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Originally Posted by darryl
@Hitch. Great post. However, for me it conjures the vision of a new member of such a group saying "By the way, here is my 600 page novel which I've produced all by myself. No outside help. Could you please edit it for me? By next Wednesday, please."
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LOL, you are 100% right, of course, Darryl. That would be dread dire, indeed. And, of equal importance, it wouldn't happen, because the critique buddies would take him outside and beat him to death. (jk). Nobody's going to do that for you, not like that.
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I'm not, of course, seriously suggesting that the OP would do this. Just that it probably won't solve his immediate problem in anything like the time-frame he would like, though it is great advice for the future.
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Well, that being the case, I'm going to suggest two such tools. One is Grammarly. It's far from perfect, but it's a sh*tload better than Word's built-in grammar checker. It's not free (although there is a free option/version), but it's reasonably cheap. It will catch homonym errors, by and large. I have it--I use it as a quick typo-finder, in a browser window. Saves me enormous amounts of time when crafting emails and posts.
Secondly--although this likely won't help with spellchecking--the OP should go forth and get Brown's must-have, "Self Editing for the Fiction Writer."
https://www.amazon.com/Self-Editing-...dp/0060545690/ . I don't know one single trade-pubbed author that doesn't have this--sometimes more than one--sitting on their desk. Worth every penny, twice over.
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I don't have any first hand experience of such groups but would imagine they would be invaluable as a member was writing a book, with smaller excerpts being submitted and critiqued regularly, and the relationships and involvement of the members developing to the point where they would be happy to read and critique much longer almost finalised works for each other. Given that the OP is apparently working on his next book now would sound like a great time for him to join such a group or get a writing buddy.
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I just saw a really good post...hmmmm....where was it?
On...dammit. Quora. (Sorry--oddly enough, I also answered a similar--not identical--question there, yesterday, and she did, too--Mercedes Lackey, I mean, and she posted a bunch of GREAT books):
https://www.quora.com/Should-I-give-...-writing-sucks
OP--scroll down to Mercedes' post, and check out the Karen Elizabeth Gordon's books.
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_s...=2E59F5WBMYA70 (Sorry for the length of the link, but MR doesn't allow shortlinks/redirects). ALL of these are worth getting, but if grammar is an issue, I'd suggest the Transitive Vampire.
Failing that--as learning grammar is hard, from a book--I am out of suggestions. There are fellow writers everyplace. I don't know what the OP does for a living, but barter is older than sin. Okay, well...not older than sin, but it's a close second--if you think about it.
OP: Good luck.
Hitch