doing. 

[00:03:15] Tom Wilde: Exactly. Yeah. So there are kind of two elements. One is it makes suggestions as you type. So it's got what we call a real time checker and you're right. It's you know, we, we have extensions for major browsers.

[00:03:24] Tom Wilde: We have a desktop app. We have, yeah, versions that work pretty much everywhere, whether you're on Mac or windows. But in addition to that real time checking, which is really kind of doing The high level editing, if you like it runs much deeper reports as well, but getting really into the detail.

[00:03:41] Teddy Smith: Oh, amazing. Okay. So it is a bit more of a, it works exactly where you're writing, but it has also those wider reports to help you to improve it once you've already written something like later on. 

[00:03:51] Tom Wilde: Yeah, that's right. And that's why we call it toolkit because really. You know, as writers, we're all, we've all got different strengths and different weaknesses, right?

[00:03:59] Tom Wilde: So mine is repetition, right? I tend to have, I tend to say the same thing sometimes in multiple ways, sometimes not, sometimes just using the same vocabulary far too frequently. And it's very, it's very, it's quite difficult to see that as, as a writer. Her writing aid has two different reports that will look at things like.

[00:04:19] Tom Wilde: simply look at your repeats. So how is it repetitious? I don't know. How often are you repeating yourself? Has another report that looks at echoes. So how often are you saying the same, similar thing in close proximity to each other? These are all the kinds of things that from a reader's perspective lead to disengagement.

[00:04:38] Tom Wilde: So that's what the Tool is looking at it's like how to make sure that your manuscript is doing as good a job as possible Engaging your readers. 

[00:04:49] Teddy Smith: Mm hmm. That's very interesting. I Noticed I've got Grammarly just to do like spell checking and stuff when I write the stuff and it turns out that I use the word Really?

[00:04:58] Teddy Smith: Just a lot. I use it really a lot 

[00:05:02] Tom Wilde: Which is a really common one right now, I've said yeah And we say, that's a good example as well of a word you don't tend to notice when it's overused in speech so much, but when it's written down, it will really stand out, jump off the page, but not to you, the writer, you tend to be blind to your own kind of weak spots.

[00:05:19] Tom Wilde: That's why an editor, and look, ProWritingAid isn't a replacement for an editor but that's why an editor is, is critical in what you do as a, as a creative writer. 

[00:05:28] Teddy Smith: Yeah. Does the tool learn a bit more about your writing style as it's working or is it does it have set ways of correcting the way you, the way you write?

[00:05:40] Tom Wilde: Oh, that's a, that's a really interesting question because it goes into something that many writers quite understandably are concerned about and that is whether the software you use is learning and to learn it, you know, you'd have to store your text and analyze your text and keep records. We don't do that.

[00:06:00] Tom Wilde: We guarantee, you know, we tell and guarantee all of our writers that we our product does not store. Or use their text for training purposes, so it's not going to learn specifically your style. It's going to advise you based on the models that we've built, which are based on analysis that we've done over you know, like I say, over 12 or 13 years now.

[00:06:25] Teddy Smith: Yeah, that makes sense. Because one thing I've noticed with some other tools is your writing can become quite generic. So it's about making sure you don't have that just very Boring text that just doesn't include the word really often. 

[00:06:37] Tom Wilde: Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, and, and I think the thing to remember always is that you're in charge, right?

[00:06:45] Tom Wilde: You, in your head, that's where the story exists. What we're doing, what pro writing is doing is helping you craft that when you, and tease out of you onto paper or onto the screen, but you're in charge. And quite often in writing, there is. no hard line of what is right and what is wrong. It depends so much on, you know, the elements of your story, but also the, the genre that you're writing, your audience.

[00:07:13] Tom Wilde: So what ProWritingAid is going to tell you is just advice. and you should feel free to ignore it or accept it. It won't change anything automatically. You, you have to do all of that yourself. You have to hit accept or ignore. But yeah, so it's going to, it's going to point out lots to you. It's up to you how much you take on board.

[00:07:34] Tom Wilde: But you know, that's one of the things I think a lot of particularly new, you know, writers who are just starting out they're looking to be told how to become a good writer, but there is no kind of perfect path, if you like it's there within all of us, but her writing is just going to help tease that out.

[00:07:53] Tom Wilde: But you are in charge, you know what your story is. Yeah, and it's up to you to accept what. Yeah. What advice ProWritingAid 

[00:08:02] Teddy Smith: is giving you. Yeah, of course. I, I find the, the more you write as well, the better you guessed it and you stop using those words. And I guess if you start reading the recommendations that ProWritingAid does, you learn about why it's making those suggestions and things like that.

[00:08:15] Tom Wilde: Yeah, exactly that. Exactly that. So yes, it, it helps make you more self aware. 

[00:08:21] Teddy Smith: Yep. 

[00:08:21] Tom Wilde: Which again is another reason, you know, tools like this and editors are a really important part of the journey. You know, you, it's very rare that you kind of, well, you can't just put your book down on paper or on screen and, you know, job done.

[00:08:36] Tom Wilde: Yeah. There's a whole kind of process to go through in terms of. Ask any, any successful writer about the pain of the editing process. You know, 

[00:08:47] Teddy Smith: I was speaking to Sue someone last week who is a professional editor. She's like a developmental editor and she was saying exactly this. So, you know, they work directly with the writers, like pretty much from the beginning of writing the book and it's very much like pointing out the problems and seeing it as they go along, they must have unbelievable attention to detail.

[00:09:06] Tom Wilde: Oh, incredible, incredible. A good friend of mine is, she's a book doctor, very successful. She was the first reader for Sarah Waters. I don't know if you've read any Sarah Waters books, books like Fingersmith, which is one of my all time favorites. And she has this, it's, it's, it's an incredible skill to be able to, to read.

[00:09:27] Tom Wilde: at fast pace and spot plot holes, you know, gaps, problems that, that I just as a normal, typical consumer would probably gloss over. In fact, what I would do as a consumer is just probably switch off and stop reading the book. 

[00:09:43] Teddy Smith: Yeah, 

[00:09:43] Tom Wilde: or a Sally my friend will identify exactly what's wrong and be able to articulate that to the writer Yeah, but you're right.

[00:09:51] Tom Wilde: They work for them from an early stage. They really understand where the Story the plot comes from. 

[00:09:58] Teddy Smith: Yeah, so that's kind of important to note because obviously pro writing It doesn't completely replace an editor. But what it does do is help improve that writing before it goes to the editing point.

[00:10:08] Tom Wilde: Exactly that. Exactly. And what ProWriting is doing is working from with you right at the very beginning. So, you know, the, the, the first chapter, the first paragraph that you're putting down on paper, that's where it, you know. Jump straight in. Yeah. So a lot of, you know, there are, there are different ways you can use it, but a lot of ProWritingAid users will kind of turn off the real time checker until they've written that first draft of the first page or chapter, and then they'll turn it off.

[00:10:33] Tom Wilde: So you kind of have this concept of writing mode and editing mode. Yeah. ProWritingAid is there for both, but yeah, we see a lot of people using it, particularly in that editing mode. 

[00:10:44] Teddy Smith: Do you think there's any important things that writers should be paying attention to whilst they're writing in order to improve and elevate that writing?

[00:10:52] Teddy Smith: You know, I know, for example, we think about things like clarity and coherence, but are there any important factors that you think people should be focusing on before they, or whilst they're writing that ProWritingAid can then elevate? 

[00:11:06] Tom Wilde: Again, it's, it's an interesting one, isn't it? Because you have this concept of kind of plotters and pantsers.

[00:11:11] Tom Wilde: I'm sure you've heard about this before. Those really, you know, work hard to build the whole detail, the whole story map the plot points that they know exactly where the story is going and those who just sit down and write. And, and at this point, Teddy, I need to, you know, say I'm, I'm not a writer. I, I don't, I, yeah, I've written kind of fun stories for my kids when they were really little, but no, no further than that.

[00:11:34] Tom Wilde: But for me. When you get into the writing phase, it's about, you know, making every word count. So I, as a reader, I love books that are really descriptive, where I'm drawn in. I can, I'm a very kind of visual person. So I like to be able to create the, the, the, the landscape in my mind very, very clearly.

[00:11:56] Tom Wilde: It's kind of very kinesthetic, if you like. So every word needs to count. So again, it comes to that really the editing phase. I would say it's, you know, by all means get everything down on screen or on paper, but make sure you're ruthless when you're editing. Make sure that every single word counts and avoid that temptation to just skip over something, be lazy.

[00:12:26] Tom Wilde: It is, by all accounts, you know. A difficult pursuit, but but worthwhile. But yeah, it's, it's, that's it for me. Making sure every word counts. 

[00:12:37] Teddy Smith: Yeah, sure. Now, one of the main reports in ProWritingAid is talking about the passive voice, and I think it's quite a common issue that people talk about, and I think it's quite a difficult one to understand.

[00:12:48] Teddy Smith: It's, I've, you kind of had different explanations of exactly what it means from different people, and I've been accused of making my emails quite passive, and then it makes them less understandable. But for, could you give us a bit of an explanation about What the passive versus active voice is, and then also how ProWritingAid helps with that.

[00:13:07] Tom Wilde: So I'm going to go back to my English teaching days for this Teddy. So I was a English teacher for five or six years after, after finishing university.

[00:13:17] Tom Wilde: We used to teach the passive voice because it is important because it's so overused. Now the passive voice, first thing to say is the passive voice is not incorrect. Grammatically it's perfectly correct. The problem with the passive voice is usually because we don't clearly understand it, we tend to default to using it for various reasons.

[00:13:35] Tom Wilde: There are some very good reasons to use it but we tend to overuse it and it does make your writing more wordy, it can lead to more disengagement. The simplest way to describe it is to use two sentences, right? So I, I use the example my uncle was eaten by a crocodile. This is what I used to use with my students.

[00:13:56] Tom Wilde: Okay. Now that's passive voice. The active voice would be a crocodile ate my uncle. Right. So all I'm doing in that short sentence is switching the subject and the object. So most sentences in the active voice follow the format subject, verb, object. So Crocodile ate my uncle. With using the passive voice, I switch the two over.

[00:14:26] Tom Wilde: So my uncle was eaten by a crocodile. So usually when we're using the passive voice, we're, well, we're switching the subject and the object. We have to change the verb form, so, you know ate becomes was eaten and we're using by to introduce the, the subject where we're using the passive voice, you see what I mean?

[00:14:48] Tom Wilde: Now, the reason we do that in that context is because actually it's my uncle that's important to me. So in a story, it's my uncle that I care about, so, you know, I, I'll put the, my uncle first in that sentence. So my uncle was eaten by a crocodile. And you'll see that a lot, you know, it might be, I don't know Eloise was woken by the sun.

[00:15:13] Tom Wilde: Okay. So, you know, that's the passive version of the sun woke Eloise. So, you might use the passive voice if the object is irrelevant, or sometimes you don't even want to list the object. So, you could just say, my uncle was eaten. You could say, Eloise was woken. You don't have to include the object. in that sentence.

[00:15:38] Tom Wilde: Right. The problem is simply that we tend to overuse the passive voice. So if you look at a text, this applies to business writing just as much as creative writing. We tend to, yeah, overuse it, which leads to disengagement. Because like I say, we're using more words to form the passive voice. But we're also just losing some of the, sometimes the rhythm and the, impact of the story.

[00:16:03] Teddy Smith: Hmm. That's, that's amazing that the tool can pick up when that's being used because when you said those things to me, you're right. It does sound much more engaging to say the, the crocodile ate my uncle. But I probably wouldn't necessarily think about that. So how does the tool pick it up? What does that look like when it's picking it up?

[00:16:22] Tom Wilde: Okay. Sorry, you said it sounds much more engaging to say the crocodile ate my uncle, so that's the actual, that's the active, whereas actually what we're saying is, it's more engaging to say, my uncle was eaten by a crocodile, so that's amazing. This is the problem with the passive voice. It's so easy to get confused. Yeah. 

[00:16:40] Teddy Smith: Yeah. It's amazing that even just by switching those words around, you can make such a small phrase sounds so much more engaging.

[00:16:47] Teddy Smith: How does the tool actually pick that up as in, what does that look like when I'm say I'm typing and I write down about crocodiles and uncles, what would that look like in the tool? And how would it be picked up? 

[00:16:59] Tom Wilde: So what you'd see is an underline. So we use kind of colored underlines in ProWritingAid.

[00:17:04] Tom Wilde: When you then hover on that underline, it will, a little pop up will appear and it will say something like passive voice. And it'll highlight the specific sentence, and then it will give you active options to click and use in place of the passive sentence. And like I said, it will also include an ignore button too.

[00:17:26] Tom Wilde: So you can ignore it, because sometimes there will be very good reason why you're using the passive voice. but yeah, it's just going to ask you, or highlight. Which sentences are passive and give you options to click and change. It does also actually include a little kind of a tool tip. So it includes a little information icon that you can click on.

[00:17:47] Tom Wilde: And that includes a short tutorial about the difference between the active and the passive voice. So, yeah, a key part of what we're trying to do is. is help build the skills and knowledge of writers again, so they can become better. 

[00:17:59] Teddy Smith: Yeah, of course. And with the, with that tool, for example, whilst you're typing, would it, would it come up whilst you're typing or is it, would it be a report you run after us to see when you're, where you've used those sentences?

[00:18:12] Tom Wilde: So it's something like the passive voice that's included in the real time checker. So the real time checker is looking at. Spelling, grammar, readability, style and that includes the passive voice. So you're going to see different colour highlights depending on whether the correction or improvement that it's suggesting is like I say, spelling, grammar, style, or readability.

[00:18:35] Teddy Smith: Yeah, that's great. I've got to check this out afterwards because I think it's gonna help me quite a lot to remove a lot of cliches from my words. Yeah, 

[00:18:43] Tom Wilde: the one with the passive voice is often using the word, buy. That's a real telltale sign that you're using the passive voice. Not always, because like I say, you don't always include the subject there, but some quite often you include them by, 

[00:18:56] Teddy Smith: Oh, that's a really good tip.

[00:18:57] Teddy Smith: So yeah, look out for, if you're using the word by, that means that you could be maybe writing a bit more of a boring sentence. Okay. And with pro writing aid, there's also lots of other reports that you run into that you can run on your books, such as readability, like a sentence structure and things like that.

[00:19:14] Teddy Smith: Could you go through some of the more important ones that you think readers should know about, writers should know about even, 

[00:19:21] Tom Wilde: absolutely. So I think the first thing to say here is there are 25 different reports you can run in ProWritingAid. And that is because every writer is different. So you've, like I said earlier, you've all got, we've all got strengths and we've all got weaknesses.

[00:19:35] Tom Wilde: Most ProWritingAid users are probably using four or five reports on a regular basis, and those are the ones that they know kind of really help them tackle their biggest weaknesses. So I'm going to talk about the ones that I really like, but they may not be the ones that other users find so, you know, useful.

[00:19:53] Tom Wilde: The obvious ones are grammar and style, because those are going to do deep dives into everything from well, things that we've already touched on, things like passive voice, but use of adverbs. You sort of report a little bit around dialogue as well, but then we get really into some of the more detailed ones.

[00:20:11] Tom Wilde: So the one that I always talk to users about is sticky sentences. Okay, so sticky sentences, a sticky sentence is a word that contains too many glue words. Glue words are the 200 most commonly used words in the English language. So they are things like articles and prepositions. Now the thing about glue words is they don't deliver.

[00:20:34] Tom Wilde: The actual kind of meaning, the context of the sentence. They are almost like the padding, right? So we measure every sentence and we measure the percentage of words in that sentence that are glue words. And our sticky sentence report will highlight any sentences that have more than 40 percent of their words as glue words.

[00:20:54] Tom Wilde: Right. So if you have a word that is flagged as sticky. It basically means you could say the same thing much more concisely. So you could drop some of those words and edit that sentence from being 40 words to being 15 words and delivering the impact, you know, much more effectively. so yeah, that's, that's one of my favorites.

[00:21:18] Tom Wilde: Again, it deals with kind of, Things that I tend to do, which is pad out my sentences far too much. I've already mentioned repeats. One of the reasons I write, I like the all repeats report is because it will not only tell you which individual words you're, you're using over and over and over again, it will also look for word sequences.

[00:21:38] Tom Wilde: So it will look for multi word phrases where you're using the same, the same. Three or four words in a row. So you're kind of using the same phrase over and over again. And again, that's something that you tend not to notice, in your own work. I'm going to mention readability. Readability is so important, and it will measure readability at a paragraph level.

[00:21:59] Tom Wilde: So it will tell you exactly, we have what's called a summary report, and in that summary report, there's a pie chart, and that will show you the percentage of your sorry, the percentage of your paragraphs that are easy to read, are slightly difficult to read and are very difficult to read and that's based on readability.

[00:22:19] Tom Wilde: So you can very quickly go to the sentences that are going to slow your readers down and are going to trip them up and that's a reason for them to put down your book. So readability is really powerful. And then I can't, I can't really kind of end without Mentioning a couple of our most recent reports, I think we might be coming onto these anyway, but these are the ones that we power with, AI tools.

[00:22:43] Tom Wilde: So, rephrase, allows you to select a sentence and look at possible ways of rephrasing that sentence. And critique. Like having a critique partner right by your side. So it will review your entire chapter and it will tell you, it will analyze it from looking at the characters, looking at the dialogue, looking at the plot and give you feedback as a critique partner would.

[00:23:11] Tom Wilde: Yeah. So a bit of, a bit of a whistle stop tool, but yeah. 

[00:23:16] Teddy Smith: Yeah. The critique tour, the, the critique report was one that I really wanted to have a look at 'cause that sounds amazing. So the way that works is it uses AI, starts reading through the story you've written so far, and it looks at some of the strengths within the story.

[00:23:29] Teddy Smith: Is that kind of about right? 

[00:23:33] Tom Wilde: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So the critique report was born out of a conversation we had with some users, and one of them was telling us about using a critique partner. Critique partners are a really important part of the process. The problem with a critique partner is it can take days to get feedback from a critique partner.

[00:23:50] Tom Wilde: sometimes your critique partners are too nice, you know, so we thought, well, actually we can solve some of this by providing a way that critiques a chapter at a time and gives you the partner that, sorry, the feedback that a critique partner would give you, but instantly. So at the moment, it won't analyze a full manuscript, although we are working on that, it will analyze up to, I think it's.

[00:24:14] Tom Wilde: 3, 000 or 4, 000 words at a time and like a critique partner would, yeah, it will give you, you know, a paragraph of feedback for each of those, I think there are about eight or nine categories, like I said, to do with, characterization, to do with plot, to do with structure, to do with dialogue. So yeah, it's looking, it's, it's analyzing those, and like I said, this is one of the, so we have three reports within ProWritingAid that use generative AI.

[00:24:45] Tom Wilde: So this is powered by ChatGPT. we've done a lot of work in how we use that. So it delivers the results the right way, but also we're very conscious about people's kind of concerns about that. So we, we use ChatGPT's API, which means that none of the texts that we analyze for the critique report is stored or shared or used for training purposes.

[00:25:09] Tom Wilde: So just in the same way that our core product operates and our own models operate. It offers the user the same kind of guarantees over security and privacy. 

[00:25:19] Teddy Smith: That's very interesting. Now, one of the parts you said there, it remembers characters and suggests potential improvements, but if it only does 3, 000 words or so at a time, does it remember the previous things you've written or does it just focus on those 3, 000 words you've written?

[00:25:35] Tom Wilde: It just focuses on those 3, 000 words that you've written. Okay. Yeah. So it's, it's, it's just analyzing what's on the screen at that time. Up to 3000 words, so yeah, it's not going to tell you, for example, how you may have improved things since the last critique, although there is something we're working on there, but it's just what's on the screen.

[00:25:55] Teddy Smith: And with the AI, so I know you mentioned you're worried, not worried about the System learning or taking your writing and learning from it to improve it. Are you worried about any things like copyright or any other? Cause obviously the way I, I, I, I works is it takes information from around the internet and things like that.

[00:26:15] Teddy Smith: is there any ways of checking to see that the stuff you're getting is actually original? 

[00:26:21] Tom Wilde: So what we, so yeah, probably just a bit of context here. So where we built the, the models that power ProWritingAid and models that we built, own and maintain they power the majority of the reports in ProWritingAid and they're built on text analysis that we've done on huge volumes of text that we've acquired from professional editors.

[00:26:43] Tom Wilde: So we also understand that when it comes to using You know, generative AI, so chat GPT, there are many other large language models out there. There are concerns about, you know, copy using copyrighted material. And this is a really valid conversation to have. And we're kind of actively engaging our users in this conversation.

[00:27:01] Tom Wilde: Our Dream would be to have our own models that we develop with, you know, like I say, texts that we've acquired legitimately and be able to provide those features powered entirely by our own models. At the moment, that's not possible. So really it's up to you as a user. If you're not comfortable using chat GPT or, you know, like I say, we're all, many of us are using large language models in many areas of our life, often unwittingly.

[00:27:28] Tom Wilde: If you're using Google, you're probably using these. If you're not comfortable doing that, then, you know, our recommendation is don't use those features. So don't use rephrase, don't use critique and don't use AI don't use sparks. 

[00:27:42] Teddy Smith: Yeah. Okay. But the AI, so the, the AI sparks tool looks so fascinating. I think it looks how it can how it can improve some of the writing.

[00:27:51] Teddy Smith: What, what are some of the features of that AI sparks tool? Cause it sounds like it is a bit different to the, to the other reports you just mentioned. 

[00:27:58] Tom Wilde: Yeah, so Sparks, as the name suggests, Sparks is all about inspiration. So it's to help you get through those moments of writer's block. So what we're not doing is aiming to, you know, we're not writing your story for you.

[00:28:09] Tom Wilde: This is not about giving you text that can, you know, replaces your voice and does the hard work for you. This is about having like, almost like having a buddy that you can bounce ideas off and gives you inspiration. so, yes, SPARKS, the report works by, allowing the user to highlight a particular paragraph and then there are certain commands you can ask for the tool to do.

[00:28:35] Tom Wilde: So it For example, can rewrite that paragraph with added fluency, with added sensory detail. It can change that paragraph from first to third person. It can change it from present to past. So it's all about giving you different perspectives on, on your manuscript. And again, like I said, helping kind of unblock those ideas.

[00:28:58] Tom Wilde: it does, it works differently to most of the other reports is a really exciting one. Yeah, and, and, you know, the results are really impressive. 

[00:29:05] Teddy Smith: Yeah, it's very exciting that you can get your text that is your initial ideas, and then you can turn that from. You know, you've got your writing written down, you need to check whether it's boring, like if it's in the passive voice, for example, and your initial tools can start doing that.

[00:29:19] Teddy Smith: But then as you get further into using the tools, you can actually use it to start generating some more ideas for you and to help you move on to the next step if you're having a bit of a block. 

[00:29:28] Tom Wilde: Yeah, exactly that. So we want it to be there to help you learn, to help you become a better writer, to help you write from the very beginning, but then, you know, even when you're doing that, you know, the final edits, it's a great way of being able to review much larger passages, whole chapters, and in fact, the entire, entire manuscript for some of those reports yeah, to find those holes, to find those, improvements you can make.

[00:29:53] Teddy Smith: Yeah. Great. Well, it's really exciting. I mean, it sounds like such an exciting tool. I've, I've, I've only played around with it before and never actually really got into properly using it. Does it work with every type of fiction category or is there any ones that particularly works best with? 

[00:30:09] Tom Wilde: No, it works with every type.

[00:30:10] Tom Wilde: So that, it's a tool for creative writers, whether you're writing, you know thrillers, whether you're writing romance, whether you're writing. Even kind of, memoir and autobiography, it's by your side. And in fact, you know, there is a feature within the tool that provides feedback.

[00:30:27] Tom Wilde: It's what we call goals. So it shows you how your writing compares to that of others. And so when I say others to famous authors, but it also shows you how your writing compares.

[00:30:42] Tom Wilde: to benchmarks. So, for example, I can see my grammar is at 50 percent compared to that benchmark target of hitting 80%. And that allows you to select your particular writing genre. So, if you've got a particular genre that you write, then you can change that setting and it will modify some of those goals.

[00:31:00] Tom Wilde: Specifically for that setting. 

[00:31:03] Teddy Smith: Great. That's really interesting. I think, you know, it's great to get an overview of exactly how the tool works. If people want to find out a bit more about it, where's the best place to head to? 

[00:31:12] Tom Wilde: So prowritingaid. com has everything you need to know about the tool. There is a free version there.

[00:31:20] Tom Wilde: So all we need to do is sign up, uh, and you can analyze up to 500 words at a time. You can use most of our integrations with the free version. There are limits around some of the reports you can run. But it's a great way of getting a feel for the tool. You'll also find, uh, we have a YouTube channel that has lots of kind of content to do with both previous kind of webinars we've run on the craft of creative writing, but also some more in depth feature analysis.

[00:31:47] Tom Wilde: Yeah. Best place to start, ProWritingAid. com. And I would add at this point, actually, look out, we run five writers weeks throughout the year. So each one focusing on a different genre. So we've got Horror Writers Week coming up around about Halloween. It won't surprise you to know. Uh Romance Writers for a week will take place next February and those weeks are a full week of guest kind of webinars, Q and A's topic sessions that anybody can sign up to join and join for free.

[00:32:18] Tom Wilde: So if you're a writer, if you're starting out or learning your craft, that's a great place to supplement your learning as well as, you know, kind of actually. Practicing with the tool. 

[00:32:27] Teddy Smith: Brilliant. That's been really helpful. Thank you so much for sharing all that information. I think it, I mean, I can't wait to get started with it.

[00:32:34] Teddy Smith: Just before we finish off, what's we've got one last question and that's what, what one book do you recommend everyone should be reading at the moment? 

[00:32:43] Tom Wilde: Do you know what? I'm awful with this question Teddy, because I have a really bad memory. Um, so for books I've read, but I always tend to default to the last book I read because I'm, I, I tend to put a book down and go, Oh my God, that was such a good book.

[00:32:57] Tom Wilde: And I'm going to do exactly that in this situation because I read I was on holiday recently and I read two books. Both were amazing, but the one that really stuck with me was Go as a River by Shelley Reid. It's just a beautiful novel. I, like I say, I love description. I love intricacies, but in this novel.

[00:33:17] Tom Wilde: The story is, oh, I'm getting goosebumps just even talking about it. It's, it's captivating, really captivating. And just, it's one of those books you genuinely can't put down. I'll be finding myself at five o'clock in the morning, you know, just still there reading it. But yeah, Go as a River by Shelley Reid.

[00:33:34] Tom Wilde: Amazing. 

[00:33:36] Teddy Smith: Haven't heard of that one. So I'll definitely, yeah, that's a, it's nice to get some new recommendations because I get quite a lot of repeat ones on it. 

[00:33:42] Tom Wilde: I think it was, I think it's her debut novel, but, um, it's, it's not self published I would add, but yeah, definitely definitely a good one to read.

[00:33:49] Tom Wilde: And I, I mentioned Fingersmith earlier by Sarah Waters. That's one I always refer to if you want to, if you want to see an example of a book. There's a, there's an incident in that book that just catches everybody, kind of takes your breath away because you don't see it coming until the last minute. You're kind of mind plays tricks with you because you just, you realize what's about to happen as it happens. And it's, yeah, real kind of, heart in the mouth moment. 

[00:34:13] Teddy Smith: Wow. Sounds great. Thank you very much. Those recommendations. Well, it's been great chatting to you, Tom. Looking forward to meeting you in person soon and we'll speak again soon.

[00:34:21] Tom Wilde: Excellent. Thanks, Heddy. Lovely to meet you. 

[00:34:24] Teddy Smith: Thank you so much for tuning into the Publishing Performance podcast. I really hope you found today's episode inspiring. I love chatting to authors, writers, and people in the publishing world. Now just before we wrap up, let me tell you about Publishing Performance, the number one platform for authors who want to increase Amazon book sales, but I'm not really sure where to start.

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