I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, I usually rely on my own instincts when editing, but lately I’ve been curious about how my writing actually scores in terms of readability.
Out of curiosity, I tried the Readability Checker inside MyEssayWriter.ai, just to see what it said about one of my essays. It was interesting because it pointed out a few sentences that were way longer than I realised, but part of me wonders if I should really be paying attention to those scores at all. But after reading about tools like Hemingway, Grammarly, and ProWritingAid, I started to get curious. Some people say they’re super helpful for spotting long sentences or confusing phrasing, while others say they make your writing sound too generic.
Like, I get that readability is important, especially if you want your writing to feel natural and easy to follow, but sometimes I worry that overthinking it might make my style sound too simple or mechanical.
So now I’m torn, should I keep using readability checkers like the one in MyEssayWriter.ai to polish my drafts, or should I just keep trusting my gut and focus on flow and tone instead?
Has anyone else tried using readability tools? Did they actually help you improve your writing, or just make you second-guess your own edits?
reading aloud is (in my opinion) the only readability checker you need. Word actually has basic readability scores but I don't look at them. I'm not trying to write for a particular grade level when I'm writing fiction. Non-fiction? Different situation - then I pay attention to them.
"...your motivations for wanting to write are probably complex. You may have a few great passions, you may want to be rich and famous, and you may need therapy."
- Dave Farland, Million Dollar Outlines
Writers of the Future:
2026 Q1: TBD Q2: TBD Q3: TBD Q4: TBD
2025 Q1: HM Q2: SHM Q3: HM Q4: P
2024 Q1: F Q2: HM Q3:SHM Q4: SHM
2023 Q1: RWC Q2: SHM Q3: SHM Q4: R
2022 Q4: R
Submissions to other markets:
2025: 159 submitted 10 acceptances
2024: 53 submitted 8 acceptances
2023: 74 submitted 13 acceptances
2022: 22 submitted 1 acceptance
2025 goals: a. New Novel b. New piece submitted/month c. 100 rejections
I use online editing tools like Grammarly and ProWritingAid to catch things like passive voice, repetitive words, misused words, etc., but I completely ignore readability scores. I'm more interested in things like character development, world-building, dialogue, and if the story just feels FUN. Readability can't tell me any of that.
Like Gideon, my very last editing pass before submission is to listen to my story being read by someone other than me. I've downloaded some pretty decent voices into my Word program. It's amazing how many things I catch when I listen to my story from an outside perspective.
"There are three rules to writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are."
— W. Somerset Maugham
Drop me a line at https://morganbroadhead.com
SFx1
HMx6
R/RWCx6
