Storyview and Writer's Blocks, The Big Picture?Of all the fiction writing software I've spent good money on, these are the only two programs I feel I've wasted both time and cash with. I had really high hopes for Storyview. Produced by the same people who brought me Dramatica Pro and Movie Magic Screenwriter, my first thought was this had to be good. Maybe it is for some people, but not for me. Storyview offers a panoramic view of your story from Act One through Act Three. Pretty colors and lots of bells and whistles, but my mind just doesn't see things that way. According to the advertising, it allows you to see the big picture in a timeline view. Timelines are important, especially when working on a screenplay, but that's only part of the story. Only after upgrading to version 2 was I able to figure out how to enter data into the big picture. In version 2, they added an outline view. Now outlines I know. Using that, it was simple to key in my Acts, Chapter headings, plot points, and then look at them in the overall picture. Yet, although the outline view is superior to most other programs of its kind, I still didn't see the point. Although the program allows for imports from Dramatica (both the Pro version and the Dreamkit), Movie Magic and regular rich text files, moving and changing around the scenes and plot points is overly complicated and takes away from actual writing time. If you are a visual writer, Storyview might be just the program you need. My recommendation to anyone though, is download the demo and see if it works for you first. Writer's Blocks is now being marketed more toward screenwriters than fiction writers although when I first purchased this program, no distinction was made. It was, and still is, marketed in all of the major writing magazines for any type of writing. Writer's Blocks is supposed to be like working with computerized index cards. In my mind, index cards should be easily movable. On a computer screen, that means grab one with my mouse and put it where I want it. Not so easy with Writer's Blocks. I've still yet to figure out how to do that. Writer's Blocks shows a lot of promise and maybe with the new version it would be more what I expect from a writer's program than the version two that I have. Am I willing to pay to upgrade to find this out? In a word, no. At $149.00, I suppose I expected too much. Writer's Blocks may well indeed work for a screenwriter, someone who thinks and writes in scenes following a linear line from plot point A to plot point B. For a fiction writer, I think a good, simple index card program would work a much better. I know when I'm in the middle of brainstorming, simple is always the way to go. Both of these programs, Storyview and Writer's Blocks, have a large learning curve. Since neither teaches me a better way to write a story, I don't think either is worth the money. I'd much rather be actually writing, then learning how to move a scene that I've already written. Both programs have demo versions available. They are worth checking out. What doesn't work for me, may work very well indeed for you. |