Pro-writingAid

Greetings!
I've pretty much decided, after a free trial, to purchase Scrivener. I've been using the free Grammarly version alongside this. I've also been looking into ProWritingAid. I'm wondering how likely it would be to be flagged for AI for using these helps. I don't use them for ideas or to create content in any way, simply to catch grammatical and style errors. Does anyone have experience in this area? Thanks!

I tried Scrivener but it wasn't for me. My understanding is its more for organization than actual writing, even though you can write in it. I don't recall seeing anything related to AI, and in fact, it seemed it was missing some fairly basic editing tools (things that could be assumed to be similar to AI).

For Grammarly, you can turn off the AI prompts in the settings and with the free plan, you are limited in what you can do.

The only one I can't speak to is the Writing Aid. But this FAQ should answer your questions. Sounds like it does not train AI and you can ignore it's suggestions that are related to AI use. https://help.prowritingaid.com/article/297-does-prowritingaid-use-ai

Hucklebarry said:

I tried Scrivener but it wasn't for me. My understanding is its more for organization than actual writing, even though you can write in it. I don't recall seeing anything related to AI, and in fact, it seemed it was missing some fairly basic editing tools (things that could be assumed to be similar to AI).

For Grammarly, you can turn off the AI prompts in the settings and with the free plan, you are limited in what you can do.

The only one I can't speak to is the Writing Aid. But this FAQ should answer your questions. Sounds like it does not train AI and you can ignore it's suggestions that are related to AI use. https://help.prowritingaid.com/article/297-does-prowritingaid-use-ai

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Thank you!

Actually, I use Scrivener for all my writing, and have done so for years. And ProWriting works well with Scrivener for editing and so much more, @Hucklebarry, and @Kim K.

Kim K said:

I've pretty much decided, after a free trial, to purchase Scrivener. I've been using the free Grammarly version alongside this. I've also been looking into ProWritingAid.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Scrivener and ProWritingAid are practically made for each other. PWA integrates right into Scrivener to help you with general suggestions as you write. If you want a more fuller-featured experience. Close your Scrivener project and open PWA and you can edit your manuscript directly in the project. It's amazing.

Johne said:

Scrivener and ProWritingAid are practically made for each other. PWA integrates right into Scrivener to help you with general suggestions as you write. If you want a more fuller-featured experience. Close your Scrivener project and open PWA and you can edit your manuscript directly in the project. It's amazing.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Ohhhh - that does sound amazing! I appreciate the feedback. My only concern is using it and then being told when I submit my manuscript that there is too much AI. I'm still looking into it.

suspensewriter said:

Actually, I use Scrivener for all my writing, and have done so for years. And ProWriting works well with Scrivener for editing and so much more, @Hucklebarry, and @Kim K.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Good to hear!

Kim K said:

My only concern is using it and then being told when I submit my manuscript that there is too much AI.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

I use AI all the time (for developmental editing feedback) but not in PWA. I just use it for grammar-checking in Scrivener—commas in the wrong place, starting consecutive sentences with the same word, things like that. You /can/ use AI in PWA, but you have to go looking for it. The integration with Scrivener is kind of like the grammar-checking in Word, underlining words with various colors to indicate various things.

So it sounds like PWA and Grammerly do basically the same thing? Would you agree?
Also, if I may ask, how do you use AI for developmental editing feedback? I got the impression that PWA was used for that.

Kim K said:

Also, if I may ask, how do you use AI for developmental editing feedback?

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

I haven't used Grammarly in a minute, but PWA feels like it's more suited to creative writing and Grammarly is better for business writing.

For AI, I use two tools—ChatGPT 5 and Claude Opus 4.1. I give them both the same prompt ('does this scene conform to the revised Story Grid 5 Commandments of Story' or 'what are the opposing Objects of Desire for the Protagonist and Antagonist and who wins the scene'). Then I'll compare the two sets of results and cherry pick the aspects that best serve the story. Then I rewrite those sections in my own voice.

Thank you for sharing your experience. I sincerely appreciate you taking the time.

A nice benefit to ProWritingAid too is that it has a lifetime one time payment, unlike Grammarly. YOu can either pay monthly installments or pay for the lifetime. The biggest downside to it that causes my husband to grumble is you cannot use PWA offline (or we haven't figured out how to). It has a lot of tools, and you can use as many or as little as you'd like. You can just have it look for puncuation or Grammar, or it can give you feedback on your story for style, readability, word repeats, sentence length - all sorts of editorial suggestions that can help you make your writing tighter. If it makes a suggestion you don't agree with or have a reason for why you wrote it as you wrote or you just don't like what they are suggesting, you can ignore it.

I'm not worried about how much AI is too much at this point; I use AI tools like PWA and ChatPGT and Grok to help me brainstorm and research, to give me a first pass on editing and to review my story like an editor would to find places where my writing may need tightening up. But I write as I want to write and I don't care if I get accused of "AI" or not. I'm really tired of all the gatekeeping and judgementalness in the industry and just tell people that if you want to use AI, use it, if you don't, then don't. I don't appreciate or agree with the witch hunts for people just searching for AI in books and documents as a means to tear people down or badmouth their books. Though I do want authors to be honest on the topic. Which is why I say yes, I use it for editing and refinement and even story development and brainstorming. But once I have an idea to run with, the AI is shut down, I make notes, and then I go write the story my way in my own voice.

AI has been a huge help in getting over writers block for me. Thanks to having ChatGPT and Grok to brainstorm with and then PWA to review my work, I managed to get 5 short stories accepted for publication this year by 4 different small presses. They've been very helpful tools for me!

Heads up on Grammary. I had the paid version for awhile, but found that for fiction, it stumbles over dialog and prose that doesn't conform to formal grammar standards (like when you're revealing character thoughts).

I found that it sometimes refused to evaluate one of my paragraphs or chapters because the text tripped one of its undisclosed rules governing "acceptable" speech. I actually had a phone conversation with one of the techs at grammarly about it. Bottom line: it's not for fiction, where story lines and dialog might offend whatever woke sensibilities are built into grammarly.

We use Grammarly at work. It’s good for technical writing, but I can see how it would not be useful for nuanced or literary work.

I find that Grammarly wants me to put commas where I wouldn't ordinarily do so. It is helpful for quickly pointing out spelling and grammatical errors.