Writer's Dreamkit 4.0

Rating:
Summary: Need Help to Focus?
Review: This software actually motivated me to jumpstart my writing. It is designed to help you focus and build the bones of your story. But you have to have an idea of what you are going to write about. Better if you have characters. Using the Dramatica method helps in correlating the characters and plot. So far it has taken me to the point of having an outline of my story and working on my scenes. Take note, you will not write your entire story with this software. You will have to import your scene summaries into a word processing program. This software will not format your manuscript. I recommend the book "Guide to Manuscript Formats" for that. I like this software and the only thing I wasn't happy with are the images available to represent characters. Most of them look so silly that they're annoying. Overall, a good buy - just don't expect miracles. You are still responsible for your own story.

Rating:
Summary: Exactly what I was looking for
Review: This software will not write the story for you. What it WILL do, is ask you tough questions about your storyline and characters, and present you with this information in a helpful format. You can expect to learn more about your characters than previously known.

Rating:
Summary: Just sit down and write.
Review: Want to waste a lot of time when you could be writing your masterpiece? Buy this "program". Face the facts: There simply is no software that's going to write a book for you or anyone else, including me. I screwed around for several days with this thing. Then I got the final print out of "how" I should write my novel. It was impossible for me to follow the "guidelines" provided. They simply did not pertain to the way I wanted to write my story. I tried to imagine some of my favorite books having been written using the generic guidelines the program produced. It assumes that all fiction novel writing is generic and takes the form that the producer of the program dictates. I feel that each and every successful fiction writer has their own individual writing traits and point of view on how they themselves (not F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Mark Twain, John Grisham, etc, etc) should produce a work of art. JUST WRITE! Don't give up. That's my free advice and it's worth more than anything this software has to offer.

Rating:
Summary: Just sit down and write.
Review: Want to waste a lot of time when you could be writing your masterpiece? Buy this "program". Face the facts: There simply is no software that's going to write a book for you or anyone else, including me. I screwed around for several days with this thing. Then I got the final print out of "how" I should write my novel. It was impossible for me to follow the "guidelines" provided. They simply did not pertain to the way I wanted to write my story. I tried to imagine some of my favorite books having been written using the generic guidelines the program produced. It assumes that all fiction novel writing is generic and takes the form that the producer of the program dictates. I feel that each and every successful fiction writer has their own individual writing traits and point of view on how they themselves (not F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Mark Twain, John Grisham, etc, etc) should produce a work of art. JUST WRITE! Don't give up. That's my free advice and it's worth more than anything this software has to offer.

Rating:
Summary: Just sit down and write.
Review: Want to waste a lot of time when you could be writing your masterpiece? Buy this "program". Face the facts: There simply is no software that's going to write a book for you or anyone else, including me. I screwed around for several days with this thing. Then I got the final print out of "how" I should write my novel. It was impossible for me to follow the "guidelines" provided. They simply did not pertain to the way I wanted to write my story. I tried to imagine some of my favorite books having been written using the generic guidelines the program produced. It assumes that all fiction novel writing is generic and takes the form that the producer of the program dictates. I feel that each and every successful fiction writer has their own individual writing traits and point of view on how they themselves (not F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Mark Twain, John Grisham, etc, etc) should produce a work of art. JUST WRITE! Don't give up. That's my free advice and it's worth more than anything this software has to offer.

Rating:
Summary: Waste of money
Review: When I first ordered the product I couldn't wait for it to come in the mail, but after receiving it I must say I am disappointed. I am a beginner and I have purchased three books on writing and was very pleased with all three of them. So with a brand new Dell computer with a matching laptop, reference books, a good dictionary, and good old microsoft word I was as ready as ready could be to begin my novel. I think I let the word template rope me into this product. I thought a template was a formatted blank form that would get me started and I found this product very confusing and mind boggling. I do not want to discourage anyone from purchasing it but if I had it to do again I would not have made the purchase, however I am thankful that I did not pay a whole lot for it and I will just have to chalk it up to a loss. I have thought about looking into purchasing another product such as this one but why get burned a second time. I think I will stick to the guide books, microsoft word, and my imagination and who knows, perhaps in the future this product may help me but for now I am rather disappointed. I could have made my own template with the books I had purchased. This product was a waste of time and money in my opinion. I didn't expect it to write my novel for me but to do like it said and hold my hand and guide me thorough with a "template".

Rating:
Summary: Ironing out the details
Review: Writer's DreamKit is not hard to use, I simply followed the instructions given at the beginning of each section and kept going. It wasn't easy. I really had to think about my story and characters and if there was a deeper meaning to my story. I had to press through areas that I thought were boring or that I really didn't want to think about and was rewarded with a much better concept and deeper characters that were much more interesting than the motley crew I started out with.

Is it worth the $$$$ I think so. I never was any good at outlining and this program not only helped me out there but helped me create something better and more interesting to outline.