StoryView

We found the package a bit intimidating at first. Even after reviewing the printed and online tutorials, the terminology and methodologies still seemed foreign and, to be blunt, oppressive. The screen tips that popped up didn't seem to explain what each of the numerous buttons did. A number of sample pieces offered some insight--Romeo and Juliet, Run Lola Run, and Huckleberry Finn were most familiar to us--although the biggest hurdle remained awkward navigation in the interface. The most helpful component was thankfully the Help menu, and after a quick review of the warmly written introductory material, we felt much better prepared to delve into StoryView.

Once we started plugging in our own plot, the package really blossomed. A basic knowledge of data hierarchy helped us quickly grasp the parent-child relationships that exist between acts, scenes, and beats, and, most importantly, how these can be manipulated. Color-coding of event blocks helped us quickly visualize where we had placed conflict, action, love scenes, etc.

The StoryView package seems most suited for commercial (or presentation) forms of writing--TV, commercials, movies, and the like that are time dependent. For writers of fiction, StoryView could best be applied in mapping out the story line and developing the interrelationships of the piece as a whole.

After entering most of our screenplay into StoryView, we played with the timeline, connections, and tracks. The timeline isn't only applicable to second-by-second commercial writing or movie layout, but can also be applied to any unit of time that you wish to use. The timeline lets the writer think beyond chronology and write beats in any order, be it plugging in a twisted ending or a car chase at the end of Act 2. Connections bind two (or more) units of a story together, ensuring that when you change or move one, the other is also affected. And tracks are the most enticing feature of StoryView: for authors looking to track a specific theme, relationship, prop, location, idea, or character throughout the story, setting up a track function will show you all instances where that element appears.

And if, like many writers, you like to see your work in hard copy for proofing, editing, and further reworking, you'll appreciate the reports available for output, which allow you to customize either the outline or timeline view on paper to include watermarks, specialized notes, timeline, and anything else you've seen onscreen.

Overall, StoryView brings a sense of direction and structure to even the most creative of spirits. --Emilie Herbst