Here’s Why The Best Novel Writing App is Actually a Writing Coach
Today’s blog post comes to us from Author Accelerator CEO Jennie Nash. If you enjoy today’s content, you can sign up for Jennie's weekly newsletter here.
As the CEO of a book coaching company, I see a lot of what novel writers get right and a lot of what they get wrong.
As a result, I am often asked things like, “What is the most common mistake writers make?” (It’s rushing — to start, to finish, to publish) and “What is the best way to maintain a daily writing habit?” (It’s determining that it will actually work best for you – it doesn’t work for everyone.) As technology continues to take over many aspects of our lives, I'm also asked about the best software and apps for novelists. People who ask this question mean everything from the “grammar” apps like ProWritingAid and Grammarly to the “organization” apps like Scrivener and Dabble to “focus” solutions like iA Writer and Freedom.
I don’t like this question. Although some novel writing apps are powerful, and there can be a place and time for it, technology solutions are always going to fall short when you’re talking about a human-centered activity. And there can be no doubt that writing is a human-centered activity.
Here is one small example of the way a great technology like a novel writing app fails:
I am actually a fan of ProWritingAid (and full disclosure, I am often invited to write articles or give presentations on their writing forums). In a flash, this software can scan a piece of writing, evaluate it, and tell me what is working and not working on several different levels – passive construction, noun-verb alignment, filler words. It aims for the writing to be correct and yes, please, let our writing be correct! It also aims for the writing to be clear, and same thing here: yes, please, let our writing be clear!
But every time I use ProWritingAid, I talk back to the computer. I say things like, “No — I LIKE the repetition!” See the repeated phrasing at the end of the previous paragraph? The “It aims to be…” and the “yes, please.” I did that on purpose, for emphasis. I did it because it sounded good to my ear — the rhythm of it. I did it because it sounded like a real person — like me.
I don’t want the idiosyncrasies of my writing smoothed out, and there is a great danger of this happening if you follow everything the software tells you to do. I am a professional who has spent my entire career in the world of publishing. I have honed my voice and I know how to accept and reject feedback. For someone who is new to writing, or trying to find their way, or trying to find their voice or their confidence or their authority, having a piece of software tell you how to fix your words can squeeze the life out of them.
It also puts too much emphasis, in my mind, on the level of the sentence. There is no emphasis on the structure of the work. A novel with beautiful sentences and a faulty structure is not going to stand.
Writers need to focus first on the story foundation and structure, on their voice, on their confidence and their authority – not on their noun-verb agreements.
So what then about the organization software? Wouldn’t those help with structure?
I mean, these are cool. You can store snippets of text and research and move scenes around. That’s a useful benefit for sure, but it’s a physical benefit. It’s like a really excellent filing cabinet. There is no guarantee that all that organization is going to result in a story anyone wants to read.
I started Author Accelerator because I believe that the best way to learn how to write, to get the support you need to create your best work, to meet deadlines and goals, and to meet the demands of the marketplace, is to work with a human. We train book coaches in the editorial skills you need to write a good book; in the project management skills you need to actually finish it; in the strategic skills you need to position it in the marketplace; and in the emotional skills you need to engage the reader. All of these are important, but I would venture to say that the emotional skills are the most critical.
The following is a list of just some of the emotional superpowers we draw on when coaching a writer:
Integrity
Generosity
Honesty
Compassion
Curiosity
Patience
Persistence
Reliability
Relatability
Passion for Social Justice
Empathy
Vulnerability
Diplomacy
Intuition
Mindset
Grit
Connection
Emotional Tolerance
Resilience
Humor
Active Listening
There is no novel writing app or piece of technology, no matter how advanced, that will ever be human enough to deliver this kind of emotional engagement and support to a writer.
