AutoCrit

AutoCrit is a web-based platform built specifically for fiction writers, now positioned as an all-in-one workspace to plan, write, edit, and publish. Its defining feature remains its self-editing engine: it analyzes your manuscript against an algorithm trained on millions of published books and lets you compare your writing style against 100+ selected authors in your genre — an approach no general-purpose grammar checker offers.

What You Get#

• Fiction analysis engine: Scans for pacing problems, overused words, dialogue tag issues, adverb density, passive voice, and repetition — all tuned for fiction rather than business writing.
• Genre comparison scoring: Benchmark your dialogue ratio, sentence variety, and pacing against authors you choose from a list of bestselling fiction writers. See how your chapter pacing maps against your genre's typical arc.
• Story Analyzer+: Plan and track characters, plot threads, structure, and foreshadowing within the platform before or during drafting; a Series Analyzer extends this across multi-book projects.
• AI Alpha & Beta Readers: Generate reader-style feedback from custom reader profiles based on your target audience in minutes rather than waiting months for volunteer readers.
• Inspiration Studio: Brainstorming and idea-generation tooling for working through writer's block during drafting.
• 25+ interactive editing tools: Each report is interactive — flag issues and address them inline, with explanations of why each element matters in fiction.
• Formatting & marketing extras: Pro now bundles ePub/PDF formatting export and Market Fuel (market/keyword insight), rounding out the plan-to-publish workflow.

Who It's For#

• Fiction writers doing self-editing rounds: AutoCrit catches the patterns that human eyes miss after reading your own manuscript a dozen times — repeated sentence openers, dialogue tags creeping in, overused filler words.
• Genre fiction authors: The genre comparison feature is most useful for romance, thriller, mystery, and fantasy writers who want to calibrate their prose style against what's selling in their category.
• Writers before sending to an editor: Using AutoCrit before submitting to a copy editor can reduce the editor's workload — and potentially the editing cost — by resolving surface-level issues in advance.

Pricing: The free plan ("Free Forever") gives you the full writing workspace with unlimited word count plus a handful of editing tools (Adverbs, Word Choice, Readability). AutoCrit Pro costs $30/month or $180/year ($15/month equivalent on annual billing). A lifetime plan is occasionally offered as a special promotion. The Pro plan unlocks the Summary Report and AutoCrit Score, genre comparisons, Story Analyzer+, AI alpha/beta readers, formatting export, and access to a private member community with online workshops.

Strengths#

• Fiction-specific benchmarking: The comparison scoring against published authors in your genre is a genuinely unique feature. It provides context that "you have 5% adverb density" lacks.
• Comprehensive fiction toolset: Pacing analysis, dialogue evaluation, and repetition detection in one place replaces running multiple tools.
• Free tier available: The free plan lets you evaluate the interface and some basic features before committing.

Limitations#

• Not a substitute for a developmental editor: AutoCrit's automated editing reports work at the prose/style level. Story Analyzer+ and the AI beta readers add structural planning and simulated reader feedback, but they don't replace a human developmental editor judging whether your plot and character arcs actually land.
• No grammar depth of ProWritingAid: For pure grammar and style correction, ProWritingAid or Grammarly offer more granular explanations. AutoCrit's strength is fiction-specific pattern analysis.
• Results require interpretation: The algorithm flags issues but doesn't always explain whether they're problems in your specific context. A flagged "passive voice sentence" may be intentional.
• Subscription cost for full access: At $30/month, the Pro plan is expensive if you only edit one manuscript per year. The annual plan at $15/month makes more sense for active writers.

Alternatives#

ProWritingAid ($10/month or $99/year) covers more grammar and style categories and includes some genre-specific reports, though it's less fiction-focused. Fictionary addresses a different problem entirely — story structure rather than prose style — and is often used alongside AutoCrit for a complete self-editing workflow.