http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11521
These are programs written by a fellow writer who wanted to boost the capabilities of Microsoft Word to be a little more writer friendly and help analyze manuscripts for various flaws. He’s got three of them so far:
Word Frequency Counter:
http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11152
This program counts all instances of each word in a document. This can be useful to determine if you are using some words too frequently. In addition, it also tracks the shortest distance (in words) between any two instances of a word. (For instance, “I said that he said” would return 3. This can help determine if you are using words in too close proximity.
Phrase Frequency Counter:
http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11380
This program is similar to the Word Frequency Counter, but it counts only those phrases you specify. If you have a tendency to use cliches or over-worked phrases, this can help identify them.
Passive Word Highlighter:
http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11330
This program goes through an entire document and changes the color of passive, boring, or cliche words and phrases. For instance, it will replace every instance of “was” with “was” (formatted in red). You control which words it checks for and the color it assigns.
I think these are some great tools, and will be running them on a few of my own stories to see what pops out at me. You can get them through the individual links, or download them all direct from his site: http://www.rogerjcarlson.com/WritingHelp/TechTips.html
I see that smile.