WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.290 --> 00:00:22.429 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Hello, everybody! Welcome to day 3. A fantasy writers week. I am so excited to be with you here today. We're gonna get started in just a second after we have a chance for everyone to join. So just to make sure everything is working. If you can see and hear me, please go ahead and drop your name in the chat. 2 00:00:23.220 --> 00:00:24.939 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Hi, Megan, from Tampa. 3 00:00:25.120 --> 00:00:34.889 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Good to see you. I hope the weather in Tampa is warmer than is here in England. Hi, Meredith! Hi! Bria! Hi! Nicole! Hi, Danny! 4 00:00:35.220 --> 00:00:36.560 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Hi, Thomas! 5 00:00:38.250 --> 00:00:39.819 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Hi! Michelle! 6 00:00:41.450 --> 00:00:43.210 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Hi! Linda! Good to see you. 7 00:00:44.820 --> 00:00:50.340 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Hope I'm glad you made it home, though I'm sad. You're not here in the UK. Anymore. Hi, John. 8 00:00:50.850 --> 00:00:54.290 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: happy, alright! Looks like everything is working. 9 00:00:54.350 --> 00:01:09.910 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: I'm curious from everyone who has been here so far. What are some of the biggest takeaways that you have had from fantasy writers week so far this this this year? If this is your first time, or if this is your third or fourth. 10 00:01:11.740 --> 00:01:14.759 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Chris really enjoyed the project management presentation. 11 00:01:17.230 --> 00:01:24.800 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: cool, different approaches for writing suffered from Tolkienism. Magnus, in the antagonist talk. Great 12 00:01:25.650 --> 00:01:28.280 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: world anvil. Yes, we love world anvil. 13 00:01:30.280 --> 00:01:53.360 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Great. Okay? Well, today we're gonna be talking all about editing but before we oh, the 4 big crosswords is literally changed. However, in 2 days. Love to hear it. Okay, so we are going to talk today about editing and how technology can support the editing process. I'm gonna get started with just a couple of quick housekeeping notes for the recording and then for anyone else who is here for the first time. 14 00:01:53.675 --> 00:02:23.190 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: So, as you all know, replays are added to the Hub page as soon as they're done processing by zoom, and then they're going to be available in the pro writing aid community for absolutely all members to view whether your premium or free, etc. On May third, I'm going to just put those links into the chat. If you click the link to join the live event, chat that second link that's also going to be exactly where you'll see the replays after May third, so that you can always come back and see them as you are returning to your normal life after fantasy week. 15 00:02:24.184 --> 00:02:47.519 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Our sessions Monday through Thursday. So today is Thursday. Oh, gosh! I think I said. Happy Wednesday. It's Thursday are free for everyone to attend, and then the sessions tomorrow are only for prorating aid, premium and premium pro users. We've got a lot of really good stuff. Tomorrow I'm gonna be leading a really kind of tactical session on World Building, where we'll be doing a lot of drafting together. I think some of you probably went to Sarah's 16 00:02:47.520 --> 00:03:10.710 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: session on building a character on Monday evening. It's going to be very similar. We're going to be working through prompts and things like that together. And then they're going to be another other really great sessions tomorrow. So if you're already an existing premium user, you will have access to that to that session, and if you upgrade to premium anytime before tomorrow morning, and you will also receive the email to get access. 17 00:03:11.044 --> 00:03:13.720 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Now, if you have premium or premium pro 18 00:03:14.393 --> 00:03:37.820 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: of any type monthly, yearly lifetime. You're going to receive an email tomorrow morning that will give you the specific link to join the live sessions and view the replays. If you did not. If you don't get that email, you can send us an email to Hello at providing aidcom, and we will take a look at that. And I'm just noticing in the chat a couple of people said they didn't get the emails for today, so I'll I'll double check on that right after this. 19 00:03:39.690 --> 00:04:05.279 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: And then yes, as part of your offer you this week, if you do not have yearly. Or, excuse me, do not have premium or premium pro yet you will. You have the option? Option? Excuse me to upgrade for 25 off yearly that will unlock a number of premium tools for authors. It'll give you an opportunity to look at improving your entire chapters, help you kind of create custom rules, and all of this is available for 25% off until May tenth 20 00:04:06.038 --> 00:04:20.360 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: and then, as I said, the links for both the community and the hub are in the chat. The hub has that link to the discount. And then please use the community. It's where we're going to be putting replays after this. And that's also where you can talk to other people about the sessions and everything like that. 21 00:04:20.681 --> 00:04:49.389 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Okay. And a couple of just quick reminders for this session. I am the only presenter and the only the only speaker here today. So it's gonna keep. Be distracting for me to keep an eye on the chat. I'll try to do my best, but if you have questions for me, please put them into the QA. Box that way I can make sure that I don't miss them. And then everything is going to be on the hub as well. And yes, thank you so much for everybody who's saying that you didn't see the email. I'll check into that right after this. Ohio, Leona. Good to see you. 22 00:04:49.640 --> 00:04:54.649 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Okay, with all of that, let's go ahead and get started. 23 00:04:54.850 --> 00:04:57.980 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: So let me share my other screen. 24 00:04:59.070 --> 00:05:23.240 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Here we are. Okay. So today in this session, we're gonna talk about how to use technology to make your editing process simple and efficient. And for those of you who I have not met before, my name is Hayley. I am the director of community at providing aid. I've been here for about over 6 years at this point. And my, my job is really to organize these events and the things for our community. So my team, Michelle, Sarah Joe, all of people that you've met so far 25 00:05:23.240 --> 00:05:48.190 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: all on my team, and our goal is really to just provide as many as many valuable resources for writers as possible. So we have the writing events like fantasy writers week. Our next one upcoming will be crime. We just finished romance a sneak preview for all of you here is that we're going to add horror writers week this week. Excuse me this year, a little bit later in the year as well as Sci-fi, and then we're also experimenting this year with some shorter 26 00:05:48.190 --> 00:06:00.419 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: events. So it's really, really exciting for me. My, I have the best job in the world because I get to do this and come here and to talk to all of you. About about writing and about how to make our books better. 27 00:06:01.060 --> 00:06:25.849 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: So today, we're going to talk about a couple of different things. First, I'm gonna talk to you about what happens during the editing process, because I feel like for a lot of us. Editing is really confusing. I think drafting is really confusing, too. But at least there's kind of the idea of when it's done. You know, that you have to kind of get to an end. But with editing it's really difficult, because you could in theory edit forever. Any book you know that 28 00:06:25.850 --> 00:06:49.799 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: is published, could still probably go through a round of edits and find ways to improve it or make it better, or things that could be changed. So it's really difficult to kind of understand what happens during editing and how you should know when you're done. So that's what we're gonna talk about first. Then I'm gonna talk about. Why, I think technology is really helpful for self editing. And I'm specifically going to kind of address the AI elephant in the room as well and talk about how technology 29 00:06:49.800 --> 00:07:14.619 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: on across the whole spectrum from not AI based to AI based can really help and hopefully make a case for the fact that technology can support you, regardless of whether or not you use AI AI generative features or not. And then I'm also going to then break down how you can use technology specifically, both with I, AI, and without it, to support 2 stages of your right. Or excuse me your editing journey. 30 00:07:15.160 --> 00:07:21.460 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: both the story editing phase and then the line editing phase. And then we'll also talk about questions. 31 00:07:21.977 --> 00:07:41.990 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Okay. So first, let's go into what actually happens in an editing process. Because I think, as John is saying in the chat editing is like doing brain surgery on yourself. It's like doing break. Maybe even more than that. Editing is like doing brain surgery on your baby. Almost. Because it's it's this thing that you've spent so much time bringing into the world, and you want it to be 32 00:07:41.990 --> 00:08:05.290 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: the best it possibly can be. But it's really difficult to understand what that means and how to get there. But on the other side, editing is a phenomenal opportunity, I think, for all of the authors we interview during these weeks. Every single author I've talked about I've spoken with has said that editing is what makes their story the best that it possibly can be. So it's really also an a moment of 33 00:08:05.290 --> 00:08:21.780 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: intense opportunity. Even if you you know, if you finish a draft. That's amazing. Editing is where you can make it. That book that it's that it's meant to be so rather than kind of a chore, it's really the the opportunity where the story is honed and built into something that is really very, very exciting. 34 00:08:22.180 --> 00:08:24.120 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: but it's kind of 35 00:08:24.140 --> 00:08:48.949 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: difficult to understand what you're going to look at and whilst it's the time when your story is going to come to life. It's something that a lot of us dread, because, as I mentioned, we're not really sure what to expect. Again, you kind of loosely know that to draft you have to get from your idea to to done but for editing, it's like, what do we even look at at that point. As Joanna's saying. Yeah, you kind of stuck it that a lot of people end up getting stuck 36 00:08:48.950 --> 00:08:54.340 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: stuck at that revising and editing phase. It's really hard to know when when is this good enough? 37 00:08:54.622 --> 00:09:21.550 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: And that's because in editing you're examining absolutely every aspect of your story. And you're tuning that kind of lens to it to see. How can I make this as good as possible? So you're looking at your plot. You're looking at your characters. You're looking at word choice. You're looking at structure. You're looking at. So many different things can be really hard to, you know. Zoom out to be able to get fresh perspective on it but then also again, to kind of know when it's done. So I'm hopefully gonna break down editing into 38 00:09:21.600 --> 00:09:35.340 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: bit of a process step by step, or excuse me a step by step process that you can kind of follow. So you at least have an idea of when you might be done again. I think one of the the things to keep in mind with editing is that there is never 39 00:09:35.520 --> 00:09:46.830 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: going to be a point where you get a 100%. So one of the things that people often worry about when they're using pro writing aid is. Oh, I'm not at a 100%, or I haven't gotten a perfect score. 40 00:09:46.970 --> 00:10:05.599 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: That's not the goal. When you are editing, you're not trying to get a perfect score. You're not trying to get a perfect score with spelling or grammar, because, to be quite frank, there's going to be errors in there in things like dialogue. All of us are writing, and sometimes our characters might not speak in a way that's grammatically correct. 41 00:10:05.600 --> 00:10:30.529 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: That's fine. That might show up as a as an error in, you know, in your your search of your story. But that that's an okay error to have right same thing with spelling. There might be intentional spelling mistakes if one of your characters is writing a letter or something like that. So again, even for things like spelling and grammar, you're likely not aiming for a hundred percent. And when you, when it comes to something like characters or plot, there is no such thing 42 00:10:30.530 --> 00:10:48.949 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: as a 100%. What's 100% to me? What I absolutely love is going to be very, very different to what every single one of you in the chat, love, because we're all different people. So I think the first thing to think about when editing is that you're not aiming for 100. There's not going to be a perfect draft. 43 00:10:48.950 --> 00:11:15.494 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: It's just impossible to get there at. Not a single book in the entire world is absolutely perfect when it comes to plot, because there's not a single book in the world that everybody likes, and it's also not 100% perfect when it comes to things like grammar, etc. So that's the first thing to keep in mind. So what I'm gonna do next is talk about the stages that you should at least do this. So again, we can keep going on for many, many processes, many, many stages, and go through this many times. 44 00:11:15.760 --> 00:11:19.019 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: but here, at a bare minimum is what I recommend doing. 45 00:11:19.400 --> 00:11:44.843 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: So what I recommend doing is completing your first draft and then going into a story edit. A story edit is where you're going to be looking at big picture pieces like, does my plot work? Are my characters interesting and compelling? Have I created an immersive setting those big picture pieces, and you're gonna make sure all of those work. And you're gonna try to ignore, you know. Have I made grammar errors? Have I made spelling errors, you know, is my 46 00:11:45.150 --> 00:11:58.610 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: is my license, you know, is my are my sentences. Can they be better? But you're really gonna focus on big picture pieces. And then you're going to want to send that out to some beta readers or critique partners to get their feedback on the story. 47 00:11:58.710 --> 00:12:23.009 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: then, at that. After that point you kind of go into the line editing where you might look at you know. How am I setting up my sentences. Am I using language appropriately? Then you might go to a professional editor to just kind of com confirm everything that you've created, and then you might have a final draft. So if you approach editing incredibly linearly, this is what it would look like. You'd probably go through, you know, one round of drafting one at least one round of story editing 48 00:12:23.010 --> 00:12:29.410 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: one round of Beta in critique partners, one round of line editing. You'd have a professional editor clean it up and go to a final draft 49 00:12:29.937 --> 00:12:58.480 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: but that being said for most of us, it looks a lot more chaotic. It looks a lot more like this. So you might do your first draft. You might, just as Chris is saying, the chat do multiple rounds of story editing. So you might do 3 story edits yourself before you send to a beta. Reader. You might do a story edit, then a beta reader, then story edit, then a beta reader, you might do story edit line edit. Beta. Reader, again, all of this is kind of up to you, and each process is going to look a little bit different. But at the macro level 50 00:12:58.580 --> 00:13:21.810 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: these are the main stages that you're going to want to go to again. How many times you go through them is going to be a bit up to you in your process. But in terms of stages you need to make sure that you're looking at your story. You need to make sure you're getting some feedback on this. You need to make sure that you're looking at your language, and then you want to have someone or something kind of go through and do a pass to make it, to make sure it's as polished as possible. 51 00:13:21.810 --> 00:13:37.999 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: So at the very, very macro level. You should do at these stages at least one time before you're kind of considering your draft is done. And again I want you to note that I've separated story and line editing, and to do different pieces here because you're really looking for 2 separate. 52 00:13:38.140 --> 00:14:05.029 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: you know, 2 separate passes on kind of what you're trying to understand about what you've written is the story setting plot strong, and then is the language strong. And you do these in 2 separate passes, because often you might make substantial changes here at the story editing stage. So you might remove whole characters or chapters. And you really wanna make sure that what your line editing, what you're spending at your time on improving the language is as close to the the ideas at the end in their final form as possible. 53 00:14:06.040 --> 00:14:06.720 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Okay. 54 00:14:07.350 --> 00:14:32.610 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: So, as I mentioned, what makes a good editing process is going to be up to you. So some writers prefer prefer to work by themselves the entire time. They don't bring people into the process. Some people prefer to work with other people the entire time. Some like to use technologies. Some do not. Some are going to go through one round of evisions revisions. Some are going to go through dozens, and that's all. Okay. What I want to encourage you is that the editing process is going to be different for each 55 00:14:32.610 --> 00:14:42.164 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: each and every one of you. And then it's also going to be different, likely from project to project, because different projects are going to have different needs. So whilst again, there is not one specific 56 00:14:42.660 --> 00:14:57.279 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: you know linear editing process that all of us can follow. The goal again is to have these stages and go through at least these stages one time, so that you can feel reasonably confident that that final draft you're putting into the world is as as good as it possibly can be. 57 00:14:57.671 --> 00:15:26.659 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: And now, just before we go into kind of how technology can help. I wanted to talk about the 2 different stages of editing here that I've highlighted. So I loosely recommend that everybody does at least a story edit. So you where you're looking at plot characters and world. And then also where you're looking at line editing line editing is going to be how you're using language to convey your story and get your meaning across. And then this as we go in. I'm gonna talk more about how technology can support with both story and line editing. 58 00:15:27.280 --> 00:15:32.969 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Okay. But before we get there, let's talk about why I think technology is useful for this process. In the first place. 59 00:15:33.563 --> 00:16:02.080 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: so technology can help save time and money when editing, as I think, we've just seen, editing can be really challenging. And it can be a process that you're in for a really, really long time. Like, some people on the chat have said they've been doing this for years. At certain points. And a couple of people are putting in the chat costs of of working with the human editor on these things. It might be, as Linda saying, 3 to 4 cents a word, or even more, depending on what you're looking for. 60 00:16:02.080 --> 00:16:25.470 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: That kind of developmental story edit is often going to be quite expensive. The costs can run in into the tens of thousands, depending on the depending on the length of your manuscript, and the editor you're working with. Line editing might be a bit cheaper. But it also, you know, can be costly. So. And it's also time sensitive. Right? So I think the things with editing is that it's a hard and expensive to find resources. 61 00:16:25.470 --> 00:16:52.879 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: So whilst there are many editors out there. A. They're very expensive, or some can be very expensive. B. It's also hard to understand if somebody is a good developmental editor or not, it's not always easy to go out and find someone who understands your genre, your project and who's really giving you great feedback. So you wanna make sure you know when you're looking for a human editor. That's a lot of different kind of things to consider in that process. And not all of us, you know, have the the time or the resources to do that. 62 00:16:53.462 --> 00:17:17.729 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Editing is also is also really difficult, because with a human editor, because it takes a lot of time. So you might be wanting to progress with your manuscript more quickly. But you know you're dependent on the time of the editor, even if you find a developmental or line editor who's amazing, they might not have availability right away. Or and then, when that takes, you know when that begins you might be waiting a really long time for the feedback. 63 00:17:18.174 --> 00:17:42.620 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: So it's hard and expensive to find resources. So technology can help you because it can provide that kind of instant feedback for you. So if you're looking on, you know, am I on the right track? Technology is a really good bridge for that gap. It will provide you that instant feedback. So you can make sure that you're addressing issues and it can do them on your time, and when you're ready, the other thing that technology is really effective for is polishing before 64 00:17:42.620 --> 00:18:01.509 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: before you use the human editor. So I myself am a writer, and I strongly, even though I work for providing aid, which is an editing company. I strongly recommend that everybody use human editors. If you can't afford to. And if you can find a good one in addition to technology. But I do recommend using technology with your human editing 65 00:18:01.510 --> 00:18:25.000 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: technology can help polish your manuscript before you send it to a human editor. So that way, you're not wasting time and money on, you know, on things that technology can fix. So you can use technology to find places where you can in. You know you've missed commas or misspelled words or where your sentences are overly wordy. So that way again. What you're sending to your editor is at a better, a better level of quality, and you're really getting there. 66 00:18:25.579 --> 00:18:35.770 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Their feedback on things like, Do I like this? Do I? You know? Do I have do I create an emotional connection? You know things that it's more difficult to tell with 67 00:18:36.420 --> 00:19:03.329 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: with with technology and then, quite simply, there are things that tech can do that humans can't so, for instance, we'll start to talk about some of the features of providing aid, like counting the number of repeats in your writing providing aid can literally with the click of a button. Find all of the repeated phrases in your writing. Repeating yourself, is something that's really common as a writer. I repeat myself all the time. I'll get a description or something like that stuck in my head and use it over and over again. 68 00:19:03.600 --> 00:19:31.239 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: A human editor can probably find that because they'll be able to tell you. You know how often they've you know how this it sounds like you've repeated yourself here. But technology can tell you that with a click of a button. And it can also tell you how many times you've done that. So there are things that humans just cannot do because of the time required for that. That tech can do with it again, like the the touch of a button. Really. So technology is going to help save you time and help save you money. 69 00:19:31.350 --> 00:19:32.370 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Now. 70 00:19:32.400 --> 00:19:37.873 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: when you use technology during your editing process, it is a spectrum 71 00:19:38.450 --> 00:19:54.009 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: and like everything there are where you're gonna fall along. This spectrum is based on how comfortable you are. So at the kind of ends of the extreme. I would say, some people decide to never use technology at all as part of the editing process. 72 00:19:54.290 --> 00:20:18.969 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: You know, I think people who choose to use tech no technology at all are again, I would say, probably missing some of the pieces like again finding repeats and things like that that would be hard to find as a human but if you're not comfortable with using technology at all, you can 100% do the editing process with just human, input. It is possible to do that. On the very other end of the spectrum. There is using technology to do full rewrites with 73 00:20:18.970 --> 00:20:30.513 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: out your support, you know without you doing anything. So there is technology that can come in there, and they can rewrite things with the click of a button. It can rewrite full pages. It could rewrite full pay chapters, it could rewrite full books. 74 00:20:31.049 --> 00:20:55.109 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: That is up to you to choose. Most of us are going to fall somewhere along this spectrum, right? So most of us are going to fall somewhere along this comfort level. But again it is a spectrum, I think, especially with all of the discussion around AI. Right now, it's really common for people to say, Oh, I just don't want to use technology to edit. And I think that ends up missing out on a lot of the functionality that technology can do better 75 00:20:55.379 --> 00:21:12.389 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: than a human. And I'm not talking about rewriting full pages. I'm talking about finding errors or finding patterns in your writing that you can then improve as a human so what I wanna encourage us to think about as we get into kind of the tactical pieces of this presentation is to remember that every single thing is a spectrum 76 00:21:12.735 --> 00:21:36.389 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: and when I get into some of the pieces where I'm gonna talk to you a bit about more how pro-writing it can help you going to also show you how the pro writing aid. Features are also along this spectrum as well from at the baseline, giving you information to then making suggestions to. Then, if you're comfortable using. You can add kind of rewriting and things like that. But it's only if you want to. So again, thinking about technology and support is. 77 00:21:36.390 --> 00:21:45.529 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: it is on a spectrum. We are all going to be somewhere along the spectrum. And how often or how much you use technology is going to depend on what your comfort level is. 78 00:21:46.120 --> 00:22:10.360 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Okay. So with that being said, let's go into talking about using technology to support story editing. I was just going to say, I know there's a lot of conversation in the chat which is amazing about people sharing resources. I just wanna make sure if you have any questions. Please make sure to put them in the QA. So that way I can make sure I don't miss them, as y'all are having your conversation about editing. And thank you so much for everyone who's very generously sharing resources there. 79 00:22:11.222 --> 00:22:16.389 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Okay, so let's talk about how story or technology can support the story editing phase. Specifically. 80 00:22:16.600 --> 00:22:41.449 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: So, story editing is when you're evaluating your manuscript. And the story that you're telling this is when you're going to take a substantive look at the structure and development of your story or your argument. If you're writing nonfiction. Story editing is often called called developmental editing, they mean the same thing. I use story because it's a bit more of of approachable, of a word, and it kind of just shows what you're actually looking at. But you will also see people referring 81 00:22:41.450 --> 00:22:51.140 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: to themselves, like Anne and Michelle earlier this week as developmental editors. It's the same thing. It's that overall. Look at the structure and development of your story, your plot, etc. 82 00:22:51.604 --> 00:23:16.130 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: So here's a couple of things that you should be on the lookout for when you're editing your manuscript first, when you're editing your manuscript, you're going to be looking for setting. So during the story editing stage, you want to understand how your setting is interacting with the story your characters are going to grow out of and be influenced by the world you create, especially in fantasy and sci-fi. So the stronger your world is the 83 00:23:16.130 --> 00:23:38.179 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: stronger your characters, and that that that kind of immersive feeling for your readers is going to take place. Now, some of the questions that you want to ask yourself during the story editing process are, Does your setting not only have an engaging location, but does it also have a use of time, of date, of object, of senses, all of these pieces that come into building. And 84 00:23:38.600 --> 00:24:04.800 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: an incredible world. You know, one of the things we're gonna do tomorrow on the workshop, on creating an engaging world is, think about the use of language. I think a lot of us in fantasy novels, you know. Reflect on how there's the use of like idiomatic phrases and things like that that really make the world come alive like in a song of ice and fire. 7 hells, you know. There's there's like swear words or things that are referred to, and that really goes a long way for creating this kind of 85 00:24:04.800 --> 00:24:32.009 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: immersive world and setting. So when you're story editing and looking at setting, those are some of the questions, do you want to ask yourself, are they there, you know? Are they there to to create this world and create this kind of immersive piece? Then also, as as Linda saying, are they just? Are they related to the story as well like? Are there things that are there for, you know, for purpose, and not just to kind of info dump. I think a lot of us in fantasy writing in particular. 86 00:24:32.210 --> 00:24:49.520 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: you know, spend a lot of time thinking about our world, and then trying to figure out how to reflect it in in the story itself. And sometimes it might be too much. So you're wanting to make sure your characters are growing out of a world, and that has this engaging location, sense of time, date, objects, etc. But it's also not too much. 87 00:24:49.821 --> 00:25:13.719 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Then, with your characters you're wanting to at this stage to make sure that your characters are relatable to your audience. These are going to be the hooks that get your readers in and get them, you know, wanting to engage with the story you're telling. So you're going to be looking for at this point at a macro level? Do your characters have clear goals? Are there? Is there arc interesting to follow? Is it something that your your audience can relate with? 88 00:25:13.720 --> 00:25:28.169 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: And do they also have a recognizable point of view? Not just literally, if you know, having point of view chapters. But is it clear, you know. Do they all sound different when you're going from dialogue to dialogue? Could it be clear who's speaking just by what they're saying, and how they're saying it. 89 00:25:29.382 --> 00:25:53.919 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: and then you're also going to be looking at your scenes at this stage and the overall kind of progress of your plot structure. So you're going to be looking at whether things are in progressing at an engaging and effective pace. And then looking at, you know, do you have effective arcs in each scene. Are there? Are the transformations that are happening is the Again plot moving, moving forward at a pace that's engaging to your readers. And engaging. You know 90 00:25:53.920 --> 00:26:00.759 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: where your characters are experiencing development across the end challenge across the entire ta duration of your narrative. 91 00:26:01.220 --> 00:26:02.380 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Okay. 92 00:26:02.560 --> 00:26:27.210 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: so technology can support with story editing in a number of different ways. And there's a lot of tools out there. That can support you with this fictionary is one of them. That a lot of you are familiar with. I'm gonna talk today. Talk about what providing it can do to support with story editing. But I want to again return to the fact that technology can do everything along that spectrum. So again, you could choose to not engage with technology at all. Through the editing process. 93 00:26:27.350 --> 00:26:37.320 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: through story editing, you could just work with a developmental editor, or on the very other end of the spectrum. You could have technology, rewrite whole scenes or whole characters for you. 94 00:26:37.400 --> 00:26:55.179 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: It's about what you're comfortable with, and I'm going to show you a couple of different ways that you can scale that up or down, depending on what you would like. Just hold on 1 s. My dog is looking out the window and browling at some people, so I'm just going to get him off the the couch very quickly. So he doesn't disrupt us 1 s 95 00:27:00.430 --> 00:27:22.719 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: he is quite the guard dog looking out over. He's looking out at the street and just growling at everyone. Okay. So now that the windows are closed and you won't hear my dog growling. Let's talk a little bit about how you can use pro writing aid to support with story editing so one of the things I mentioned that you're going to be looking for in writing is whether or not you're 96 00:27:22.790 --> 00:27:51.519 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: setting is engaging. Now, one of the reports that I really love in providing aid is the sensory report, and this is here to help you understand whether or not your story is actually engaging all 5 senses now, for in order to have a really immersive setting, or really a a setting that feels very, very real, a world that feels 3 dimensional. You're going to need to engage in more senses than just site. And for many of us as writers, we you know, we quite 97 00:27:51.942 --> 00:28:02.510 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: understandably lean into site words to describe. This is a perfect example of a feature that only technology or not only technology, but technology makes 98 00:28:02.510 --> 00:28:25.789 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: much, much easier. The sensory report comes in, and it looks at your manuscript, and it identifies your ratio of sense words. So it will tell you how many site words you're using how many touch, taste, sound, etc, words that you're using, and that can give you a good understanding of. Has my world been described in a you know. An engaging enough way, right as you're going through 99 00:28:26.060 --> 00:28:49.159 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: your story. Edit. Looking, you know. Have I created an immersive setting? This is a great way to come in and just see, do I have a well balanced percentage across all of these things? Are my characters not just engaging with what they can see but what they can smell, what they can taste, what they can hear. Again returning to a song of ice and fire, one of the kind of great ways that George RR. Martin does. That world building is by creating these long feasts. 100 00:28:49.160 --> 00:29:03.639 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: And you know, really, Ma, you know, maybe overkill descriptions of the food. But that goes into creating this, the sense of this all encompassing world. It's very, very similar for Tolkien, like, I always wanted to try Lemba spread, because there's you know, that good 101 00:29:03.640 --> 00:29:22.219 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: he's relying on not just sight, but he's describing taste. And it's kind of creating this this very immersive world. So this is a really good example of technology kind of at the lower end of, or the the low tech end of the spectrum, where it's simply just giving you information. So if you are not comfortable with generative AI or something like that. 102 00:29:22.420 --> 00:29:31.169 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: something like the sensory check here in providing aid can just help you find this information. It's just basically giving you a report on 103 00:29:31.230 --> 00:29:57.079 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: your use of the 5 senses to describe your setting within your story. This is going to be really, really useful cause. Then you can go back and see. Are there more immersive details that I would like to add? So just kind of giving you that report level of information. So that is exactly kind of what? You know, if you're less comfortable. This is just that information that you're going to have and just as someone saying in the chat, exactly, there's this is just 104 00:29:57.200 --> 00:30:13.610 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: information. It's not rewriting anything for you. It's just it's just information. You can just choose to accept this information and say, Oh, I'm happy with my percentages here. Or you know I am not happy with this, and I would like to rewrite it. 105 00:30:13.914 --> 00:30:38.549 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: To the question in the chat on this, the percentage this is the percentage of sense words. So 71% of the sense words are site, 17% of the sense words are touch. 8% of the sense words are taste. 4% of the sense words are sound. So again, you can see that this is really really highly biased in favor of the site site senses, so I would likely want to come in here 106 00:30:38.550 --> 00:30:43.690 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: and add some more, and I can find this by going to more reports and then going here to sensory. 107 00:30:43.880 --> 00:31:04.689 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: So again, at the very, very baseline level. All you can do is kind of come in here and get that information. Now, if you are more more open to looking and using AI or something like that, you could come in here, you could highlight a sentence, and then you could do suggest rephrases, and when the rephrase menu will pop up 108 00:31:04.900 --> 00:31:29.769 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: one of the options is to add more sensory sensory suggestions in here now, even within using something like rephrase, there are levels that you can use that, too. So one of the things that I do as come in here look at the look at the suggestions, and just see, hmm, is there anything interesting in here? Maybe I want to use it. Maybe I want to. You put it into my writing, or maybe I just want it to you to use it as inspiration. 109 00:31:29.770 --> 00:31:43.640 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: inspiration. Again, there are stages for where? For kind of how you can use it to your level of comfort. So if you are comfortable with using it, you can re, you can look at this and say, Oh, is there any inspiration I want to take from this? I can. 110 00:31:43.640 --> 00:31:57.000 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: you know, just use it almost as a as a partner to give me more ideas and insert, or I can insert it into my text. Or, again, if you were not comfortable with AI at all, you can just use the kind of report features to give you that information that you wouldn't get otherwise. 111 00:31:58.100 --> 00:32:04.120 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: So that is one of the features that, providing a team support with another is their critique report, which I'm going to run here. 112 00:32:04.920 --> 00:32:25.649 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: So the critique report is kind of like a A report on how you are executing plot, character, etc, for your chapter. And hopefully, it'll actually yeah. Here it goes. Shows up for me. So our critique critique report is AI generated with a human editor. And basically what it does is it kind of 113 00:32:25.960 --> 00:32:45.759 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: gives you a sense of whether or not you're on the right track for things like plot, story, and characters. Now I will caveat this by saying, as we say up here at the top, this is not intended to replace a human editor. So what this report cannot tell you is, you know, is Jane a character that people will like, and people will. 114 00:32:45.760 --> 00:33:10.590 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: you know, start to really love. But what it will do is tell you, is the character well developed? It can understand. If you've done that, it can understand. If you've followed a plot that has a beginning, middle, and end. It can make sure that you have points of tension. It can tell you if the setting is well established. It can tell you if the tone of voice is suitable for your genre again, it's giving me this kind of high level. Look at. 115 00:33:10.590 --> 00:33:21.409 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Have you done a good job? And then you can kind of take that to the human editor and ask if they're making that connection. So these types of reports are really really helpful for 116 00:33:21.890 --> 00:33:46.849 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: for just kind of sense checking. Are you on the right track again? It's not going to tell you, will someone make an emotional connection with this because it is just a piece of technology, but it gives you, in a sense of, are the building blocks there so that that can connection can take place, and that gives you a good opportunity of places that you can. You know. You might want to add in more things in order to create that emotional connection, so that by the time you 117 00:33:46.850 --> 00:34:10.339 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: you go to your Beta readers or your editors. You've kind of addressed some of these issues right away. And again, I'll say, this is just this is just information. So it's not rewriting your text. It's not telling you what to do with it. It's just giving you as exactly as Michelle is saying in the chat some of those things that like, am I? Am I on the right track? Am I doing a good job? Where are there places that I can 118 00:34:10.610 --> 00:34:30.289 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: make improvements? And then again, how you make those improvements is up to you. So it's acting as kind of that instant feedback, whereas previously we'd have to send something to a beta reader, or, you know, find a developmental editor. It's giving you that instant feedback of Am I on the right track? Are there places where I can make changes so that you can kind of save some of that time when you bring someone in. 119 00:34:31.150 --> 00:34:34.570 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: So that's story editing. Let's talk about line editing now. 120 00:34:34.590 --> 00:34:59.530 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: So line editing is the second phase. I recommend doing that after you've completed your story or developmental edit. And this is where you're really going to zoom in and look at the use of language. So I like to think about line editing is happening line by line or sentence by sentence. So previously, if the story is looking at the macro level, the big picture line is really zooming in. So here is where you're going to look at, you know. Can I use 121 00:34:59.530 --> 00:35:10.050 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: use language effectively? To tell a clear and an engaging story? Are my sentences set up in a way that my reader can understand and engage with what I'm trying to say. 122 00:35:10.310 --> 00:35:22.970 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: And this is where you look at word, choice readability, style, and your overall goal is to just be as clear as possible to get people understanding what you're trying to say, and really engaging with those ideas that you've honed. 123 00:35:23.616 --> 00:35:49.449 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: So a couple of things that you should look for at this point are clarity. Are you using subjects and verbs to be the stars of your sentences? Are you using strong verbs instead of, you know, adverbs plus weak verbs. Are you using active voice rather than passive voice? You'll also wanna make sure that your writing is readable for your audience so that you're at an appropriate readability level. You're not too high. Which is a a trap that often writers fall into. 124 00:35:49.570 --> 00:36:07.750 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: You also wanna make sure that you're choosing specific words that change. Explain exactly what you're trying to say. So you you know, seeing things like you know, she was beautiful. She was beautiful is an accurate description, but it it's not clear you're not being very, very specific. So you want to say, you know, the 125 00:36:07.750 --> 00:36:32.349 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: the moonlight danced on her head or on her hair. That's terrible said to the moonlight dance on her head. But you know the moonlight, you know, danced on her hair or golden hair, or something like that. Again. You want to make sure you're not just giving kind of vague descriptions of things, but you're really getting specific. So that you're that reader is playing an accurate that accurate look at at that movie that you're really trying to create in their mind. 126 00:36:33.314 --> 00:36:58.000 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: And then you are also looking at engagement. So are you keeping up the pacing sentence by sentence. So are your sentences also just progressing. So not just literally the arc of your plot. But do you have too many long sentences in in in a row? Or do you, you know, have short sentences when there's a battle to improve that tension. Are there places where you have echoed yourself or repeated yourself? That's going to take your 127 00:36:58.000 --> 00:37:09.280 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: reader out of the story you're trying to tell. So have you eliminated those? And then also again, you can also look at. Are you using sensory words not to just describe things, but also to engage people and immerse them in there. 128 00:37:10.564 --> 00:37:35.715 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: So just the way that technology can support with story editing technology can also support with line editing so it can every do everything from you know, simplifying your sentences to identifying places where you've repeated yourself. Let's look a little bit at first. We'll look at that. Repeat repeats, report that I said so we've got 2 reports here on the repeats function one just looks at all, repeats 129 00:37:36.120 --> 00:37:55.080 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: So all repeats just highlights, all of the repeated words and phrases at 1, 2, and 3, 1, 2, 3 and 4 word phrases. So you can just see. You know, this one is about climbing. So the word climb is in here a lot of times. So I can see it's in here. 4. Jane's in here. 6, so it just kind of gives you again with this touch of a button. 130 00:37:55.120 --> 00:38:18.549 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Are these repeats, good or you know, or bad, I it's okay that I have Jane in here because she's the main character but if I, you know, used a really distinctive word like, you know, on a monopia 5 times within this page. Maybe then I wouldn't want to remove it. So it's kind of giving you that that sense of have I repeated myself in in longer phrases, or, in short, individual words. Then the echos report also looks. 131 00:38:18.550 --> 00:38:37.529 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: looks with within repeats that kind of close repeats. So not just how many are within the document that you're looking at. But how many are really close to each other. Because close repeats, can they could be intentional because you're trying to create an echoing sense with your pros. But they could also be unintentional, and then can be even more distracting. 132 00:38:37.700 --> 00:39:04.620 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: I think a lot of us. If there are any of romantic readers out there who read Sarah J. Mass. I feel like there's a lot of you know, a lot of like jokes in in the book talk or booktube worlds about how she'll use certain phrases to describe things, and and then you start to see them like over and over again in the in in the prose. And so the reports like this are really helpful for writers to be able to come in and say, You know I am not going to do that. I'm not going to repeat myself. 133 00:39:04.830 --> 00:39:29.660 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: So again, that's an example of something that's at the very kind of low tech end of the set spectrum, but is still incredibly useful, because to do that as a human is going to be incredibly time consuming, if not even impossible. Because it's as a human you would have to kind of know what you're searching for to know that you're searching for repeats, whereas this just automatically scans and finds all of those for you. So again. Low tech end of the spectrum. You can just do that and get that information. 134 00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:57.789 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: This very similar with the structure reports. So I think somebody was just saying, they have an author who starts the sentences very similarly, structure report will come in and tell you. You know how many of your sentences are starting the subject. How many are starting with an infinitive? How many are starting, etc, with a verb? Again. So that way you can just see, are there? Is there that that sense of like? Oh, it's really dull. It's really boring. This is just happening. You can come in here into the pacing report. 135 00:39:58.050 --> 00:40:18.790 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: and the pacing report will tell you where there are slower paced paragraphs with longer, more languid sentences that might be fine. But you might say, Oh, actually, I'm in the midst of a battle, and I don't want my sentences. You know my my pacing to be that that slow at that point. And then you could also do the sentence length. Report here, which looks at individual sentence length. So you can kind of see that graph 136 00:40:19.052 --> 00:40:43.199 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: by with how much is kind of coming through. So you can see, you know, here I have a lot of those slower, more language sentences. That's fine, because I'm setting up things here. Action is happening. So I want that pace to be there. So again, these are all examples at the kind of low tech end of the spectrum, where you can really just get information about your document. And I want to come back to the idea that one of the great things about technology is, it gives you 137 00:40:43.200 --> 00:41:01.269 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: this information without the bias of if this is a good or bad, it just gives you information. It's not telling you that repeats are good or bad. It's just telling you how many you have, and then you can decide what to do with that, as the reader, or excuse me as the writer. Same thing with the sentence links. It's not telling you that good, you know. Sentence links are long or 138 00:41:01.410 --> 00:41:27.310 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: long sentences or short sentences are better just giving you that information that would be really hard to get. So now you can see it and then choose to use it how you will. Another one of my very, very favorite features that I'll share here before we dive into some questions is sticky sentences, and I'm going to use sticky sentences as an example to show you again how you can scale up your use of technology from the kind of low tech to the higher tech. 139 00:41:27.820 --> 00:41:57.369 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Now, sticky sentences are sentences that have a lot of glue words, blue words are words like prepositions, articles, and conjunctions, and they're words that are necessary for sentences, but oftentimes writers use them too much in one sentence, and then the sentence becomes sticky. So saying, things in 4 words that could be sent in one or 2, or saying things in 10 words that could be said in 3 again, it's not grammatically incorrect, but it's when your sentence is just bogged 140 00:41:57.370 --> 00:42:00.180 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: down and is a little bit too long. 141 00:42:00.570 --> 00:42:12.119 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: So what we do with a sticky sentences report is, we look at sentences where that balance is a bit off where you have more than 40% of those prepositions, articles, conjunctions. 142 00:42:12.120 --> 00:42:37.099 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Now, that doesn't mean the sentence is bad, but it just might mean that it's getting in the way of your readers understanding of clarity. So what you want to do, is just know where those exist, and then potentially change them. So the sticky sentences report again, can be scaled up or down. The first thing that it can do is tell you your overall document. So this document has about 46% glue words. So 46%, you know, prepositions, conjunctions. 143 00:42:37.100 --> 00:42:48.170 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: articles. It's a little bit above that target of 40% that we have. But it's not so far up. But again, it's giving me kind of that information that maybe I want to look at tightening up some of my sentences. 144 00:42:48.250 --> 00:43:07.709 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: and then the next thing that it can do is it can find the specific sentences for you. So it finds the sticky sentences, the ones that are above that 60. And then, just as Chris is saying in the chat, it also finds Semi sticky, which are in that 40 to 60 neighborhood where you might decide. I just want to evaluate them and see if I want to change them. 145 00:43:08.283 --> 00:43:34.120 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: So let me let me. Actually, I'll pull up for your question, Michelle. A a good example of a sticky sentence. And sit you in just a second, so that I can show that to you. But basically what the pro writing aid report does is it'll show you again which sticky sentence which sentences are sticky. And then, when you highlight over that, you can do a couple of different things. So first this is the semi sticky sentence, but it can show you what the glue. Words are in that sentence. 146 00:43:34.120 --> 00:43:43.329 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: so that way you can change it if you'd like to yourself, or if you're more comfortable with AI giving you suggestions. You can click 147 00:43:43.616 --> 00:44:08.260 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: suggestory phrases to see ways that you could rewrite this sentence without without those sticky words in it. Again, it's up to you to depend to decide on how much you'd like to implement AI as part of that process. You can use it if you'd want to. But you can also not use it. If you don't want to and then, even when you're using it, you could use it as an idea partner, or you could just literally insert the sentences into 148 00:44:08.260 --> 00:44:19.110 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: into your document. All this to say again, within writing, there are a lot of spectrums of how you can kind of improve that. And let me just pull up this sticky sentence for you, Michelle. 149 00:44:20.302 --> 00:44:36.857 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: So here's a good example of a sticky sentence from a another percentage that I or excuse me. Another presentation that some of you might have seen me do before. So this is a sticky sentence. Dave walked over into the backyard of the school in order to see if there is a new bicycle that he could use in his class. 150 00:44:37.462 --> 00:45:00.090 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: So Si! This sentence is very, very sticky. It's not grammatically incorrect. But there's nothing wrong with a sentence. It's not grammatically incorrect. It's not missing any punctuation. It's not there's nothing spelled wrong. But there are a lot of sticky words. So these words highlighted. These are the only words that are actually doing every anything. They're the only nouns, verbs, adjectives, everything else 151 00:45:00.090 --> 00:45:07.429 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: in between. Here, Michelle, is. This is a glue word. So it's something that you could reduce, remove, or replace. And the sentence would still make sense. 152 00:45:07.460 --> 00:45:23.790 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: so I could, for instance, fix fix this sentence to say, Dave checked the school's backyard for a new bicycle to use in class and it's basically the same exact way of saying what I just said, but just much clearer, simpler, and more to the point again. That's not to say, one is 153 00:45:23.790 --> 00:45:48.179 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: better or worse, depending on what you're trying to get across and who you're writing for. You might want to use that longer sentence. But this new version, if you're going for clarity, if you're trying to, you know, increase pacing, etc. Is often going to be more to the point and not get your readers too bogged down in that sentence. So again, a report like the sticky sentences report can do things at a bunch of different levels. It can just find that for you 154 00:45:48.180 --> 00:45:52.020 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: which, to be honest is something that's incredibly difficult to find as a person 155 00:45:52.723 --> 00:46:16.936 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: then it can do the work of finding those glue words for you, so you don't have to figure it out. And then, just as someone was saying in the chat, or Terry was saying in the chat you could use rephrase to either rewrite things, or, as yeah, Terry and H. Nos are saying, it can just be ideas. So sometimes you might be like, I'm just not sure how to rewrite this, and particularly with sticky sentences. There's not one right answer. So it's almost like this idea, partner. 156 00:46:17.200 --> 00:46:24.570 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: that kind of gives you a bunch of different ways. And I typically find that if I am using rephrase or an AI feature like that 157 00:46:24.570 --> 00:46:37.310 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: the best way to do it as as an idea, partner. It's just throwing a bunch of things out there and then I might say, oh, you know what I actually really like this. But I'm gonna rewrite it to be a bit more in my tone. And you know, it's just gonna help that kind of brainstorming process. 158 00:46:38.175 --> 00:46:42.529 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Okay, so let's it's not this presentation. It's this one. 159 00:46:43.050 --> 00:47:11.797 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Okay. So with all of that being said, we have talked today about how technology can support you in the story editing phase. And then the line editing phase, what I would really love for you to take away from this presentation is, first, that editing is not a linear process. You should at the very least go through one story edit to look at your plot characters setting world and one line edit to look at your use of language. And then technology can really really support both of those journeys. 160 00:47:12.310 --> 00:47:23.689 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: it can support with story editing by giving you things like, you know, is this plot working? Can't tell you if somebody's going to love it. That's where a human might come in and tell you I love this, or I hate this, but it can let you know if you're on the right track 161 00:47:23.973 --> 00:47:43.279 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: and it can do the same thing for line editing. It can find things that would be impossible to find by yourself or with a human editor like repreets, like sticky sentences, etc, and it can really help tighten and clear up your language, and then it can also do all of this instantly and kind of act as an idea partner. As you're going through. 162 00:47:43.480 --> 00:47:50.390 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Okay, with all of that being said, let's get into as many questions as we can. 163 00:47:50.767 --> 00:48:03.969 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Alright first Vendley says I subscribe to parading a lifetime. But I missed Romance week. So all of the replays for Romance week, and then for fantasy, week, etc, are all I'll just show you. 164 00:48:04.570 --> 00:48:06.900 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: We have a huge fault of 165 00:48:08.032 --> 00:48:23.880 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: a huge vault of content. So that is all. If you come into the community and go here to event recordings, all of there's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of videos in here. So please feel free to come to this chat. There's Romance week. There's basically everything is here in the video vault. 166 00:48:25.622 --> 00:48:27.669 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Okay, let's see. 167 00:48:27.800 --> 00:48:32.120 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Yes. And yeah, there's tons of tools, as Linda saying in the chat as well. 168 00:48:32.505 --> 00:48:37.095 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Would you suggest sending your book to an editor before getting it out there or doing it yourself. 169 00:48:38.450 --> 00:48:39.620 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: I 170 00:48:40.640 --> 00:49:02.009 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: struggle to make a recommendation. If you can afford to work with a very, very solid human editor, I would 100% suggest that that being said. I do recognize that working with a human editor is simply out of you know, out of the cost range for people. For myself, I don't know that I could afford to work with the human editor that I would really want to. So I think again. 171 00:49:02.050 --> 00:49:17.489 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: just something to think about. You know you can. You can work with human editor, but you want to find the right one. You don't want to just work with an editor just to say that you will work with an editor because an editor could give you really bad feedback. You want to make sure that you're working with a reputable editor. 172 00:49:18.010 --> 00:49:31.809 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: And then you want to make sure that they're, you know again, they're within your price range. If you can't do that which again, I understand. Many people cannot. Then a tool like providing aid used in conjunction with others, can really be very helpful and can get you a lot of the way there? 173 00:49:32.705 --> 00:49:55.870 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Maria asked a really good question, which is, when publishing with Amazon. Do I have to say if I used I used AI if I use. Pwa. This is a really good question. And I will caveat this by saying that there are not clear guidelines for use of AI absolutely anywhere with any tool, and a lot of that's changing. So I'm not going to give you a full answer, because there isn't one. There isn't like a legal definition right now. 174 00:49:55.870 --> 00:50:20.579 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: what I will say is depending on your comfort level. I would use the tools that I showed at that kind of scales level. So if you are very worried about plagiarism and AI, which it's completely understandable, then just don't use tools like rephrase tools like rephrase and sparks are are we of 2 generative AI features sparks and rephrase? Those are the ones that use generative AI, and insert it into your text. 175 00:50:20.580 --> 00:50:27.657 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: If you're not comfortable with that. Then do not just don't use those features. You can actually turn them off, and then everything else should be fine. 176 00:50:27.920 --> 00:50:57.080 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: So that's kind of how I would recommend. If you're very, very worried about that, then don't use those features at all, and turn them off and if you are not, if you're comfortable with that, or you're comfortable using it as I be a partner, then it's there for you. But again it's up to you, and again it can be sched, it can be scaled up or down, so you can use pro writing aid without using any any generative. AI. The repeats. I was showing you the sticky sentences. All of that is not with generative AI. It's only when you click to rephrase and get sentences. That it is 177 00:50:57.080 --> 00:50:59.010 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: any of that kind of gender of AI. 178 00:51:00.200 --> 00:51:06.640 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Oh, Vica asks a great question. Does providing aid. Offer a group of Beta readers? So we can find people we trust. 179 00:51:07.870 --> 00:51:14.580 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: yes, so no, we don't. Yes, it is something that we are actively considering so hopefully more to come on that soon. 180 00:51:16.470 --> 00:51:25.972 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Hss asked, does the sensory report markup when you use conflicting censuses? No, that's it doesn't. But that's actually a really great idea. And a really great feature. 181 00:51:26.400 --> 00:51:33.310 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: And no, Lynn is not a not a new tattoo. I just. It's a little bit warm today. So I'm not wearing long sleeves. 182 00:51:35.010 --> 00:51:49.539 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: sensory. Okay, with sensory checks. Would you recommend as a percentage to aim for? I think the couple of things with sensory reports are, consider the context on which you are checking your document. So 183 00:51:49.930 --> 00:52:08.040 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: providing aid checks various kind of the the text that you put in there at the time. So in certain. So in certain sections, you know, if you're first establishing a setting or things like that, then you're going to want to have a you know, a broad range of senses, probably some in each of the 5 categories. 184 00:52:08.330 --> 00:52:14.010 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Now you might. You'll likely always be biased towards site, which I think is Ok. But you want to try to touch all 5. 185 00:52:14.030 --> 00:52:37.410 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: If you're in, you know a send a conversation where there is just dialogue happening, or something like that. Maybe in that you're you know you're not having the same exact. Maybe you're using fewer site words. And maybe you're using more. You know, sense of hearing because people are shouting or things like that. So it's really gonna be dependent on the context. But that being said, you do wanna make sure that you have all 5 across your your manuscript. 186 00:52:38.795 --> 00:52:47.964 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Alright and Nick smell is included in the sensory check. There were just no words in the sample I showed, which is again a good example of you want to? 187 00:52:48.580 --> 00:52:51.569 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: you want to make sure that you have all 5? 188 00:52:51.980 --> 00:53:20.953 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Oh, good question. So anonymous asks, does, providing a train their AI on what we put into the editor. I think you I read that you don't. But other AI tools for Grammer checking, do? No, we do not and we do not retain access to your text at all. This is a very strong line in the sand that we have we do not train. We do not retain access to your text at all. Privacy is incredibly important to us. And we do not. Yeah, we don't access it. In the first place, the only instance where we would a access. Your text is, if you're 189 00:53:21.456 --> 00:53:43.390 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: if you give us consent to do that. Through, you know, a customer support issue. And even then you would have to email us the text itself, or in the web editor, which is cloud based. We can access again if you give us consent, but otherwise we have no access for it. We don't retain copies or anything like that, and we don't use it to train our algorithms. In any way, which is a very, very strong line in the sand for us. 190 00:53:44.853 --> 00:53:50.293 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Okay, if let me just see, we've got a couple more minutes. 191 00:53:51.350 --> 00:54:14.718 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Is there going to be a time when we couldn't critique the entire 50,000 word book. So this is a good question. A couple of people were asking about critique so the critique report that I showed only works up to 4,000 words at a time right now. So it's working at like the chapter to scene level. We are actively working on trying to make that for your whole book right now. So hopefully that will come soon. But right now it's just at 4,000 words. 192 00:54:15.257 --> 00:54:23.870 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: which is ties into Jeff's question. Jeff asks, are you putting the entire book into the software, or are you going chapter by chapter? So it's a great question. 193 00:54:24.383 --> 00:54:42.186 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: I personally put it in chapter by chapter. Because just the way writing you're not writing it all in one setting. You don't edit in one sitting. Either. You have to kind of go, and you know you, you come back to it right? So I do. Chapter by chapter. 194 00:54:42.510 --> 00:55:09.520 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Now, it can handle a full manuscript depending on your Internet connection and computer speed. So if your connection is very, very fast and your speed and you know, your computer is new. You likely can run certain reports like repeats, etc, on the full manuscript. But it's gonna take a really long time. Certain features, like critique, are limited to 4,000 words. But overall, I typically recommend going chapter by chapter, just because I think it's the easiest way to do it. 195 00:55:10.655 --> 00:55:19.164 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Oh, anonymous attendee asks, why does providing aid hate? Good! I'm assuming you mean the word good, not something good. 196 00:55:19.590 --> 00:55:21.531 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Here's what I will say. 197 00:55:22.040 --> 00:55:23.280 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: a 198 00:55:23.410 --> 00:55:30.019 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: providing it doesn't hate anything. I think. First of all, I often see this for a lot of people. They get very 199 00:55:30.330 --> 00:55:34.163 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: they get very they get very angry. If 200 00:55:34.830 --> 00:55:52.889 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: you know, providing it tells me it hates this. It hates the word beautiful. It hates the word good. It hates the word, this providing it is just a tool providing it is not a person providing it is just software. And it's software that's trained to recognize certain things. So something like the word good, similar to the word beautiful. It's just vague. Good is like. 201 00:55:53.220 --> 00:55:55.199 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: I don't know good good means 202 00:55:55.430 --> 00:56:16.900 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: both nothing and everything's just as beautiful means nothing and everything beauty subjective, right? And so in fiction we often want to do. You know. We often want to explain why something is beautiful, or why someone is beautiful rather than just saying they're beautiful, like, if I said, You know, the character is beautiful. All all 200 of us on this call would have different understandings of what beautiful means 203 00:56:17.219 --> 00:56:22.450 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: and would have different pictures of the character in our heads. So as a writer, if we're trying to get across 204 00:56:22.790 --> 00:56:30.070 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: the specific character's description that we need to be more descriptive than beautiful, we need to say, you know, hair, color, eye, color, etc. 205 00:56:30.799 --> 00:56:53.980 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: So again, you're thinking about how you can be more specific about this. Just yeah. Michelle says if if someone tells you your book was good, you're like, but why? What did you love about it? So it's not that a providing is a tool doesn't hate anything as much as it might feel that way sometimes. It it does. It's just a tool. And then, secondly, it's it's just asking you to be more specific. 206 00:56:54.656 --> 00:57:01.293 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: I wanna just take 2 more questions, and then I think we're going to be out of time. So 207 00:57:01.890 --> 00:57:06.477 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: vica apro apologies if I'm mispronouncing that. But vica in the chat says 208 00:57:06.920 --> 00:57:31.750 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Whenever I use the word master, providing aid comments that it has connotations to slavery. This is a great point. So one of the features, so providing aid is used in more contexts than just fiction writing. So one of the features that we do have is something that looks at words that might be considered racist or ableist, etc, offensive in some way, because some people do use providing aid for like business documents or academic documents and 209 00:57:31.750 --> 00:57:49.239 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: things like that. And so people want to avoid that type of language in in that context, now within your your fantasy. Worlds might have slavery in in it, or it might have something, or your just fiction manuscript might have instances you might have a racist character or something like that. 210 00:57:49.508 --> 00:57:56.210 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: So here's what I will say about the inclusive language. Check a just like any check. It is simply there, just to tell you that 211 00:57:56.210 --> 00:58:14.445 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: that you might want to think about this, and it's up to you as the writer to decide if you want that context or not. Again, for some of us like myself, who use it for both fiction and and business settings, different words are appropriate for different settings, not just in inclusive language, but in any type of language. So that's just what it's telling you. 212 00:58:14.710 --> 00:58:35.539 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: The second thing is that you can turn off inclusive language in your settings, if that is something particularly for a fiction manuscript. If, just like Vica, you are going to have the word, master, because you're talking about slavery within the the context, you might want to turn that off and then turn it back on. If you're using it somewhere else. But again, I don't want. I think people often take that as like the software. 213 00:58:35.660 --> 00:58:46.159 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: telling them what they should or should not have. But again, it's just that information that is very difficult to get otherwise, and that you might want to consider using. But ultimately it's your choice whether you want to use it or not. 214 00:58:46.709 --> 00:58:59.740 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: And then alright! The last question that I think I have time for is, how secure is pro writing aid, anxious to let my baby into the world. Providing aid is incredibly secure. So one of the things that happens because we work with 215 00:59:00.090 --> 00:59:25.219 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: work with business business users is that we have something called sock, 2 certification, which is a high level of basically security protocols. We all have to undergo training on this. And then the software has to meet certain requirements about data security and and the security and fidelity of your manuscripts. So we have that sock, 2 certification. And, as I said, we don't ever access your text or use them at all. 216 00:59:25.494 --> 00:59:33.919 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: So just something to think about. Oh, man, let me just get through a couple of quick. More sorry about this a couple of people in the chat. We're talking about comma glitches. So 217 00:59:34.250 --> 00:59:43.208 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: it's a software, there's errors in it. The best thing to do is there's a button to save report incorrect. Oftentimes, if you're seeing a comma glitch 218 00:59:43.830 --> 00:59:48.300 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: the way the kind of software works is that there's not just one rule about commas. There's like 219 00:59:48.300 --> 01:00:15.098 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: thousands of rules about commas because it has to be contextual. So every contextual comma has almost its own rule. So if you're seeing a glitch on comma specifically more than once, it's likely, just because it's multiple rules about commas. And maybe there's a glitch in multiple rules. It actually works the same way with disabling rules. So someone in the chat asked if you disable something? Does it turn it off throughout all projects, or currently open disabling, turns it off across all projects. 220 01:00:15.550 --> 01:00:22.790 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: you can turn those back on by writing into hello at providing 8.com, and then 221 01:00:23.150 --> 01:00:47.930 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: and then we can turn it back on for you if you want to just ignore it. Institute, just hit, ignore rule, and that will just apply within that situation. But very similarly, if you disable something, it's disabling that contextual rule. So again, if we return to the example of commas. There are thousands of comma rules, so if you disable one, you'll still have the other. 999 same thing with passive voice like, it's not just one rule about passive voice, it's many. So if you turn off. 222 01:00:47.930 --> 01:00:53.850 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: pass a voice and then say, Well, why is it still telling me about passive voice? It's because there's multiple rules on everything. 223 01:00:54.173 --> 01:01:16.150 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: So all of that to say, thank you so much. I know we didn't get through all of the questions. But please feel free to ask any of questions in the chat feel free to check out this recording, I'm gonna just put the link to the video recordings again in the chat for any of you who are interested in that presentation 224 01:01:16.930 --> 01:01:22.309 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: that I showed before on the sticky sentences. I think that one 225 01:01:22.670 --> 01:01:24.350 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: is here. 226 01:01:25.300 --> 01:01:26.560 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Where is it? 227 01:01:30.510 --> 01:01:32.980 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Oh, my gosh! Let me see if we can find it 228 01:01:33.460 --> 01:01:34.460 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: clarity 229 01:01:35.500 --> 01:01:39.600 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: definitely given it many times before. So it's in here somewhere. 230 01:01:42.500 --> 01:01:44.709 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: Okay, I think this video should do it. 231 01:01:48.591 --> 01:01:50.200 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: No. Where did it go? 232 01:01:51.110 --> 01:02:05.170 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: So if any of you again want more insight into how I believe that you should click, create clarity. And also, yeah, here it is. Here's a good example of it. And then, if you want to dive more into into sticky sentences, or anything like that, I am. 233 01:02:05.170 --> 01:02:27.439 Hayley @ ProWritingAid: please check that out, and then, in general, that vault has, I think, over 300 different videos on previous fantasy weeks, previous romance weeks. All of this all the sessions are so useful so thank you all so much. It was great to see you all, and I hope you have a great rest of your fantasy writers week. I'll see you tomorrow if you have premium or premium pro for our world building workshop. See you then.