Binding: CD-ROM
Brand: Write Brothers
EAN: 0705868040471
Label: Write Brothers
Manufacturer: Write Brothers
Packaged Height: 228 hundredths-inches
Packaged Length: 1031 hundredths-inches
Packaged Weight: 132 hundredths-pounds
Packaged Width: 835 hundredths-inches
Platform: Windows XP
Platform: Windows 95
Platform: Windows 2000
Platform: Windows NT
Platform: Windows Me
Platform: Windows 98
Platform: Mac OS X
Publisher: Write Brothers
Release Date: 2000-06-17
Studio: Write Brothers
Product Description:
Aspiring and seasoned writers take note: gone are the days of handwritten note cards, extensive plot revisions, and hand cramps. Dramatica Pro promises to be your writing coach, your secretary, your guide, and even your therapist as you develop sharp, focused storylines together.Getting started in Dramatica Pro as a beginning user is intuitive and easy. In the StoryGuide segment, there are three levels of story forming, and we tried out the most advanced (which is estimated to take three to four days of work). Dramatica Pro comes with 32,768 potential "storyforms," all of which incorporate structural, thematic, and dynamic elements of your story. After answering about a dozen of the multiple-choice Dramatica Query System questions, we were able to decide on one storyform. For those that choose not to pursue the multiple-choice route, there is also the Story Engine, which allows for a more holistic and freeform method of sketching out your basic story. One thing you'll notice right off is the unique language of Dramatica Pro. While many terms--motivation, pursuit, antagonist--will be familiar to most writers, there are a number of terms that are used in specific relation to Dramatica Pro's capabilities. Fortunately, at each stage of the story-creation process, there are a number of help buttons (such as Explain, Theory, Usage, and Context) that provide further definition of terms and their usage. And after a few sessions, we found ourselves thinking about "signposts," "journeys," the four "throughlines," and other features that bring a story into focus. Dramatica Pro's main desktop is the portal for all story-building activity. Its 12 tiles present users with options for developing just about every aspect, from character creation and polishing, to plot-progression charts and reports on your progress and story. Because Dramatica Pro does not try to be a word processing application, every nook and cranny is filled with developmental prowess to help hone your skills while discovering your story. One aspect of the application that we appreciated was the opportunity for writer growth. After becoming familiar with the application's interface, we were able to use Dramatica Pro's Story Engine and Story Points to access our story's "master controls" without all the exposition and explanation. Also, Dramatica Pro offers a Brainstorming command that allows the program to intelligently tweak your storyform into something new should you experience writer's block. Overall, Dramatica Pro is a great resource for writers. By enabling you to focus more on your stories and less on the mechanics of storytelling, you'll feel empowered to try new things and explore your creativity. --Emilie Dirks
Customer Reviews:
13 of 16 customers found the following review helpful:
 Enjoyed the ride but totalled the car at the end., 2006-09-10
I'll be brief.
*) Answering the huge battery of questions forced me to look at my novel from different angles and made me reconsider direction in many scenes based on the POV of my reader. Now that was fantastic and rated five stars.
*) Storyweaving is a huge let-down. After many hours answering detailed questions where the user has to use the help button to decipher their Dramatic-specific terms, I was notified that:
[I'm not required to complete the exposition part of the Storyweaving and that I can go ahead and create my scenes.]
If I build my own scenes and chapters, what did I pay for?
Option two: I let the program build a scenario for me and let me tell you; this was a most bizarre use of the information that I so carefully crafted a provided.
Two stars for storyweaving + Five stars for everything leading up to storyweaving divided by two = Three stars.
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