Resolution #196: Run All Of My Blog Entries Through The Hemingway Editing App.

Date: 7-15-2014

Due Date: 7-15-2015

Resolution: As you know, I love to write. As you've seen, I can be a bit of a sloppy writer. I've always had many excuses for this sloppiness but no real solutions.

First off, I was not a good student. I'm dyslexic and found reading a chore. I almost didn't make it through high school, picking up everything I needed to know through lectures alone.

Since reading was the enemy and I saw English as Literature I threw out the baby with the bathwater by tuning out the class altogether. To me, proper grammar and spelling were tools for essays and other scholastic assignments. Since I had no plan to continue on to college, my grasp of the language was good enough for what I needed.

To be honest, I had no plan at all.

I was a stand-up comedy nerd and figured I'd stumble into that as a  career through my poor life choices. I'm aware that writing is a part of stand up. That said… since you orate the end product the dots, dashes, and squiggles of grammar didn't seem to matter all that much to me.

My shyness outweighed my desire to perform and my stories for the stage started to grow into more elaborate fiction. Though I never made a declaration of reason, this insecurity is why I got into screenwriting. I knew I had the material but didn't have the technical skills for my written words to be the end product. I figured the moving pictures of the screen would hide all my typos.

Over the past decade and a half, I've gotten a lot better with my technical writing skills. My writing still can be a bit wonky. I've pieced together rules by correcting my typos based on notes from friendly proofreaders. Though I went to film school for writing, they figured we already had the writing down. Their main focus was story structure and script formatting.

A while ago I stumbled on a website called HemingwayApp. At the time it was an online app that not only checks your spelling but also makes suggestions based on grammar and structure. It's an awesome tool, but for some reason, I didn't end up using it all that much. I think part of it had to do with the fact that it was a web-based app.

Today I received an email from Hemingway. This message informed me that there is now a desktop version of the app available for five bucks (the price of a wrestling match.) I didn't think twice, clicked the link, and purchased a downloadable copy.

I hope this app not only helps by suggesting improvements but that I'll pick up on the rules it uses to make said suggestions. Maybe someday I will no longer need the program at all.

Luckily I have a little over a year and a half's worth of work on this blog to test out this theory.

Result #196: I Used The Hemingway App On Enough Of These Blog Posts To Consider This Resolution To Be A Success!!!

Update #1: The Conclusion…

Date: 7-15-2015

I love the Hemingway App and use it all the time. I wish there was a way to set it to run alongside the default spellchecker my computer uses to guarantee that I literally use it all the time.

Right now I have to do a lot of cut and pasting between Word, Hemingway, and the website. If I'm ever in a rush and have to skip a step, unfortunately, it ends up being the Hemingway App.
Though I do skip this step it has nothing to do with the app itself. The fact that I wish it was available to use within every program I use should tell you how much I like it.

If you are interested in improving your writing I suggest you rush over and give it a try.