Write Brothers Dramatica Pro 4 (Win/Mac) | 
| From: Write Brothers
List Price: $269.99
Buy New: $149.95
as of 11/23/2009 11:08 CST details
You Save: $120.04 (44%)
New (1) Used (1) from $129.99
Seller: screenstyle_com
Rating:  33 reviews
Sales Rank: 1127
Format: CD-ROM
Platforms: Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows 95, Windows 98, Mac OS X, Mac, Windows XP, Windows Me
Media: CD-ROM
Operating System: Macintosh
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 10.3 x 8.4 x 2.3
UPC: 705868040471
EAN: 0705868040471
ASIN: B00004TYCR
Release Date: June 17, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
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
Amazon.com Product Description
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.
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 33
 Steep learning curve, but worth it September 28, 2009
C. Dykstra (Boulder City, NV United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is an awesome piece of software, but it doesn't appear to be so when you begin.
The first time I opened it, I was aghast at how ugly it was. All of the questions seemed elementary and silly to me and I felt like it was a huge waste of time. I shut it down and walked away from it. Then, about fifteen minutes later I realized what I had done in the short span of time of fiddling around with the program. I'd added multiple characters to a novel that I'd been struggling with, added tension and drama, and found ways to get over the problems with it that had been causing my writer's block.
So I opened Dramatica Pro right back up again.
I worked on it late into the evening, filling out information on my characters and plot. It was exhausting and irritating at times, and there were a lot of things that didn't apply to my plot. Simply ignoring the aspects that didn't add anything to the novel didn't seem to hurt anything, though, and by having to think about whether or not something DID add something to the novel made me consider things in ways I hadn't before. I discovered depth and symbolism and themes I hadn't even considered, simply by having to answer question after question after question.
When I woke up in the morning, the first thing I wanted to do was get started on the scene by scene breakdown of the novel. On each scene, it reminds you of different aspects of your story and characters. Again, you don't have to follow the formula they lay out for you. If it doesn't make sense to introduce your antagonist in chapter two then simply don't do it. This is all here for guidance and inspiration, it's not something written in stone.
If you need help working out how character A meets up with character B and they both get to point C, this is the software for you. It doesn't answer the questions for you, but it gets you thinking in a way so that you can answer the questions yourself.
 Good idea but could have been excuted better. February 15, 2009
MotorMind (The Netherlands)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The thing I like most about Dramatica Pro is that it asks some very good questions about your characters, plot and settings, forcing you to think about those issues thoroughly. Of course, one could also just get the book and derive the same ideas from there, but the strength of the program is that it automatically relates those elements with each other in a fairly consistent manner. The drawback is that at some point it reaches almost ridiculous levels of detail, leaving you just to fill in the scenes. For me this doesn't work at all, since I like to change my plot around as I go, so I usually stop at a higher level. But by then I generally have a much better idea of the direction of the story than before.
The interface is fairly crummy for this day and age. I would have liked better text editors, for one, since writing long descriptions tends to be a tedious affair in those little text boxes with that tiny, unchangeable font.
So all in all I think it's a good idea if for the elaborate questionnaire alone, but only for that it is perhaps a bit overpriced.
 Disappointed but I may not be the intended audience. December 30, 2008
Tim S.
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The sad truth is that there are no great software products for creative writing. With all the great reviews this product was getting I decided to purchase it. After installing it, I realized I needed to do a bit of homework before I could use it. I tried but eventually gave up and resorted back to just using a word processor.
The user interface is terrible. It looks like something from the 80's. They need to rework the interface to bring it up to current standards.
I should say that I am not a professional writer. It's possible that someone who writes as a career could fine this to be a worthwhile product. For myself, I was just looking for a creative writing tool to help me get started.
 HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT! April 19, 2006
Computer Book Lover (Illinois, USA)
36 out of 38 found this review helpful
This product is so hyped, yet such a disappontment - hard to install, re-install and actully use.
And it would seem all the company cares about is getting your money. Support is terrible. When I wanted to move it to my new computer, the serial number wouldn't work because I had already installed it on my old computer (even though I had un-installed it on my old computer before I tried to install it on my new computer). Their answer was to buy another copy!!
Dramatica 4 reviewed at Microfilmmaker.com March 18, 2006
Jeremy T. Hanke (Lexington, KY)
8 out of 15 found this review helpful
"...This is a helpful program and a worthwhile investment for someone struggling from writer's block or who has difficulties organizing his or her ideas. If the user is willing to sift through the terminology, he or she will gain a useful tool to aid his or her writing..." -Jessica Lake, Microfilmmaker.com
Showing reviews 1-5 of 33
|
|
|
|
