Rating: 
Summary: a bit skeptical at first, but...
Review: I was concerned at first because there is no word processing capability, and I was worried that it was going to be alot of extra work, but I've found it really helpful. It not only helps me order my ideas, but it clarifies them, before I've written 1000 words and not had them make sense. It also helps when it is a complicated story so that your story lines interweave gracefully, without getting lost in a maze of concepts. I am a beginner, and it is great for me, but I believe that I will be using this for a long time.
Rating:
Summary: Try the Demo first
Review: I was just looking for formatting software when I came across Dramatica Pro and decided it was worth a closer look. I found the demo for the program at write-bros.com, and due to other reviews, also tried the WritePro demo. I found that Dramatica Pro helped me to do all the things I try to remember to do when I'm putting together a story, and it makes it so much easier to reference, add and change things down the line. I'd have given this 5 stars if there was a module for character naming and dialogue working. Of course then it would be a total crutch. I emphatically did not like WritePro, I found it much more confining, more like a writing class than a tool to create and work on my own stories. From write-bros.com you can demo Dramatica Pro, Hollywood Screenwriter, Movie Magic Screenwriter, StoryView and Writer's DreamKit. WritePro you can demo from writepro.com, but they have no demo for FictionMaster which looks like a good program.
If you are more the old fashioned type and don't want or need help creating and writing your stories you can try WriteItNow (writeitnow.com) It has a demo too. The CD costs about $44 and its bound to be slow, it comes over from the UK. I wish that was available from Amazon.com or Amazon.com.UK but it's not.
Rating: 
Summary: Overpriced, Character Creation Clunky, Obscure Terminology
Review: I've been a user of Dramatica since earlier versions. And while I find Dramatica has some good points, I find that there are some parts of this application that are just clunky. Number 1. The character creation screens and data is just terrible. For an application of this price I would expect a little more thorough approach. I would rally like an opportunity to compile a character's background, history and personal info within the application. I'd also like to be able to flag some of these traits so that they can be added to the story or become part of subplots used in the story. For instance if a character is insecure, I'd like to add that as an emotional goal to overcome during the length of the story. I'd also like to export characters easily for use in subsequent stories. This is not easily done. In my opinion, the entire Character generation screen is useless. (I won't even go there about the UGLY selection of character portraits). Come on, for this price get some nice looking professional icons rather than those ugly clip-art ones, OR make it easier to ad your own portraits.. Have you tried importing a portrait? Its not easy let me tell you! When trying to chose an icon to represent my protagonist I had a choice between X-Men and small cheap looking pictures of ugly cartoons. Come on now.
On to the software, I like the storyforming tools. But really the terminology at points is obscure. When it says my main character's "thematic opposite to the area of John's greatest sensitivity concerns willingness to reevaluate" it would be nice if I didn't have to refer to the manual to figure out what that means. I'm not a dummy, but I would like to be able to use the software without having to refer to the HELP.
Overall, I LIKE Dramatica Pro. But its by no means an easy App to work with. Some parts seem to be deliberately obscure, and its thin on character creation and rather heavy on your wallet.
Rating: 
Summary: Does what it promises
Review: I've been disappointed more than once by software that promises to make life easy in some way or another. I've bought software that promised to help me write a business plan, one application that was supposed to help me design a house, and one package that would teach me Italian. In each case those applications did about ΒΌ of what they promised. Dramatic, though, delivers. For me, coming up with a story idea is easy. I can write dialogue without breaking a sweat. My weakness is getting bored with all the details required to construct a long-form story. Dramatica makes it fun. It doesn't make it easy. It might even make the process of story development a little harder, but if you use it, you'll have a better-developed story with deeper more interesting characters.
Rating:
Summary: Writing in a Box
Review: If you care the type of writer who likes everything spelled out before you start the creative process, this software may work for you. Of particular interest is the character developing section where you can even assign photos to your characters. Writing by the numbers or freestyle, this feature will assist you in your endeavors.For those of you who write as I do--by the seat of your pants--letting your characters decide where the story goes, not knowing for sure how it will end until you get there, Dramatica will prove frustrating, restrictive, and a waste of money.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: If you expect to answer questions as to pigment type, oil drying time, the size of the canvas, and subject matter--don't expect a Rembrandt--or a novel either. You may find yourself disappointed as I was...
You see, I fully expected Dramatica Pro v.4 to be expert software. By definition, expert software gives some answers, much like a calculator. For example, if I enter 2+3 I should get an answer of 5. This software merely, merely, prints that I entered two values of "2" and "3" and that I must find the answer myself...Duh!
Where will it switch fore-story and back-story orders for effect? Where are does it alert me to character issues? Does it even insert all of your characters? Where can I change characters (in the same role) during the course of an epic? Does it boldly suggest a storyweaving? Does it calculate chapters, analyze development, critique or figure anything at all to help me write?No. I don't need expensive computer software to ask me how many chapters I wish for my novel and then just make me write them in. I can do that with pencil and paper.
Rating:
Summary: What a wonderfull piece of software !
Review: It is so wonderfull because it doesn't write a script for you. Dramatica collects your ideas and while it does that you get thousands of new ideas. There's nothing more because there shouldn't be. It helped me to think and to give my last screenplay's characters much more depth than I ever expected and the fascinating thing is that you do all that by yourself. Even if you are a very experienced script writer it can never hurt to run your final draft through Dramatica.
Rating: 
Summary: Get Real
Review: It seems that Charles Smythe writes a lot of reviews (unfortunately creating a false average). It also appears that most of the reviewers use the exact same prose as Mr Smythe. If the product cannot stand on its own, it can't, do not force the rating by writing multiple reviews.
Rating:
Summary: the payoff is worth the trouble.
Review: Let me preface this review by saying "Good Lord!". When I first sat down with this program I was eager to answer the questions about my story. By the time I was about halfway done (there's about 250 questions), I was contemplating suicide. I stopped using the program for a few weeks. Then a strange thing happened. I started revisiting my existing stories with what can only be decribed as new eyes. Dramatica had changed my way of thinking. I had never concerned myself with themes, characters contradicting themselves with their behavior and actions. This awakening was the best thing Dramatica could have provided and I excitedly jumped back in the program. The questions made sense, my story was tightening up and characters were no longer misbehaving. I have to still say the process can be tedious, but the results more than make up for it. I'm going to run all my exisiting and future screenplays through the Dramatica program.
Rating:
Summary: Gets me where me needs to be.
Review: Noticing that quite a few contemporary made-for-TV movies have a distinctive and polished intricacy, suggested this was probably to do with Dramatica, that I had noticed a friend using for a novel-cum-screenplay. So I read the comprehensive manual from her installation, and concluded that this was a good way for me to go, too. Progress was slow to begin with, mostly because one needs to be patient and go through it all, ( a few times) in good order, to avoid getting mightily confused, since a great deal of the explanation is often another way to convey what is already known - sort of - from many other sources. So it needs to be taken all as a piece to make satisfactory progress. Which makes sense, because the Dramatica application is a self-contained system, with its own terminology, which responds to your accurate and considered input to a set of inter-related questions about the characters, plot, motivations, outcomes, etc. The accuracy of your answers is an important to the result, so clear thinking has to be applied. I'm far from hero status with Dramatica, but have found its use to be extremely helpful because it makes me THINK about what I am writing about. It doesn't write the piece for me, or box me in, in any way, as others have suggested it does. In conclusion, I am very satisfied with Dramatica and how it has improved my writing. It's also good to be able to discuss and share files with other users ( internationally), who are all pretty much on the same wavelength, which avoids/minimises having to navigate different terminologies and approaches.
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