Self criticism and Autocrit
Don’t we all want unbiased feedback? What could be less biased than a computer programme? Autocrit tells you how many times you’ve used the same word or phrase, how many -ly adverbs, how many cliches. It counts words per line so that you can see whether you have a nice varied collection of sentences. And so on. Not to be taken too seriously. The technological wizardry amazes me, but I can’t say I have improved my writing as a result – it keeps saying ‘yay!’ and ‘way to go’ – maybe I’m so good I don’t need it… Or maybe there’s more to becoming a good writer?
You can try it for free.
Homework for this week: writing a plot resulting from the ‘theme’ written for the previous homework. This is for the Oxford class I’m taking.
The novel course at University of East Anglia London buildings at Liverpool Street required us to pick a passage from a favourite book. I chose Helen Dunmore’s Zennor in Darkness. Wish I could write like that.
This was our first session and my fellow students are impressive, the teaching is great and the pastries provided (e.g.almond croissants) are…can’t think of a suitable superlative.
Our tutor Adam Foulds has warned us not to get distracted by thoughts of publishing or sales. All the same, I have to tell you that Oxtale Soup ed Sara Banerji will be given away free this Saturday 12 January – this is A Promotion. It will be interesting to see whether sales increase as people rush to save their £1-93. Anyone want to bet?