Write Brothers Movie Magic Screenwriter (PC & Mac) Review

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(More customer reviews)For years, I used to use Microsoft Word to develop all of my scripts in. While it could be done, it wasn't the best nor the easiest way to do it. I had always put off buying specialized software to do something that but the problem is that I spent more time formatting and paginating my scripts than I did writing.
Finally, I decided to break down and buy scripting software. But before deciding on which one to buy I did a little research on the titles that were currently available. I wanted to make sure I got the best product for the right price. What ultimatly sold me on Movie Magic Screenwriter 2000 was that both the Writers' Guild of America and Project Greenlight both recommend this software.
One of the claims made by the software company is the ability to get up and running right out of the box. I found this to be--for the most part--true. Upon receiving my copy, I was entering my first script in about 30 minutes (including installation time). There are some things that you may need to know, but the software company was intuitive enough to add booklets that contain this information in it so that you didn't have to hunt through the manual.
There are also a nice collection of templates included with the software that allows you to write for both movie and television (like I do). The templates for the TV shows comes in many different flavors (Sci-fi, sit-coms, dramas, etc.) and are even set up in the format used by several different shows.
What I especially appreciated was the fact that Screenwriter 2000 kept track of the names of my characters. I used to have to do this on scratch pads and Post-It notes or I would have to read back in the script to find a name. In Screenwriter 2000, I can call up a list of names to find the one I'm looking for. I'm able to do the same thing with scene heading, so I can keep my scenes in a consistant format.
Since I post some of my work on Zoetrope.com for review by other writers, the fact that I can create an Adobe file (.pdf format) was also of importance to me. While I could use a translation program to turn my Word document into an Adobe file, such translators have their problem and don't always retain the format that you created. With Screenwriter 2000, my Adobe documents come out looking the same as the original file. But this feature wasn't as intuitive as I had thought it would be. I was expecting this feature to be a part of the file exporting system. Instead, it's part of the print function. (You "print" a .pdf file.)
While there are a lot of pros about the software, there were also several cons, which is why I only rated it four stars. One is that this software is set up to installed on both the Mac and the PC from the same box. Becuase of that, they designed the user manual to address both opperating systems by printing it as a flip book. (One side has the instructions for the PC--flip the book over--the other side has the instructions for the Mac.) This means that the index is in the center. If you use an index as often as I do, plan on placing a bookmark there.
Another problem is that not all of the features available to the PC user is available to the Mac user. As of this review, only one feature--the Storyboard Linking--was not available on the Mac. However, this should be of little consiquence to the average user (unless you're a professional writer in Hollywood with a Mac).
Finally, one feature that was touted to me time and again was the voice readback capability. By using a Text-to-Speech engine, you can have your script read back to you, even to the point of assigning different voices to the different characters. It took a little effort to get this feature working on my PC, and when I did it sounded like a room full of Stephen Hawkings reading my screenplay.
Still, as softwares goes, this is possibly the best product out on the market.

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Fully integrated screenplay formatter, word processor and index card system Spell Checker & ThesaurusDrag and Drop EditingExtensive Importing & ExportingScript NotesOptional Foreign Dictionaries - Danish, Dutch, French, Finnish, German, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish, Swedish, and UK EnglishReal Time FormattingProduction featuresAuto-RecognitionsTab/Enter SimplicityScript Scanning

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Outline 4D Review

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(More customer reviews)The back of the software box describes the program as "the most powerful way to outline, plan, and present your ideas....lets you brainstorm, create structure, and organize your ideas....timeline format that is vastly superior to index cards...." They had me at "index cards." Having previously organized my tasks for an art retrospective spanning several decades on (mostly) color-coded index cards, it was not an experience I wanted to repeat so an organizational structure software with the extra added bonuses of timeline and color-coding features was exactly what I thought I wanted.
Facing a similar project again and starting almost from scratch, I wanted some sort of outline structure in which I could organize my thoughts and prioritize my tasks over the two-year planning period. Having tried to do this before using Excel, Access, Word, and index cards, I wanted a more coordinated approach.
I could tell from the screenshots that screenplays were one possible application. What I didn't realize was that, this software apparently assumes that writers are the only people who need to structure and organize ideas that flow sequentially and in a timeline. Anyone involved in planning public events or complex extended projects, also needs this type of framework.
This seems to be a software written for right-brained (creative) people by left-brained (technical) people. (I'm really not sure how that combination will work out.) Being predominantly left-brained myself, I enjoyed playing with the program even after concluding I would probably not be able to bend it to my will. I attempted to use the most general of the many templates provided for jump starting a project ("4-Level Outline" and "Brainstorming".) Even these templates assume you have scenes and characters. Using "User Defined" seems most likely possibility but also an incredibly complex immersion into a program that is sufficiently complex already.
But, in the process, I've noticed the following:
*The learning curve for the program, while not difficult, is cumbersome. It doesn't resemble any program that I'm familiar with, such as those from Microsoft Office or Adobe Creative Suite.
*Using the templates as a starting point, you start with a certain structure you just have to fill and modify. Defining a structure from scratch, however, is a major production.
*There is plenty of help available and a multitude of videos demonstrating specific steps and processes but it seems to me that, until the writer masters the program, he'll have forgotten what he was going to write before he can figure out how to enter it. This seems like an inevitable part of the learning curve.

*You might want to go to you-tube and look up some of these videos to see if they go along with your needs or your way of working. I wish I had.
*Some menu items and keyboard shortcuts are familiar (such as file>save or the keyboard shortcut "control + S" and all the copy, paste, select all functions.) But the "Event", "Tools", and "Window" menus are foreign territories, and learning shortcuts like "Promote = alt+shift+left arrow" will take a lot of initial effort and memorizing.
*The program is really designed to use with keyboard shortcuts (all of which are provided along with the menu items).

*The program is, as the title implies, for outlining and creating structure, scene descriptions, purpose and innuendo, keeping track of the character's actions, etc.--but NOT for actually writing out dialog, production details, set design or setting descriptions, or directorial notes. Presumably, you do all that in another program.
*You can import text from other programs but the only fairly-common file extension for importing is RTF ( Rich Text Format, which is available from Word under the "save as" option.) You can also export, but I'm not sure to where.

*The program is endlessly editable. You start with only the most basic idea outline and eventually flesh it out in the most agonizingly precise detail. You can insert, delete, move anything you want anywhere you want to put it and the timeline is automatically updated to reflect that.
*The timeline function seems to be linked to the heading or upper parts of the hierarchy of events. This is mostly things like act and sequence (or scene or chapter) names and numbers.
*The same color coding that appears in the text section (your text) will appear in the corresponding spot on the timeline.
*The text flows vertically, the timeline flows horizontally.
*It helps to have a big monitor to show all this.
*There are templates provided for plays, screenplays, commercials, novels, etc.
*There are examples provided about how a completed screenplay or book would look to help you pattern your work accordingly. I'm assuming that, since the person studying these examples is familiar with what the finished product was (like the various Star War episodes are laid out in excruciating detail) this in-depth visual reference can be very helpful.
*In addition to the color coding in the text and the timeline, there is a small vertical bar that shows color coded graphical representation of the structure that is being constructed.
*The program assumes that you think in the same hierarchical structure that it thinks, however, there are preferences that can be set by the user to bring the program more in line with his own vision or workflow.
*It doesn't seem applicable for academic publications requiring footnotes. You have to be able to structure your writing into levels such as Chapter/Section or Act/Sequence/Scene. If you can do that, the program can accommodate whatever length or complexity you wish to throw at it.
A last note: The program is supposed to run on Windows 7. I was unable to install it and there is a problem that could not be resolved by reinstalling or checking online. I have a virtual XP mode within W7 Pro, and it installed and ran fine there.
Despite the fact that, for me, it's probably a no-go, I'm still very impressed with the program.



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Outline 4D gives you the most powerful way to outline, plan, and present your ideas! It is a remarkable outlining program that lets you brainstorm, create, structure and organize your ideas. In addition to a traditional vertical outline format, Outline 4D has a horizontal timeline format that is vastly superior to index cards, blocks, and traditional outlining systems. Outline 4D has limitless space for your big ideas. The software enhances the research and organization of your writing, helps you visualize your project and outline structure, and speeds the process of brainstorming and creation. It lets you create virtual index cards that contain unlimited text: from a few words to hundreds of pages. Structure your ideas with Outline 4D's powerful Outline View or remarkable Timeline View to get a stronger visual sense of your outline. The Tracking Feature allows you to track anything you want in your project, as well as show connections between events and characters, objects or key words, revealing the rhythms and patterns of your project in seconds. Outline 4D lets you see your outlines like never before.

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WriteWay Professional Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)What you see is what you get with WriteWay; I find it to be a fluid writing tool with an intuitive, user friendly interface at one of the lowest prices in the writer's marketplace!.
Even if you're just starting out as a newbie or doing a final transcription of your notes in preparation for publishing, you will love the creative freedom WriteWay gives its authors.
It's very, very easy to keep your chapter sequences, story line ideas and loose notes on file within the WriteWay program and there is also an auto-backup function to limit loss of your work in progress during blackouts, power failures and lightning strikes.
Try it, you'll love it!
John George
North Carolina

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Storymill Review

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(More customer reviews)StoryMill is novel-writing software for Mac OS X, specifically 10.4 or 10.5. Mariner Software says that StoryMill helps novelists outline, write, and publish novels. How? By tracking, tagging, and filtering characters, scenes, locations, research, and submissions.
There are also for counting word frequency, metering your daily writing goal, finding clichés, annotating your text, inserting photographs into annotations, bookmarking any part of the text, tracking submissions to agents or publishers, and storing research data. Smart views can search tags and prepare lists, like male characters or rural settings. Full screen allows you type on a blank screen that fills the entire computer screen, but switching fonts requires switching views and selecting Text - Font from the menu bar. You can select the color of the Full Screen and the font under preferences, and you may show or hide the ruler.
The main project window has four panels. The left column provides the source list and sublists of chapters, scenes, characters, locations, tasks, and research. The central column has a top panel that shows what is in a source clicked on the left; selection of an item on the source list shows the text of that item in the text field below the item list (much like an email list with the selected email message in the panel below). The third, right panel provides "metadata," which is basically the status information for the selection in the central panels (like 1st draft or incomplete). Scene view is required to see the date you started working on the selection, file location, storyline position shown as metadata.
Mariner calls the basis of this software a "dynamic outline," although a technical representative said that outline is just a metaphor; it definitely is not visible to the user. Furthermore, the software does not generate outlines of scenes, chapters, or storyline.
Using the software requires reading the User Guide or watching the online tutorials. I found both necessary to access the full range of functions and in order to comprehend the vocabulary and features unique to Mariner. The basics are simple, once explained. To add a new chapter or scene or research note, you "insert" a blank document into the item list in the upper central panel, name the document in the right panel (metadata column), and then type, paste, or import the text in the lower central panel or the Full Screen. To delete a document, you highlight it and select "remove."
The "scene" is the basic organizing principle, and multiple scenes make up a chapter, the idea being that the narrative flows from scene to scene within each chapter. This may work for an action story with many changing scenes, and the software allows skipping scenes and merely drafting chapters for storylines not requiring multiple scenes, but some search functions require the scene-level text. Of course, the writer might write a chapter as a "scene." Chapters and scenes can be rearranged by merely highlighting the item in the central item list and dragging it to the new location.
The software enables you to read a scene in the order it appears in your narrative or in the chronological order of a timeline, useful if your storytelling bounces around in time, albeit only the micro-time of weeks, days, hours, and minutes; stories that cover months or years are beyond the timeline capabilities. The timeline views may be useful for a novel like Six Days of the Condor, but not for a historical novel or even following a single character through years.
There is no feature to allow posting a note at the foot of a page or end of a chapter, thus preventing the author or an imaginary editor from having a voice separate from the narrator?s.
What would be a book folder in any standard word processing program is a project in StoryMill. Basically, this software forces an organization upon the writer presetting the source document types. It also eliminates the cutting and pasting to move text (whether in units called scenes or chapters), and it offers search capabilities with multiple variables. Furthermore, StoryMill can export different pieces as a single document, chapter text, names, scenes, selected chapters, text with or without annotative notes. It can export in different formats, but only as recent as Word 2007, yet also Word 97, HTML, PDF, rich text, and plain text.
At this stage in development, I recommend using a standard word processing software rather than StoryMill. It is the writer's job to write, not to modify a story to fit the limitations of a software or to write around the software. Moreover, learning this software takes time from writing, without sufficient benefits to compensate for the time lost.

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Contour 1.0 Win Review

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(More customer reviews)Having used this software for one month in organizing a short novel,I have completed most of the outline for the story line. Being familiar with the Archetypal outlines derived from Campbell's "The hero of a thousand faces", this software helped me keep on track with the Hero's sojourn. One can quickly see the road map for storylines and symbolic themes, making getting unstuck much easier.
The software has a sidebar with suggestions and a small window one can open for "Ideas"; a section for storing ideas for future use - character ideas, plot themes, symbolism, etc.
The "Ideas" can be saved on the same computer as created, but not saved in any other backup unit. Exporting this file to a flash drive or other memory storage unit for backup or for use in another computer results in loss of the "Ideas". A writer who values his ideas should not trust them to this "Ideas" window in the software.
The inablity to save ideas for future use is such a fatal flaw that I would recommend against buying this software until the manufacture corrects this oversight.

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Write Brothers Dramatica Pro 4 (Win/Mac) Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought this program 2.5 years ago and have been using it to create plots for novels, short stories, etc. Versions 2 and 3 were tedious and full of technical jargon, which kept me looking at their dictionary of terms. I snatched up version 4 immediately because of one feature. They added a toggle switch which converts all the technicality into layman's terms. So, it's easier to understand, thus easier to use.For those of you who are not familiar with Dramatica, it is a creative writing tool which helps you decide where your story is going by asking you certain questions about plot, themes, character motivation, and story dynamics.It offers you two ways to do this: the short version (50 questions), which only takes you a day, or the long version (200+ questions), which could take you up to a week. This program doesn't write your story for you; it makes you think. And, it can give you ideas which you may have never considered before. To me, it's well worth the price.

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Got a story in mind? How about an idea for a story? Either way, Dramatica Pro acts as your creative-writing partner. The software takes you to a story-development environment, where you'll solve the plot and character problems that prevent many good stories from becoming good enough to sell. Dramatica's StoryGuide assists you from the initial idea all the way through to completed narrative treatment, inspiring you and supporting you along the way.

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Write Brothers Dramatica Pro Win/Mac Review

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(More customer reviews)I have found Dramatic Pro to be an excellent tool in helping formulate and organize novel-length suspense stories. It's comprehensive and it makes you thoroughly think through the structure and flow of your story. The software does what it claims to do and it is based on successful story components. I've read other individual's reviews that were less than complimentary and I would have to say that their expectations of this software were probably beyond what the software said it could do. No writing software that I know of will lead a writer through the writing process. It's not like greeting card software that lets you pick and choose every element of the creative process and then you just print the result. But what this software does do is challenge you to not forget, and to properly develop, those key ingredients and components in any story that make the difference between one that other people like to see or read or one that gets ho-hum responses. Just learning the importance of having an Impact Character is enough to turn a mediocre story into a much better one. When you analyze successful and unsuccessful books or movies, more than half the time the difference can be traced to the development, or lack of development, of one or more Impact Characters. Dramatica Pro forces you to pay attention to through-lines, problem creation and resolution, and every element that could possibly be part of a story. But this software does require patience and the personal desire to get things properly organized. If you lack patience, then don't buy this software. If you don't like the fact that almost all successful stories have predictable elements, then you will not like this software because it will lead you down a path that you probably don't want to follow. If you have no tolerance for a jargon learning curve, then don't buy it. And if you are looking for a muse to stimulate your creative juices, then you shouldn't even be looking at any computer software - go find a pen pal. In my opinion, Dramatica Pro does what it says it can do and I really like the way it does it.

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