Autocrit Review: There’s a Big Problem [2023]

There's always a debate or question on whether or not certain softwares will help specific types of writers.

For instance, I constantly see and receive questions about my own software, Publisher Rocket. Questions like:

Is this good for Non-Fiction? Or does this work for Fiction writers?

(Just to be clear… Rocket is great for both!)

But some tools are less versatile; and, often times, it's fiction writers who are left behind. But that doesn't have to be the case anymore! Not with programs like Autocrit. As a matter of fact, Autocrit touts itself to be the “Fiction Writer's Secret Weapon.” But is that really the case?

Hey, you can learn more about this and other editing methods in our How To Edit A Book post.

What is Autocrit?

Autocrit prides itself on being your own personal fiction writing mentor. It's designed to help you fine tune your understanding of fiction style writing so you can continue to master your craft. Autocrit is able to achieve this due to a very unique database it has. You see, the folks behind the program have scanned millions of different fiction books into Autocrit's programming. After going through the program's algorithms, Autocrit can give you an accurate judgement and constructive criticism that not even the most seasoned of editors can provide.

And it's not just stylistic insights that Autocrit provides. With the simple push of a button, it provides over 20 different ways to improve your manuscript, ranging from poor dialogue choices to cliches you might want to eliminate. And it guides you through every step of the way. As far as this Autocrit review is concerned… The idea behind the software is a solid one.

Autocrit Review: Pricing

So what does a service like this cost? It's a pretty invaluable tool, so how can you put a price on that?

Autocrit does that through a monthly subscription plan at three different levels.

But before you commit to becoming a subscriber, there's some good news. Autocrit offers a $1 for 14-day trial of their Professional and Elite tiers. But if you find those tiers aren't needed for your work or are a bit out of budget, you can always avail of their basic plan after the trial. Which, at $10 bucks a month, isn't too terrible. That's like the cost of 3 cups of coffee from your favorite brew house.

Autocrit Review: Major Features

Autocrit features can be broken down into a few major areas or tabs as actually shown inside the program. They are:

• Pacing and Momentum
• Dialogue
• Strong Writing
• Word Choice
• Repetition
• Compare to Fiction

Let's see what each of those mean.

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Pacing and Momentum

How varied are your sentences and paragraph structures? Do they flow in a pleasing way? Or do they tend to create a logjam in your writing? That's exactly what Autocrit can tell you. The software analyzes your sentence structures and tells you exactly what parts of your writing may be considered a slow read. This can become extremely useful especially if you're trying to minimize your lulls. If you're looking to create a real high-paced page-turner, Autocrit can show you just where you need to improve your sentences in order to bring your work up to speed.

Dialogue

The Dialogue tab can be super useful as well. Have you ever taken a step back and read your dialogue out loud? Does it sound natural or is it forced and disingenuous? Autocrit analyzes each line of dialogue you have and reports back a breakdown of what your characters are doing or saying. For instance, if your characters are “exclaiming” or “shouting” too much, Autocrit will tell you exactly how many times they are doing so and give you a recommendation on how many uses to remove.

Strong Writing

This tab may be one of the most helpful of the bunch. The Strong Writing tab does exactly what it implies. It's designed to make your writing stronger. There are a couple reports here that help you do so such as the Cliches report. This report tells you how many cliches you have inside your writing. While a cliche or two is fine (especially in a corny dialogue moment), filling up your writing with these phrases doesn't demonstrate exceptional originality.

Two more great reports of the Strong Writing tab are the Passive Voice and Adverb tabs. They work very similar to how Hemingway Editor does and highlight where you are using too much passive voice or too many adverbs. But one thing that sets this feature apart from Hemingway's is that there is an actual adverb count of specific words.

Word Choice

Do you ever struggle with the proper word choice? Or do you tend to use the same words and phrases over and over again? I know I have that issue every now and again. But if you utilize Autocrit's Word Choice tab, you can help to cutback on those things. There's a particularly helpful report in this tab called “Sentence Starters,” which analyzes all of your sentences and gives you a breakdown of all your starting words. Pretty neat, huh? Use that to your advantage and start diversifying your writing.

Repetition

I know we mentioned cliches earlier, but variety is the spice of life. And just like in life, your writing should be full of varied expressions and unique descriptors. The Repetition tab helps you to achieve just that. After analyzing your work, the Repetition tab will tell you what phrases you love to use and which ones you're using way to much. It gives you the chance to go through and make things a bit fresher.

Compare to Fiction

Probably the most unique tab of Autocrit, the Compare to Fiction tab, is where Autocrit compares your writing up against the averages of its database (those millions of fiction works, remember?) and tells you right where you stand. It gives you a comparative report which includes generic descriptions, passive voice indicators, unnecessary filler words, and more!

Genre Comparisons and Comparisons to Celebrity Authors

Now we all know that fiction is a wide range of different genres and subgenres. Autocrit understands that as well. That's why Autocrit allows you to have your work compared to specific genres. So if you're writing a romance, your work can be directly compared to other romances and not Sci-Fi.

Similarly, you can also have your work compared to some other major fiction writers. Do you want to know how you stand up to the likes of Stephen King, JK Rowling, or James Patterson? Autocrit can do that for you! However, in order to use these two features, you must be enrolled within their Professional or Elite subscription plans.

Autocrit Review Bottom Line: Is It Worth It?

As we wrap up this Autocrit review, the real question is… Is it worth it? And I believe the answer is… Yes, but conditionally.

First off, you need to be writing fiction in order to get the most of this. But that should be self-explanatory. Secondly, I would wait until you have finished writing and are ready for the editing phase of your project. Purchasing the software too early may end up being a month or more of extra payments. That leads me to one thing I'm not too fond of–the subscription plan. I honestly believe the program would be much more attractive if it was a one and done purchase.

And while Autocrit does catch some grammar errors, I would still run my writing through a program such as ProWritingAid. Autocrit just doesn't measure up to that level of grammar and spell check.

But, for what it's worth, Autocrit is a pretty exceptional tool for fiction writers. And if I do some fiction writing in the future, I'll definitely consider using it.

Be sure to check out our full comparison with the other best proofreading tools out there, along with individual reviews of the following:

• ProWritingAid (our top recommendation, check this link for 20% off with code KINDLEPRENEUR20)
• Grammarly
• Ginger
• Hemingway
• Quillbot
• WhiteSmoke
• LanguageTool
• PaperRater
• Slick Write
• PerfectIt