Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr. Drib
I know! It's crazy that they would abandon it. There are a number of people who think it's indispensable.
Anyway, if you have time, read through the PDF file.
Also, there's one (or two?) sites that rate this software #1 in the writing category (CNET or something like that - I can't remember).
There's the Marshall Plan software (but I've never downloaded it or looked at it), but one of the posters from the site I quoted from above says that the program takes a cookie-cutter approach.
There is another one I'm looking at, but I'm not too impressed: This is from Mariner Software (whose software has an old-style look to it). Plus, they rarely do updates, it seems. Also, it's only for the Mac (I'm pretty sure). The name is Persona [Mariner Software], which only concerns itself with the related interactions of characters.
Really, I haven't seen ANYTHING like Power Structure.
I'll probably buy it.
If you find something similar, please let us all know.
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I did manage to finally dig up the PDF, from the installer package that they sent, once they (also) figured out that the downloader wasn't working. I wonder how many sales they lost because of that?
Someone really ought to buy the rights from them and develop the damned thing. The problem that I see is that ever since Scrivener hit the market--which was originally Mac-based-only--it's sucked all the oxygen out of the room for other apps, particularly those which really DO have all the tools that you need. As I said, Scrivener is, from my perspective, a Word-Document-Map clone with a file drawer for sub-dirs in it. Yes, the corkboarding is nice, but man,
I don't get the damn FRENZY about it. (I wonder if people would be so enthusiastic if they actually understood HOW to use Word, since it would do the same thing, in the file/nav section?)
The other irksome thing--none of the exemplars came with. So, there's nothing to look at for their purported samples. Not the end of the world--after all, I know what a story arc is or this or that--but I could see how it would be a struggle for a total noob to writing. (Of course, most total noobs wouldn't be buying this type of software, either, if you think about it, because most don't know bupkus from structure.)
From what I've seen, the ONE thing I'm a bit etsy-ketsy about is it's not clear to me that I can do chapters AND scenes...granted, that's a hair-split, as you can do "scenes," if you choose the Screenplay options. But, the manual is 143 pages, so I'm going to work through it. It does have a LOT of what YW5 has. And it focuses, as I do, on structure and characters, so it might actually work for me.
I see your other posts about Contour and Dramatica Pro. I'll check them out (although, Contour sounds a bit like Snowflake Pro-meets-story-structure, and as I have SNP, I really don't want another character-development tool. SNPro really is excellent for that.) Nor am I overwhelmed by the idea of yet-another-hand-me-down program for PC that mightn't ever be developed (Dramatica), but hey, at this point, before I get further into my damn outline, I'll try anything. I like this current line I'm working on, and don't want to lose it. (n.b. : I suspect that Contour would, as it uses Campbell, be awesome for ANY Hero's Journey plotline. Sadly, that doesn't happen to be mine this go-round, natch!)
Thanks, DD!
Hitch