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In my quest for a grammar checker that doesn't flirt with generative AI, either in doing genAI analysis you don't want or feeding your words to their training data, I thought I'd try Ellipsus Plus and their "Writing Insights".

This morning, I fed it about 10k words worth of fic I'll be posting soon. Hoping to throw into it a couple of chapters of both my original novels later during the week before the trial ends, too. I guess first, my bad: it doesn't look like this is actually a grammar checker. More like a style checker? But word echoes, sentence lengths, etc are still very useful things I try to fix during my final "proofreading" phase ahead of posting fic or sending a doc to beta-readers, and I liked a lot of their tools.

Also, please allow me to emphasise again how customer-friendly and user-friendly Ellipsus is: you don't need a credit card to start the 7-day trial. Not only that, but they offer a "lifetime" one-time payment plan if you don't want a subscription. And not only-not only that!! If you pick the subscription option, it builds up toward a lifetime licence, so after a couple of years the subscription ends and you own it. I can't think of any other subscription-based service that offers that (or if they do, it sure isn't as obvious and clear as Ellipsus makes it!)

Now, what worked well for me, and what I'm still unfortunately missing. Note that this is obviously based on my personal grammar and prose weaknesses.

The good!

I really like how it highlights all sentences e.g. if you click Preview on the passive voice section, you'll see all of the passive sentences -- and only them -- highlighted. So you can scroll and focus on those only.
Even though my computer is old, the reports and highlights load pretty fast! (I wouldn't modify stuff while the highlights are on, though)
Repetition in sentence starts: "'She' starts 3+ sentences in a row" -- I do need that check!
The word echoes are good. Again, it highlights all the sentences, with a darker highlight on the word repeated (like "around", which I apparently use way too much in smut). Note: I copy-pasted one chapter or scene at a time. I suspect the report might get overwhelming and not be as useful if you run it on a full novel or a very long doc.
The sentence lengths report is also great! This one highlights your entire text in 4 shades of blue (for short/medium/long/very long sentences), and it makes it easy to see where there's variety, and more importantly for me, where there are too many big ass long sentences. I do my best to break those up during editing (before that final proofreading pass!), but I always miss a few. It's super cool how obvious it is when you suddenly have an entire paragraph entirely dark in the middle. (Long-ass sentences probably don't help with my pacing issues btw XD)
Note that the passive voice check isn't very good (a lot of active sentences with the verb "to be" picked up, e.g. "We're fighting, then?") but that's fine and pretty common with these checks in my experience. It's still an easy report to scan through.
The adverbs and repeated phrases reports are nice for a quick scan too. I didn't go in-depth with the adverbs, mostly checking there weren't too many repetitions, but for the repeated phrases I nearly always modified something when I had 4-word (or more!) repeated phrases, so it's quite neat.

The bad? Well. Many of the actual grammar bits, unfortunately, but that's on me!

Turns out Insights is not actually advertised as a grammar checker, that was my misunderstanding. Whoops.

Stuff I can mitigate

( Read more... )

Real problems I do need a grammar checker to help with :(

( Read more... )

I was building this list for myself as I tried it all out, then figured I might as well make a post out of it so I can refer back to it later? It's also a handy list of stuff to check as I continue on my quest for grammar checkers. What tools do you use for grammar? Any rec under the "no thanks AI actually" column? Or tips to remember the rules better in the first place? ;) Then again, some of my problems are rule issues, but just as often it's just distracted typos that happen regardless of knowledge...

Current Mood: studious

mistressofmuses

Have some random pictures I've taken over the month! Just stuff that didn't really deserve or fit in as their own posts.

Cute little honeybee from one of my walks.

This was a really cool looking grasshopper, also on a walk.

Eight pictures:

And a belted bumblebee on the same rabbitbrush on a different walk.

A nice vibrant rainbow.

That same rainbow, over a horse pasture. (We joke that these are "Bella's horses" because she found them so exciting to drive past when she was younger.)

A very spotty (and unfortunately blurry) ladybug.

A surprise mushroom that popped up the instant we got a bit of rain.

Ripley with a very nice shed!

(Apparently she got out, briefly! Her cage lid had not closed all the way, and she escaped. Jaspurr found her and just sat and watched her until Taylor got up to see what he was looking at.)

Another picture of Ripley and her shed skin. I like that the shed goes through her little tunnel - very cute.

At the pet store we've started getting crickets from, Bella was quite taken with one of the tortoises. She liked it the first time, and when we went back, she was thrilled again. It seemed quite excited to come investigate her, too, haha.

Bella and the tortoise, quite happy to visit each other.

I am through my first weird work week! I know that six days in a row is not that weird or difficult, but it sure felt longer than it should have!

...but it turns out that this next week is even weirder (though in better "actually less work" ways.) I didn't realize these weeks were back to back, because I was thinking of this upcoming week as "the first week of September" which seemed like it was a long time off, because, well... September.

Ah shit. Time has continued to march on.

So this week:
Tonight - regular work day, then a swapmeet with some friends
Monday - usual day off, a FastCAT up in Wyoming (which we signed up for solely because it was on a Monday, so I could participate, even though it means going to a different state for about 30 seconds of Bella doing things,lol.)
Tuesday - usual day off, lots of model show prep we need to do
Wednesday - normal work day
Thursday - normal work day, but that night we have tickets to an event
Friday - off from work! And another FastCAT (I took the day off for something that ended up cancelled, but then another FastCAT came up, so that worked out well.)
Saturday - off from work! a model show up in Wyoming (TWO TRIPS TO WYOMING IN ONE WEEK??!)
Sunday - back to work, but then going over to Taylor's that night
Monday - a holiday, so even though it's usually my day off, it's also Taylor's for once, so hanging out there

I'm looking forward to it all, but it's a lot, considering we usually aren't doing much!

I'm really, really hoping that no disasters strike. It seems like every time things seem to be going well, something comes along to really fuck things up. So it'd be great if we could just avoid any major health/veterinary/vehicular crises. Please?

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my apartment

saxbrightwell

I was not very successful in avoiding distractions in August either. Cozy games are my weak spot and my partner is a terrible enabler. They actually purchased Pokemon Pokopia months ago, at the same time as the Switch 2, and I resisted it for a long time because I knew once I gave in it would take over my whole brain until I sucked it dry. ( Read more... )

At some point I'm going to have to consciously detach from all these diversions and get back to writing, but I also know myself, and that process will be much easier once the affair has run its course.

Current Mood: enthralled

volkameria

I stopped reading books on my e-reader, and I really miss reading books that way - I was like halfway through the Maisie Dobbs series and I really wanna finish it. I moved a bunch of fanfic over to the device but then stopped using it for reading? I think it's cuz I get really embarrassed if anyone were to look over my shoulder and see fanfic (none of it is NSFW either! It's literally just that I'm a nearly 30 year old woman reading Sonic the Hedgehog whump), and it also just... doesn't look the best on a Kobo. I wish it had better covers, but that should be a solvable problem in Calibre... I think I'm going to spend some time figuring out automatic cover assignment for my Kobo.
Base building for running is going well! I read a bunch about different training philosophies and am trying to grasp the lactate threshold theory of training (which, I believe, is basically increasing your body's capacity for tough muscular efforts before building up too much lactate and causing that muscular fatigue/"I can't move shit anymore" feeling). There's a school of thought called the Norwegian Singles Method that alternates long, easy runs with runs focused on improving speed for the sole purpose of improving lactate threshold, and I'm going to adopt that for the remainder of the year.
The Persona 4 Revival battle music slaps. Please, please listen if you haven't yet. Prime time golden hour show~
Listening to The Ghost Machine on audiobook reminds me just how much I love the trope of "Device throws a group of people into hallucinations of their deepest desires being granted, and one person has to save them from themselves." BRB throwing my OCs in the microwave for this, I'm sure there's some sort of excuse I can make up for them having access to a device like this. You may think Jeltsje's deepest desire is for Rodney to notice her, but it's actually acceptance by her community writ large and getting her degree (and also Rodney noticing her)! Oh man, the reveal where she looks into the mirror dressing for her graduation ceremony and notices two green eyes blinking back at her rather than one... ohohoho~ delicious.

More of a brain-dump update this time around, haha. Hope you guys have a great week, I'm going to resume running and listening to the P4R battle music.

althea_valara

communal_creators is now open for sign-ups! The round runs from September 15th to October 14th (with make-up days allowed for anyone observing religious holidays/whatever during the round) and the community welcomes ALL creativity! We love to cheer each other on, and the Discord has been active recently with new and returning folks, eager to get started.

smallweb is hosting Small Web September again! Here's your chance to chat and commiserate with others working on their small web sites.

I will be participating in both, and yes, counting my smallweb activity for Communal Creators. Come join me!

senmut

communal_creators has Sign Ups for the 4th annual full month event.

Any project, any creativity, with the ability to sign up for just time or a dedicated category. We have a Discord (link on comm profile), and the whole thing is SUPPORTING each other during the creative period.

senmut

Whether it's Dolly, Tim, Peter, or Harald V, I hope you are finding ways to cope with the spate of public figures dying this past week.

The Bearded Vulture as an accumulator of historical remains: Insights for future ecological and biocultural studies - academia

Corn Maze for Dolly - picture

Deadly Oceanscapes - pictures and words

Losing a Job, and not in the usual way (wild ride!) - Pictures and words

Dolly and Tim, Iconic roles - art

adore

Moontime began today, August 30. I started bleeding at around 12.30 p.m. after a morning of intense and incessant cramping. Used a menstrual disc almost all day and I love it, it feels like I'm not wearing anything!

I took two naps but I'm getting sleepy again...

thisbluespirit

I have done the thing! Or at least, am mid-strategically-staggered promo-ing

xoverbingo, hurrah!

If anyone would like to promote it, here is the banner c+p coding

And I made a rebloggable tumblr post, too.

And, of course, the thing about making a comm like this, is I do have to put my money where my mouth is. Luckily, it should hopefully play well with

no_true_pair and

51pluscrossoverfandoms:

( Cut for my shiny card )

I think it's rather nice. I do like my own prompts, lol. (More seriously, the aim was to get a mix of general prompts, plus things that would enable crossover shenanigans, as well as others that could be useful from the fusion end. I wasn't sure about the conversation starters to begin with, but I think they work all right. (And they're optional anyway.)

Don't worry, I shall now only post about this in the usual way. Thanks to anyone who cast an eye over it for me earlier. <3

vriddy

General status:

Line editing: I had a few GYWO articles around improving prose in my dreamwidth memories, so I kinda tried to create a checklist from that and adjusting it to my needs as I edit the LeopardTree fic. Even without GYWO access, this Tumblr essay covers a lot and one could do worse than compressing it into a list! Making my own list of weak annoying words I abuse, too (grab, move, make...). So far so good, though it's nowhere as joyful as the structural edits were for the Soul Thief!! (Still chasing that editing high XD) I guess by forcing myself to actually rework my sentences or find synonyms rather than just go "Urgh! Grabbing again!" I'm hoping the stronger words will come to me more naturally over time, rather than remain stuck in my passive vocabulary. One can hope (and experiment ;)).

Cursed Witch feedback: I reread all the feedback and wrote a big thoughtdump post, which as I hoped took the thoughts of my mind to make space for other things. The conversations in the comments also turned out really helpful, I'm still turning a few replies in my head. Whatever happens next, though, I need to let it rest for longer.

BBTP smut: I finished the maid smut one-shot, but editing it is taking more time than expected, especially considering the upcoming September 1st deadline...! I haven't written or edited smut in a long time. I still hope to make it in time for bbtp_challenge though!

Projects:

Line edits for the LeopardTree fic (K-9). Still needs to be proofread, but also it stands at 7971 words now so I clearly must try and find where to add 29 words... Perhaps the kissing could use a bit more flourish? XD
Cursed Witch (OW) contemplations XD
Finishing and now editing the maid!Ren smut fic (K-9)

Current Mood: okay

bluegreenwhirlywindy

The Bunny: A Lil’ Baby Bunny Just A Few Weeks Old – Small Enough To Hold But Big Enough To Comfortably Fill My Hands – Snowy White With A Small Number Of Large Black Spots. This bunny sneakily snuck up to me to cuddle.

Fandom: Crossover between Wind Breaker and Deep-Sea Aquarium Magmell

Characters/Ships: Sakura & Kotarou (DSAM)

Important Themes/Tags: Crossover/Fandom Fusions

Description: One of Sakura’s classmates won a ticket to Deep-Sea Aquarium Magmell in a lottery. Everyone agrees that Sakura should go, given his lack of opportunities to visit public attractions like an aquarium in the past. Sakura reluctantly agrees and takes the train to the aquarium. Once out of Makochi, he finds himself brutally reminded of the differences between Makochi and the “outside world” where he came from when he hears whispers and catches side-eyes about his appearance again. When he enters the aquarium, in contrast, the darkness leads to people not noticing his hair or eyes, making him able to easily blend in among the crowd. He thinks back to his experiences with the comfort of darkness and finds himself drawn back to those sentiments. As he’s lying on a bench and moping around, he’s suddenly addressed by one of the aquarium’s cleaners (Kotarou), who asks him if he’s unwell. Sakura finds himself spilling his guts to Kotarou, who responds with understanding and tells Sakura about deep sea creatures who produce light even in the darkness of the deep sea to communicate, concluding that even being in the deep ocean darkness doesn’t mean you’re on your own. When Sakura admits that he’s lonely because his friends aren’t there to explore the aquarium with him, Kotarou suggests to take some pictures with his camera that Sakura can use to share the experience and what he saw with his friends before they can all plan to come visit Magmell together the next time.

A/N: I fell in love with the manga “Deep-Sea Aquarium Magmell” and was overjoyed to find it scratching the same itch as Wind Breaker does for me: People being kind, supporting each other unconditionally and being there for each other, finding community even if you’re an “outcast” and don’t think you have a place to belong to in this world, learning to accept yourself… It’s all so beautiful and heart-touching (I cried more than once because a message hit me right where it hurts), and impressive how each story is conveyed through either interacting with or referencing a deep-sea creature! So given their similar nature and also the darkness of the deep sea when “darkness” has a strong thematic connection to Sakura’s character arc made it inevitable that I yearned for a crossover between those two series. The only problem is that I don’t have enough interest in researching deep sea creatures to come up with a metaphor/learning experience on my own and thus would just have to reference a story told in the manga…

svgurl

sapphic-september is a multi fandom daily prompt event that is focused on f/f ships that takes place in September

soulmark-september is a soulmate themed prompt challenge that will take place in September

whumptember is month long whump themed prompt based event in September

ljfriends is a community where you can try to find and reconnect with old Livejournal friends

ficinabox, a multifandom exchange where you are signing up to create 10k of works with possible various medium options, is still open for sign-ups until August 30th, 9:59PM Eastern.

ififitsifics, a multifandom exchange with focus on cats of all kinds (house cats, cat-persons, people transformed into cats) is still open for sign-ups until August 31st, 10AM BST. More info, including links on where to sign-up, is HERE.

thestoryinside, a challenge where you are paired up with someone and pick three books off their TBR based off the voted for themes and vice versa, is open for September sign-ups until the end of August 31st.

bbtp_challenge is back for its 20th round of Bring Back the Porn Challenge. On September 1st, post something porny to your journal or favorite archive and then go back to the community and drop off a link.

Stuffed With Love is a multifandom incest exchange. Sign-ups are open and will close on September 6th, midnight Eastern Time.

minutia_r is running Multifandom Poetry Fest, a prompt fest for poetry for all fandoms.

mistressofmuses

I did still have Monday off, so we again wanted to find something quick to do outside.

We headed to the spot we call Pelican Pond. No pelicans, but there was an eagle!

I am clearly lacking in the nicer bird-picture-capturing camera that my mom has, but oh well.

Four more pictures:

The eagle was sitting out on one of the islands in the middle of the reservoir. You can kind of tell that it's an eagle-shaped blob. (The ducks were mostly annoyed that we were interrupting their basking-on-shore time.)

The eagle took off from the island and did fly quite close overhead before it perched in the tree.

(As always, I enjoy that seeing an eagle is always still cool, but it no longer feels rare.)

Toward the other size of the avian size spectrum, the tragically named bushtit! They are so adorable and tiny.

A mushroom!

The water level here wasn't quite as noticeably low as it was at Belmar, but it was still pretty dry. One area where it was noticeable was one of the usual little streams that lets into the reservoir, which was... nonexistent. Not even a bit of mud, just dry dry dry.

Usually it runs through a little culvert that goes under the path.

What is this mysterious cryptid at the other side of the tunnel?

It's Bella!

She had no hesitation about walking through the little culvert, ha. Alex pointed at the one side more to see if she wanted to look, and she just hopped down and started through. (It's been a few years, but we did have her do the tunnel at one of the dog parks that had some agility equipment. She would do it, but seemed confused about why at the time. Not so much now, ha.)

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my apartment

adafrog

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

andersenmom

Title: To Catch a Serial Killer
Rating: Teen
Type: Fic
Word count: 680
Prompt: 080: Metal
Fandom/Ship: Onewe, P1Harmony; Son Dongmyeong, Yoon Keeho
Notes/Warnings: Attempted murder
Summary: The best way to catch a serial killer is to send a reformed one after him.

( The sun had gone down completely while Dongmyeong stood in that alley. )

Find the table with the list of fics here

Current Mood: hot
Current Music: One and Only -

andersenmom

Title: Unexpected News
Rating: G
Type: Fic
Word count: 567
Prompt: 079: Liberty
Fandom/Ship: Enhypen; Park Sunghoon, Yang Jungwon
Notes/Warnings: Based loosely on this Untold Concept Cinema
Summary: Jungwon finds one of his friends in mourning. He does what he can to comfort him.

( The afternoon was too quiet. )

Find the table with the list of fics here

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: My Way - JustB

beatrice_otter

Global Trade and United States Navy, by Bret Devereaux

This is a fascinating (and scary) read, and I learned a lot about how the world actually works that I did not know.

Here's a summary:

Trade between nations is about 1/3 to 1/2 of all global economic activity. This includes developing nations.
Many nations depend on importing food, and this includes poor nations. If international trade declines, the price of food goes up and poor people go hungry. Some starve.
Despite the fact that corporations and larger nations can be predatory, international trade is actually the quickest way for a developing nation to move up the economic ladder from low income to middle income.
80% of all goods move by sea.
Shipping by sea requires sea lanes to be open. That is, piracy kept to a minimum, local nations prevented from putting high tariffs on goods moving past a local chokepoint.
The US Navy is the only navy in the world capable of keeping the sea lanes open.
American foreign policy now doesn't care about keeping the sea lanes open, and this is actually very very bad for the entire world, not only for the US but also especially for developing nations.

mistressofmuses

This week was my weird week, where I took Sunday off and worked Tuesday to cover for my coworkers instead. It was weird having an actual weekend day off, but we didn't plan far enough ahead to do something that we don't usually get the chance to.

Alex wasn't feeling great (spines are terrible), but we did still want to go on a walk or something, so picked Belmar as a quick walk.

Unfortunately, the water level in the lake is very low.

Cute honeybee with quite nice pollen saddlebags, ha.

Seven more pictures:

This prickly pear was looking extra prickly. Kind of a mohawk going.

Still water over in the turtle pond, but it is very... green. (Three turtles in the picture: one largish one close to the bottom and two very little ones up toward the top of the stick arrangement.)

We waited long enough that we saw a snapping turtle come up! (There were actually two snapping turtles, which seemed to be having some minor disagreements over the location.)

Bella, the little hotdog.

A small bee!

And a beetle!

(Also, these flowers are SO STICKY, lol. I kept brushing against them while taking pictures. So sticky.)

And then after we got back to the car, a hawk swooped down and landed in a nearby tree. Big and dramatic!

It was a nice, if short walk.

(Two more days, and I'm done with my six day week! Then a different weird week, but at least a short one this time instead!)

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my apartment