StoryView

Rating:
Summary: Storyview for Screenplay Systems
Review: ...I decided to buy it at Amazon because of the great bargain. But the main bargain is how the software helps the writer develop a great plot from brainstorming ideas. So often, we get a mental block but the software helps you overcome the pitfalls of writing and it lets you enjoy your passion. Without good software, writing would be a chore. Do not be mislead by the name of the company that produces the software because the software is a major asset of novel writers.

Rating:
Summary: Frustrating
Review: Having been bitten with the writing bug I set out to become the next great American novelist. I decided I did not want to use 3X5 cards to outline the plot of my novel and given the fact I am often less than well organized I turned to software designers to assist me in writing. After reviewing a dozen or so writing programs I downloaded the "Storyview" Demo as it seemed well reviewed and offered brainstorming features and online help/tutorials.

My initial experience with the program was less than encouraging. I found the interface to be confining and more often than not confusing. The program's tool bars are stuffed with dozens of ill identified buttons. Believing I just was not prepared to tackle the project I took to reading all the features of "Storyview" after working through the online tutorial and reading the entire help index I tried the process again with similar results. Writing with "Storyview" is a frustrating process.

The examples provided were less than helpful. "Storyview" boasts being able to display ones entire story timeline, which is true but when you achieve any sort of detail the story elements become eye straining and text is presented in all different directions, inverted, If one wanted to insert a small scene somewhere two thirds of the way through the plot you would have to hunt for the place to put it scene by scene. I fail to see how this is an improvement over 3X5 cards. The problem being that the timeline is not an outline at all it is just a list of the narrative of the events in the story.

The largest insult is the fact that the brainstorming template is a largely a blank page with three areas for story points, character summaries and story events. Wow that was helpful.

In the end how did I plot out my story? With 3X5 cards.

Rating:
Summary: Frustrating
Review: Having been bitten with the writing bug I set out to become the next great American novelist. I decided I did not want to use 3X5 cards to outline the plot of my novel and given the fact I am often less than well organized I turned to software designers to assist me in writing. After reviewing a dozen or so writing programs I downloaded the "Storyview" Demo as it seemed well reviewed and offered brainstorming features and online help/tutorials.

My initial experience with the program was less than encouraging. I found the interface to be confining and more often than not confusing. The program's tool bars are stuffed with dozens of ill identified buttons. Believing I just was not prepared to tackle the project I took to reading all the features of "Storyview" after working through the online tutorial and reading the entire help index I tried the process again with similar results. Writing with "Storyview" is a frustrating process.

The examples provided were less than helpful. "Storyview" boasts being able to display ones entire story timeline, which is true but when you achieve any sort of detail the story elements become eye straining and text is presented in all different directions, inverted, If one wanted to insert a small scene somewhere two thirds of the way through the plot you would have to hunt for the place to put it scene by scene. I fail to see how this is an improvement over 3X5 cards. The problem being that the timeline is not an outline at all it is just a list of the narrative of the events in the story.

The largest insult is the fact that the brainstorming template is a largely a blank page with three areas for story points, character summaries and story events. Wow that was helpful.

In the end how did I plot out my story? With 3X5 cards.

Rating:
Summary: Essential
Review: I downloaded the demo from Screenplay Systems website & played around with it pretty intensively for several hours. The demo version has no expiration, but allows you to input no more than 20 story events (e.g., chapters, subchapters, etc.). However, it comes with a whole bunch of sample files, including complete outlines/timelines of Godfather II, Pulp Fiction, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Star Wars movies, Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet, & others. So I checked some of those out to see how the program worked, & also played around with outlinining the first three or so chapters of my novel-in-progress.

My main question about Storyview was whether it'll really help me _work_, or would be primarily a toy. I determined that, for my own purposes, it would mostly be a toy. That might be because of my style of working. Outlining has never helped my writing much -- too much of the story always depends on the actual writing & the discoveries made there. And writing an outline is never the same as the actual _writing_....

I looked at the LOTR outline/timeline, & I thought, well, JRR Tolkien wrote a completely comprehensible & imaginative trilogy _without_ this software, so who did this outline? Answer: the authors of the software, long after LOTR had been written. Tolkien might have used different sorts of charting to help him figure out the story, but they were probably pretty much like mine are -- uniquely suited to the work at hand... whereas a program like StoryView is "one size fits all" -- which means, inevitably, it doesn't fit a lot of folks. It doesn't fit me.

The ability to track themes/characters/etc. throughout a Storyview timeline seems helpful, but I seem to be mostly able to keep that stuff in my head. The timeline feature doesn't create a timeline like _I_ need a timeline (chronology of significant events for different characters regardless of whether every event actually shows up in the story) -- it creates a sort of narrative timeline directly from the story as you've outlined it -- in effect, it's the same outline in a different format. It _is_ very helpful for seeing your story all at once, or to see relationships between events -- but not sufficiently helpful to lead me to lay out [money]for it. (...)

In short, I think Storyview might be useful for writers who need a good outlining tool to help them organize their story & to track details like "where did that character first show up?" and "how does that theme develop throughout my story?" It may also be useful for solving certain "what-if" problems -- "what if I stick that passage _here_ instead of _there_?" -- because you can move story events around pretty easily. But for most of the knotty problems I face structuring a story, it's not my solution. For my timeline issues I'll stick with using a spreadsheet, & for other stuff there's always pen & paper. YMVV.

Rating:
Summary: Useful for some purposes, not for mine
Review: I downloaded the demo from Screenplay Systems website & played around with it pretty intensively for several hours. The demo version has no expiration, but allows you to input no more than 20 story events (e.g., chapters, subchapters, etc.). However, it comes with a whole bunch of sample files, including complete outlines/timelines of Godfather II, Pulp Fiction, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Star Wars movies, Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet, & others. So I checked some of those out to see how the program worked, & also played around with outlinining the first three or so chapters of my novel-in-progress.

My main question about Storyview was whether it'll really help me _work_, or would be primarily a toy. I determined that, for my own purposes, it would mostly be a toy. That might be because of my style of working. Outlining has never helped my writing much -- too much of the story always depends on the actual writing & the discoveries made there. And writing an outline is never the same as the actual _writing_....

I looked at the LOTR outline/timeline, & I thought, well, JRR Tolkien wrote a completely comprehensible & imaginative trilogy _without_ this software, so who did this outline? Answer: the authors of the software, long after LOTR had been written. Tolkien might have used different sorts of charting to help him figure out the story, but they were probably pretty much like mine are -- uniquely suited to the work at hand... whereas a program like StoryView is "one size fits all" -- which means, inevitably, it doesn't fit a lot of folks. It doesn't fit me.

The ability to track themes/characters/etc. throughout a Storyview timeline seems helpful, but I seem to be mostly able to keep that stuff in my head. The timeline feature doesn't create a timeline like _I_ need a timeline (chronology of significant events for different characters regardless of whether every event actually shows up in the story) -- it creates a sort of narrative timeline directly from the story as you've outlined it -- in effect, it's the same outline in a different format. It _is_ very helpful for seeing your story all at once, or to see relationships between events -- but not sufficiently helpful to lead me to lay out [money]for it. (...)

In short, I think Storyview might be useful for writers who need a good outlining tool to help them organize their story & to track details like "where did that character first show up?" and "how does that theme develop throughout my story?" It may also be useful for solving certain "what-if" problems -- "what if I stick that passage _here_ instead of _there_?" -- because you can move story events around pretty easily. But for most of the knotty problems I face structuring a story, it's not my solution. For my timeline issues I'll stick with using a spreadsheet, & for other stuff there's always pen & paper. YMVV.

Rating:
Summary: Great Program
Review: I use it all of the time for any type of outlining

Rating:
Summary: Essential
Review: I will spare you another discription of the features, they are numerous and easy enough to find. Instead, and given that there is some resistance, more on the part of novelists than film folk, to using software tools, I'll focus this on how my writing style meshed with the program and perhaps that will help you in your evaluation of whether the program will work with yours.

For starters, I dispise index cards and all the standard approaches to organizing. Found them too limiting, and not in synch with the way I think. I'm more comfortable having all of my book related materials on my computer than I am having the manuscript on the hardrive and everything else tacked to the wall or whatever. Because that stuff never worked for me I tried not to use it. The result was a poorly organized folder of Word docs and several bastardized Lotus applications that never really got the job done.

Storyview gets the job done. It presents in a way I'm comfortable with and the features are incredible. I've gone from not being able to keep up with stuff I needed to know, to exploring and structuring in greater depth b/c the tool box is so full that I can't pass it up.

I use Storyview in combination with the companion software Dramatica and a competitor's product named Power Structure. Might be a tad overkill, and certainly isn't because of any shortcoming with Storyview. If you're on the fence; comfortable with software tools for your creative projects, but hesitant to invest in something that might demand your writing become a slave to its programing. Or if you are weary of buying some poor improvement on the jokes that were first generation writing programs, Storyview is an excellant test-the-waters intro to a new realm of tools.

Rating:
Summary: Storyview Software by Screenplay Systems
Review: Recently, I bought the April issue of Writer's Digest. On the back, there was an ad for this software...the main bargain is how the software helps the writer develop a great plot from brainstorming ideas. So often, we get a mental block but the software helps you overcome the pitfalls of writing and it lets you enjoy your passion. Without good software, writing would be a chore. Do not be mislead by the name of the company that produces the software because the software is a major asset of novel writers.

Rating:
Summary: An amazing outlining tool.
Review: StoryView is an amazing outlining tool. I looked and read reviews of a lot of other software programs before deciding on this one. First off, let me say, it does look rather scary at first. But all you need to do is look at the examples they give you such as Pulp Fiction or Star Wars. It didn't take me long before I started outlining my first story with it. I am very lazy writer and I never get anything done with note cards. With StoryView I am always thinking about my story and writing. Its amazing. It has a brainstorming layout, outline layout, 4 act part, etc. There is a nice "track" feature that allows you to make connections between different characters and scenes and so forth. You can color coordinate different scenes to help you when you are done. Plus you can print out the whole time-line for pre-production use (if you are so lucky). So to sum up the program, it is simply the best software out there.

Rating:
Summary: very very useful writing software
Review: This software is very helpful in collecting one's thoughts in the writing process. I am not a linear thinker or writer, so it has been quite useful to have software that can capture my work the way I 'do' it, and then so easily eases it into proper storytelling order. It is fairly easy to learn, at least enough to get well underway, with the rest simple enoug to grow into as you get more experienced with the program. It is currently holding onto various stages of four works-in-progress for me -- THANK GOODNESS! :-)