Can AI help authors with a developmental edit? Simon Whaley explores ProWritingAid’s Manuscript Analysis Service and shares his results.
It took only seven minutes for ProWritingAid’s Manuscript Analysis Tool to read, digest, and then produce a 23-page analysis of my 100,000-word cosy crime novel. Wow! That was quick. It made me wonder if AI could become an author’s developmental editor?
Having undertaken five editorial passes of my manuscript myself, I was at that stage when I needed a third party overview. So, before passing my manuscript across to some beta-readers, I thought I’d test out ProWritingAid’s new AI Manuscript Analysis Tool.
My ProWritingAid Lifetime Premium account entitled me to one free analysis. Using the service again will cost me £35 per assessment, whereas writers using ProWritingAid’s free account will pay £50 per report and ProWritingAid’s Premium Pro users will pay £25.
Timely Transaction
I’m a discovery writer, not a plotter, so my first and second drafts are where I determine what my story is and then wrestle it into shape. Third and fourth drafts are where I fill plot holes, build upon themes, and continue my series character development. By the fifth draft, I’ve usually had enough of the darn thing and I’m at the stage where I need feedback from other human editors and beta-readers.
Tom Wilde, Head of Partnerships at ProWritingAid, suggests the service works best for authors when they feel they have a complete manuscript.
‘Manuscript Analysis analyses up to 300,000 words in minutes to uncover plot holes, pacing issues, weak climaxes, and more. With targeted, prioritised suggestions, users know exactly what to fix and where. Manuscript Analysis typically works best with finished or nearly finished manuscripts, though users also find it helpful during their drafting process to ensure consistency across large amounts of text.’
As Tom explains, they also have two other AI services for writers to use at different stages of the writing process.
‘The Chapter Critique focuses on one chapter at a time to help you fine-tune your plot, characters, pacing, and more. Whether you’re drafting or revising, this report gives chapter-specific feedback to keep your momentum going.’
The latest AI service ProWritingAid has launched is Virtual Beta Reader.
‘Virtual Beta Reader delivers emotional, first-person feedback that shows where a story shines and where readers might drift. With this tool, you can discover hook points, favourite characters, pacing dips, and drop-off risks to make your book more engaging. Most users use Virtual Beta Reader after they have completed their full draft.’
Analysis Assessment
My Manuscript Analysis began by identifying my book’s genre, outlining the plot, identifying the setting and the themes, and then suggested comparative books and who my target readers might be. In my opinion, it nailed this.
It then provided a breakdown of the main characters, identifying whether they were protagonists, antagonists, supporting, or tertiary characters, and clarifying, as a percentage, how much of the book they appear in. Again, this was spot on.
The analysis report then explored narrative themes before providing a detailed review of the plot and structure. It does this by categorising and colour-coding comments, helping authors to prioritise. The report highlights major concerns in red, other concerns in orange, minor concerns in yellow, and anything that works well in green.
This is where things got interesting. In my experience, the bigger picture issues are where the analysis excelled. Things went a little awry with the finer details. Of course, there is no perfect AI system out there, so in some ways this is to be expected, but it was a useful reminder to take a considered approach to any AI suggestions.
One of the major issues my report identified concerned a protagonist whose motives were unclear. Deep down, I already knew this, but was dismissing my gut instinct. That the analysis picked up on this reminded me to trust my gut!
Another issue it picked up was the plausibility of a nighttime helicopter flight across the English Channel. While I’d done the research to check the possibility of flying by helicopter between England and France, thinking about distances and any necessary refuelling requirements, I’d not considered that commercial helicopter night flights are a specialised service, which were beyond the realms of my character.
It raised a smile, though, when the AI report said it was a character called Abigail who flew to France by helicopter, when it was actually Rupert who took the flight.
Similarly, the report commented that Abigail’s support of Rosemary in Chapter 25 seemed unrealistic. I’ll say it was, because Rosemary doesn’t appear in Chapter 25 at all, and nor does Abigail support Rosemary at any point in the entire novel! The AI hallucinations are there.
Interestingly, the analysis occasionally identified an issue, but incorrectly identified where in the manuscript it appeared. For example, it correctly picked up a scene which was, essentially, an information dump, and needed rewriting, but it suggested this scene was in chapter one, when it was actually at the end of chapter two.
Where the analysis identifies potential issues, it offers some generic advice on how to resolve them. To be clear, it does not rewrite any of your manuscript for you. So in the earlier example, the analysis report suggested rewriting the exposition scene by either condensing ‘the conversation significantly or weaving the historical information into other parts of the story.’
Author Assessment
Sean McLachlan is the historical mystery author behind The Masked Man of Cairo series, the latest of which is The Case of the Cackling Crocodile. He tested ProWritingAid’s Manuscript Analysis Tool with a 40,000-word manuscript.
‘I was pleasantly surprised at how detailed the analysis was, accurately breaking down the chapters, sections of rising tensions and resolution, etc. It gave an overall assessment as well as suggestions for further improvement,’ he explains. ‘The suggestions included a few weak spots and inconsistencies. Most were things I or my beta readers had spotted, although it caught a couple more.’
Like me, Sean found some of the finer details to be less accurate.
‘It did fail on a couple of things. In one scene, Henri, a supporting character, holds off some men on the beach with a gun, forcing them to leave so he can get up to some clandestine activity. For some reason, the AI said that Hairball did this. Hairball is my hero’s cat, who isn’t even in that chapter! It also said that it was unbelievable that the men would back off since they outnumbered Henri. Um, he’s the only one with a gun, so yes, they would back off.’
Sean didn’t like all the report’s recommendations. ‘There were some suggestions I simply didn’t agree with. That was less a flaw with the AI than me and the robot having creative differences.’
That’s an important point to remember. Like all AI tools, this analysis offers suggestions. Ultimately, as the authors, we’re the ones who have the final say.
Starting Point
I’ve since passed my manuscript to my beta-readers, and they have picked up some additional inconsistencies the analysis tool missed. Some of this is because my beta-readers have read my previous two novels in my series, whereas the Manuscript Analysis service hasn’t.
But it also highlights how authors who wish to use such a service should approach such tools. They are not a replacement for human analysis but could be a useful additional tool to help raise our manuscript’s quality before passing it to a human editor or beta-reader.
Sean also believes authors should take a cautious approach. ‘I do not think that AI is desirable as an aid to writing. Experienced writers don’t need it, and I worry that beginning writers will use it as a crutch and not learn on their own. AI can be useful as a first-round copy editor, however. Any human copy editor, no matter how good, will miss a few mistakes, so the fewer mistakes you have before giving it to a human, the better.’
Privacy Protected
Considering recent revelations about how Meta used pirated content to train its AI systems, authors may be concerned about what happens to their manuscript when it is being analysed by these AI systems. Tom, at ProWritingAid, explains their privacy policy means authors should not worry.
‘When you analyse your writing with ProWritingAid, we send only the piece of text that is under analysis to our servers. We only keep your text for the time it takes to process it and generate reports and suggestions for you. In most cases, this takes a matter of seconds. Once the analysis is complete, any record of your text is removed from our servers.’
‘Data privacy is one of our core driving principles at ProWritingAid,’ he continues. ‘We never use your data or your writing to train our AI models or algorithms. In addition to this, we build our software following industry-standard security best practices to ensure your data is always protected.’
So, if you’re looking for a developmental edit on your novel, the Manuscript Analysis service could be a useful starting point. With analyses taking a matter of minutes, it’s certainly a quick way to get some feedback.
Much will depend upon where you are on your writing journey. As Sean explains, ‘It found nothing a good group of beta readers could not, and I already have that. Would I use it if it was ten euros instead of 35/50? Probably.’
Will I use it for future novels? Yes, because as a discovery writer, I’m prone to plot holes and forgetting about characters halfway through books. I’d much rather resolve as many of these issues as possible before handing my manuscript over to my human editor and beta-readers.
And that’s generally how I feel about most AI-writing tools at present. They can be useful in helping us raise our manuscript’s quality before passing our work across to a human. Ultimately, that allows the human specialists to concentrate on the finer details, giving our readers the best reading experience possible.
Business Directory: AI Analysis Options
ProWritingAid Manuscript Analysis: https://prowritingaid.com/features/manuscript-analysis
Authors AI Marlowe: https://authors.ai/marlowe/
AI chat apps, such as ChatGPT and Claude, can offer feedback on sections of your novel, but currently can’t assess the entire novel as one document.