June 13, 2025

The Ink on the Page

Traci Dowe/Kenworth

I want to talk a bit about a tool I use that I’ve come to like quite a bit. It’s called AutoCrit. It is a platform that helps writers create their work. But it goes beyond that in helpfulness. It has the tools of WordPress, Scriveners, etc. It allows you to bring your work together.

There is a note feature that I love. It lets you gather all your notes together for easier use. You can also keep this tab open while you are writing or pull it open at any time to check your notes. I wish I’d had this feature years ago!

There is a Story Analyzer feature that once you have your file finished, does what it says. It can analyze fiction and non-fiction. It lets you know where your story works and where it doesn’t. Now, you might be thinking it’s some AI stuff and, in a way, it is but not the AI that learns from your writing. It’s only there to help you. It also doesn’t try and rewrite your work. It does give some suggestions but leaves your style up to you.

There is a new feature called Market Fuel that helps you with exactly what it says. Trends in the market. Where your story might fit. Suggestions on how to tighten things up. Comparisons of other published author’s work, as in comps to use to market your work for trad or Indie. You don’t see the other author’s works, just the suggestion that your book might be like so-and-so’s.

What I like about it is that you can prepare your stories for an e-pub, etc. It helps you size the book for market, offering different templates that go with Amazon, Instagram, etc. Something they’re working on is bringing in templates for covers. That is going to help even more!

What does this all cost? For the monthly, it’s $29.95. Sometimes there are specials where you can get a trial for $1 or even $15. It also has a lifetime membership and teaches Academy classes where you can get a pass for that or pay individually for classes. If you are a PRO-member (monthly or lifetime), there are some free offerings and clubs such as The Horror Club, The Mystery Club, etc.

I hope you check it out! It can help! It also has dictation features! And so many more, too many to name. Have a great week, take care, and God bless!

The Seven:

1. Fiction Favorites:  https://johnwhowell.com/2025/06/13/friday-johnku-aka-tgif-fri-yay-good-news-122/ Some plastics are made to be small. These are known as primary microplastics, like the microbeads intentionally added to face washes and other personal care products. But most microplastics come from the slow disintegration of larger plastic products, including plastic wrap, takeaway containers, polyester clothes, tires, paint, and artificial turf. These are known as secondary microplastics.

Exposure to microplastics can also occur through inhaled air. Data from animal studies have shown that once absorbed, plastic micro- and nanoparticles can distribute to the liver, spleen, heart, lungs, thymus, reproductive organs, kidneys, and even the brain (crosses the blood–brain barrier).

I hope this research doesn’t get cut like so many helpful programs by the government. These types of research could help us all. The question is, will they let them?

• Anne R. Allen’s blog with Ruth Harris: https://annerallen.com/2025/06/chekhovs-gun-does-your-story-have-a-forgotten-gun/ This week I’m visiting the writing blog, Writers In the Storm, talking about “Chekhov’s Gun.”

“If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise, don’t put it there.”…Anton Chekhov

Chekhov, the Russian playwright, also wrote short stories, essays, and instructions for young writers. The above admonition is probably his most famous writerly advice. It’s aimed at playwrights, but it’s true of all fiction writing.

His rule is telling us to remove everything that has no relevance to the story.

A worthy note of advice to check back over our drafts and make sure we’ve used everything.

• Nathan Bransford: https://nathanbransford.com/blog/2025/06/bookcon-is-back-this-week-in-books First up, I’ll be out for the next few weeks to take a break around the 4th of July holiday, so I will see you again later in July.

BookCon Will Return in 2026 – Jim Milliot, Publishers Weekly – After shuttering during the pandemic, the exposition formerly known as BookExpo will make an unexpected return in 2026.

Distressing details coming to light about authors’ experiences with 8th Note Press, owned by ByteDance – Jane Friedman – ByteDance (TikTok’s owner) made an extremely short-lived experiment with print books, allegedly leaving authors in the lurch.

The Vicious Cycle of Book Publishing – Kathleen Schmidt, Publishing Confidential – Publicist Kathleen Schmidt looks at the decisions publishers make around “crashing” books and how marketing budgets are allocated, which can result in some books getting a boost and some all but dropped in the ocean.

Maybe some more things will come back. Missed some local events.

• Life in the Realm of Fantasy: https://conniejjasperson.com/2025/06/20/fineartfriday-summer-field-of-poppies-by-claude-monet-1875/ Claude Monet’s gift for bringing in the beauty of nature shines in this painting. He shows us a warm day in high summer, with fluffy white clouds sailing across blue skies. The wild poppies have taken root in a fallow field, and are mingled in with the tall field-grass. A woman and two children have come to pick wildflowers in the meadow. One can almost hear the buzzing of bees as they go about their business mingling with the occasional birdsong.

What I love about these posts are the in-depth look Connie takes at the painting, bringing the scene to life for the reader. She also relates the painter’s life and how they liked to practice their art (style).

• Charles French: https://charlesfrenchonwordsreadingandwriting.wordpress.com/2025/06/22/have-a-happy-and-blessed-litha/ June 20-June 22st is one of the most important times in the pre-Christian Celtic calendar. It is the solstice and the day with the longest daylight of the year, and it is a celebration of the coming summer. I hope you are enjoying the Summer and that you take delight in nature!

Please understand, that there is nothing evil or Satanic in this holiday or its celebration. It is simply an expression of seasonal joy.

Happy Solstice!

Love to see summer come but the heat advisory get to me being an asthmatic individual. Spring and fall are my favorite times of year although I can do without the pollen and hayfever, lol.

• Smorgasbord Magazine: https://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpress.com/2025/06/23/smorgasbord-short-stories-and-audio-tales-from-the-garden-fantasy-magic-chapter-five-trouble-in-paradise-part-one-by-sally-cronin/ I am going to be doing my podcast differently later in the year and posting it to Youtube rather than Soundcloud. When I don’t renew my annual subscription in August my podcast posts will disappear. So I am going to share the audio and the text stories from this collection followed by Tales from the Irish Garden before the publication of the next book in the series later in 2025. I hope you will enjoy the stories again or for the first time if you are new to the blog.

Tales from the garden is a collection I wrote in tribute to our home in the mountains to the north of Madrid where we lived from 1999 to 2016. We inherited a number of statues from the previous owners that were too big to take with them, and I also found some discarded around the garden. Perfect characters for stories, some of whom moved on with us to Ireland and appeared in Tales from the Irish Garden.

These are great fairytales!

• The Kill Zone Blog: https://killzoneblog.com/2025/06/the-long-and-short-story-of-it.html If I may indulge in a little horn toot today. My latest release has dropped—just don’t drop it on your foot. Because the print version comes in at a honkin’ 612 pages (173k words). It looks nice on a shelf but will also work as an emergency doorstop. It sells for $28.95.

I agree that the short story is the hardest form to write. I haven’t gotten a story of mine published as of yet. Although I did get good feed back from a contest for one.

What I’m doing: Assembling a bookshelf with my daughter. One more to go and then need to get some more down the road.

What I’m learning: How deep to go with setting (balance between overwriting and under-writing.). Story worldbuilding (again not too much, not too little). Character development (all the right things).

The ebook is considerably lighter, and is a “steal” at the special launch price of just $3.49. You might want to hop on that, as the price goes up to $6.99 in a few days.

Down These Streets is a complete collection of my short stories. From the introduction:

If you’re on the bridge because you think it’s Ai Assist, I’ve learned it’s actually a proofreading software by writers. Read another review at this link: Kindlepreneur: https://kindlepreneur.com/autocrit-review/. Hope that helps.