Whether it's your first time or your sixth time, writing a novella in 12 weeks isn't easy.
As a 2021 ONC Winner and 2023 Honorable Mention, I would know. After years of participation and reflection, I have lots of advice to share on how I did it. In...
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Bad grammar kills. It's hard to read, confusing, and a poor look for you, the author. Yet if English isn't your first language, or if you aren't sure about certain conventions, it can be hard to get it right.
Thankfully, there are tools like Grammarly, HemmingwayEditor, and my personal favorite, ProWritingAid, that can help. I recommend putting your novella's chapters through at least one of these programs before clicking that publish button.
But the real trick is to change your font and then read it out loud to yourself.
Why change the font? Because you've probably worked on your novella and re-read it so much that you've gotten used to seeing certain mistakes and now your eyes trip over them. Seeing your work in a new font helps your brain see the writing as new, and it'll catch passed-over mistakes.
As for reading out loud, it's the number one thing you can do to see if the words on the page are correct and if you like how they sounds. Wattpad also has a pretty decent text-to-speech feature (simply tag your story #texttospeech) which you can use to listen to your chapter if you don't have the energy or space to read it yourself. Do this a few times as you make your edits, and I promise you your work will be clean and to your (and your readers'!) liking.
