Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4771 in Software
• Brand: Write Brothers
• Released on: 2000-06-17
• Platforms: Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows 95, Windows 98, Mac OS X, Mac, Windows XP, Windows Me
• Format: CD-ROM

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

An Excellent Tool for Creative Writers
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.

Digitized 3X5 Cards
I bought this product in large measure due to the reviews of other users. These customers must be university students who have been given an assignment to write a story and identify its literary components. While this can be somewhat interesting from an academic perspective, it is really not very useful for writing a story. Dramatica Pro is basically an expensive pile of 3X5 cards with a little tutoring thrown in to explain who is the antagonist, the coantagonist, the impact character, the theme, the goal the throughline, etc. Its like baking a cake while someone explains the chemical components of the butter, the sugar, the milk, etc. Nice to know, but it doesn't make the cake any better.

I would expect a software application of this price to be totally interactive. For example, it has a brainstorming feature to create new characters. Great! It should tell you how to complicate your plot by adding new characters, right? Maybe it will suggest that you change your love story between two people into a love triangle! But no. The "add a character" feature does nothing except ask you the sex of your new character and assign him/her a goofy name. (Banquo or Zues or Iccabod) It also has a feature where you can select a picture of your character from a big selection of mug shots. This would be sort of fun, except the pictures are so small and the resolution so bad that it is almost painful and not worth the effort.

There is also a "spin the plot" feature which would presumably offer plot twists that you had not considered. However, all this does is reshuffle the elements of the story (Instead of a happy ending, make it a sad ending). Well, duh.

And there is nothing about motivation, the most important part of any novel. At every level, the application should ask, "Why does So-and-So do that"? Dramatica Pro takes everything at face value.

Perhaps the level of interaction I want is beyond the current technology available. Dramatic Pro is not useless, but for $250 I certainly was expecting a lot more.

Creative writing partner
Well, that's what this is, according to the box it comes in.

What it is not:
... a guaranteed magic wand that will grant you good literature.
... simple for everyone to use.
... a solution to the creatively challenged.
... inexpensive
... a complete waste of your money.

What it is:
... A partner, a tool, that supplements the writer's existing skills.
... not impossible to learn within a reasonable period.
... one solution to the problem of poor organizational skills.
... another way to get the juices flowing.
... arguably the best in its field.
... worth the cost if you are serious about improving as a writer.

Don't be swayed by those who say this software is difficult to use, and don't be swayed by those who say it's not. I feel that, for those who are able to use most softwares intuitively, it isn't particularly difficult. Although it isn't perfect, there are very few - if any - softwares that are. It all depends upon you. And in Dramatica's case, once you get past that hurdle it very quickly becomes a breeze to use.

No, I don't feel that it supplants my creativity. But that's more likely because I don't allow it to.

As for writer's block, there are established ways of getting over that, and - for me - they do not include the use of a computer.
The main problem I have is lack of persistence of focus. And, as a cure for that, it's excellent.

What has it done for me?
It's given me a much greater focus on and control over the mechanics of ordering my thoughts. Sure, I could use index cards, but they're very unwieldy. As a replacement for them, Dramatica has been more of a boon than a relational database has ever been. All the benefits without the programming.

There are different ways of using Dramatica. I've already got a good idea about my characters and how the plot progresses before I begin. Most often, I use character building and the many different reports to complement.
The various input options, such as character building, are very helpful for noting down important elements and ensuring the continuity of them.
I rarely use the brainstorming option, but it's there if I am well and truly mired in a loop.

To sum up: horses for riders, not so much for courses.
Don't be swayed by negative or positive reviews. Use the trial version as long as you can, make sure you use it as a partner, a tool, and not the universal panacea, and you'll find out if it is right for you.

If you think it is, and decide to spend your hard earned money on it, then be prepared to work harder on your writing than you have, perhaps, before. If it only does that, I think you'll consider it money well spent.