Plottr

Pros: Plottr doesn't force me to become a rigidly-structured author overnight. Good thing, because I've been writing for most of my 72 years. It lets me use the available tools as I want or need. Which means, when I needed somewhere to gather my characters together, Plottr saved the day, with basic templates that I could adapt as I needed. (I started out with the bare bones and now my character pages are becoming mini-bios.) It allows me to tie each character to every book they are in, as well.Then, there's the story arc, which I am not yet using but looks promising for future writings. Examples they've shared - like HAMLET and GOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE BEARS - show you how versatile the software is.

Cons: The software is so thorough it scared me at first. That's the biggest negative I've got. I can't say anything about how it exports to Scrivener (which I don't use, but which Plottr WILL export to), or to MS Word (I use LibreOffice in MS-Word mode), but everything I have used tells me that those features are as robust as everything else.

Overall: I was hesitant to purchase Plottr, because I felt I had all my characters and scenes under control. Then, my characters started developing, my scenes changed, and I needed... something. I watched a Plottr demo, and decided to try the product. Within a day, I was hooked. I may still be "mostly a Pantser" but I'm a "Plottr Pantser" for sure.

Pros: A great way to help plan your novel and keep track of all the threads and sub-plots that run through it. I use Plottr all the time to draft outlines and make sure my manuscript is flowing.

Cons: There's a couple of features I'd love to see to make the app even easier to use but nothing major. I've added them to the Plottr 'wishlist' and I'm sure they'll be included in a future update.

Overall: Great product - super helpful to my writing process and keeping me organised. Would recommend to plotters (and pantsers) everywhere!

Pros: Some of my favorite aspect of Plottr is the amount of features it has; specifically my favorite of them all is the timeline since I'm a very visual person.

Cons: Personally, I think some of the features aren't very intuitive and so I had to look at the tutorial videos to get ideas on how to use them. I think nowadays having more intuitive features really helps apps become more usable and user-friendly. For writers, this is important because we don't want to waste much time learning how to use the features, we just want to write more!

Overall: Overall, I have loved it, and I highly recommend getting the lifetime desktop versions! It has helped me greatly organize my ideas and even see the flaws in my previous planning.

Pros: I am addicted to trying and using all kinds of software related to writing. I have used Plottr and I find it useful and very easy to learn. They also add to it frequently. I mainly use it now as a reference rather than consulting it frequently. I am revising and the layout on Plottr is great for referring me back to make sure I'm hitting the plot points in the various paradigms. My advice: definitely worth using if you enjoy software and very user friendly.

Cons: I have no complaints about the software. It's not complex or sophisticated, but it doesn't need to be.

Overall: Easy to use with lots of available genre outlines. Updated at decent intervals. Responsive to user questions.

Pros: This is a tool that comes with a great feature set of templates, ideas, and tools but is also extremely flexible to organize and use it in any way you like. We all write, organize, and think differently, and Plottr is very flexible for all types of brains! The videos and learning tools are really great, too. So easy to learn, or just play with it until you get it.

Cons: I can't think of anything I don't like. Perhaps it doesn't have enough specific science fiction structures and templates, but I easily made my own.

Overall: Overall Plottr is great for pre-writing, re-writing, and even post-writing structural evaluation. A lot of authors (like me) use it to plot their stories after the first draft, which really helps define and organize the structure when doing rewrites. My friend uses it because she needs a complete structure before she writes. (I don't work that way.) So it's flexible and useful for all types of writers.

Pros: For my stories, I need a fairly detailed plot to allow me to write effectively, and I need a good series bible of characters and places to keep everything consistent.

Cons: For novels with a lot of plot points, I wish I either had a larger monitor or more density so I could see the whole story arc without scrolling across or vertically.

Overall: Plottr is a key tool in my writing life. Pre-Plottr I used free-form notes, which were nowhere near as effective.

Pros: Plottr helps me organize all my chaotic thoughts. It has every feature I could ever possibly need, and it is completely intuitive with a beautiful design.

Cons: I wish the Attributes feature was a little more simplified in terms of usage.

Overall: I would highly recommend this app to all the writers I know! It is versatile, exceedingly helpful, and gives me so much joy to use.

Pros: Accessible, easy to understand, simple design, makes plotting fun! there's a lot you can do to help yourself make solid plot lines, just really wish there was a way to make the timelines converge into one.

Cons: Wiped out an entire doc of mine, no recovery. I was disappointed but didn't know where to go to ask for help, or even if i could receive help. That's the only issue I've had in the year I've been using it.

Overall: Good but just be wary. Seems to still be in working phases. For what I lost, not worth cost but there are so many features I haven't taken advantage of that would probably help that cost feel more worth it.

Pros: I've been using Plottr for several years now and find it indispensable in my plotting process. As a very visual person, this system has allowed me to go from a mass of index cards and a bulletin board to a very organized process right on my computer, AND then I can print out my synopsis which is huge.

Cons: The only thing missing for me is a place to add word count for each chapter and a total. For now I still do that on an excel sheet, but it would be nice to have that with my Plottr synopsis.

Overall: My experience has been very positive, making my whole plotting system easier! It is my starting point for each new book that I write, and a place to go back and keep track of details.

Pros: It is a comprehensive plotting tool that enables me to concentrate on the dozens of interlocking elements that go into developing stories ranging from simple one page flash fiction to expansive series covering a dozen books or more. It has enabled me to quickly pen out request by my clients and see where their vision for my ghost writing projects needs assistance in order to result in a marketable final product.

Cons: The developers were correct about needing to dive into the tool in order to understand its power. I wish it was a bit simpler, but considering the feature set and how so many of the commonly used features become muscle memory after a bit I could understand the logic behind is approach in developing user familiarity with the tool.

Overall: I was a bit overwhelmed at first by eventually was able to incorporate Plottr into my daily routine both for personal writing and when working as a ghost writer. I strongly advise people to take advantage of the free trial and figure out how they can best use the plotting tool to improve their story creating process.

Pros: I love how easy Plottr makes it to organize your timeline, outline, character info, etc.--and how easy it is to export it to Word, Scrivener, etc.

The templates are also incredibly useful!!

Cons: Honestly I have yet to encounter one; I love everything about the software.

Overall: Plottr made it super easy for me to outline a SIX PERSON POV novel. Because of Plottr I was also able to write my synopsis before I even began drafting, which I've never been able to do before. It just makes the whole process so much easier.

I've now outlined multiple other projects in Plottr since, and they've all gone super smoothly.

Pros: The interface is easy to use.
Constantly having free updates which improve the experience.
I love the templates that are constantly added.
It helps me organize my ideas.
Super easy for character organization.
Easy for world building.
The list goes on, I'm a screenwriter and structure with organization is crucial when writing a movie.
An amazing price.

Cons: I cant think of any, I would like them to add the Japanese Manga story structure template known as Kishotenketsu. But that's really more of a request than a con.

Overall: For the price, features, and the amount of help this brings to any writers career. This app is an easy 10/10 in my book, love this app and will continue to use it for the rest of my career.

Pros: This is a great story plotting tool. I start by writing character descriptions, and there is a function for writing and tagging them.

Next, it's easy to create the elements of your story and organize them the way you want. Plottr uses digital index cards, which can be moved and linked as needed. There are lots of ways to organize these elements: main plot and subplots; by character; or however you want to conceptualize the threads of your story.

Then you can look at these cards in outline form, adding the characters, places and tags that are involved.

There are a number of templates available to jumpstart your project using a framework you can customize as you like.

Cons: I'm using a structure defined in the book "Save the Cat!" and there is no template for that built into Plottr. I had to create it from scratch. I might submit a template based on this method as a template for others, if that's possible.

I haven't found a print function. You can export your data to Word and other word processing programs, but the formatting is not very good. It will take some clean up if I need printouts to share with others. I'm not sure that is necessary for me, though.

Overall: So far, Plottr has really helped me to juggle the scenes and developments as I have worked through the plotting of my novel. It has helped me take a few rough ideas and create a story arc in less time than usual.

Pros: I love how I have the flexibility to visually create as I develop my book. I had been doing some of these steps manually then I found Plottr and it's great! They also have informative videos and documentation to help in using it to the fullest. BTW it's very easy to use. The added niceties are the webinars and interviews with established successful authors. I really appreciate how open they are and freely share how they use Plottr in their creative process.

The support team is very timely if you need any questions answered or help with a feature. They are friendly and knowledgable which is rare with some companies now a days.

I highly recommend Plottr!

Cons: Nothing - I used to be a software engineer and I appreciate the thought that has gone into creating a solid product.

Overall: I have written another book that was focused on more of an educational product. Recently I have stepped into the world of fiction and writing my first techno-spy-fiction novel. I came across Plottr from a recommendation of another author. I think they way Plottr works so it was a perfect fit from the beginning. I love how I can lay it out and see the beginning from the end and all the parts in between. As I create and develop my story line, being able to visually see the big rocks is a huge blessing!

Pros: The timeline feature is essential for me. I use the Series timeline to track dates of events and such and the individual book timelines to map out chapters/scenes/subscenes. I'm also a dork about color... I just can't use something if I hate the color (too distracting!) -- and Plottr lets me change colors of things, which both helps me not go crazy with colors I hate, but also helps me categorize cards and such.

Cons: Occasionally, I run into a weird bug -- but the support for Plottr has been super responsive and have always fixed what I needed fixes quickly.

Overall: This is seriously essential for my writing. I use it to keep track of my plot, characters, and locations in my fiction series. If you're looking for a tool to keep track of everything from character eye colors to what actually happens in Chapter 16 -- stop looking -- this is the software you're looking for.

Pros: It is so visual, and easy to move things around. I'm also impressed by the speed at which they are adding features, and outstanding customer service.

Cons: Sometimes I've got confused about which version of a manuscript I'm working on. This may be my fault -- perhaps there's a better way to play with multiple options than I've figured out.

Overall: If you have trouble plotting in straight lines, and don't have walls you can cover in moveable post-it notes (and/or you want to be able to take them with you).

Pros: The ability to plan out story threads to the last detail.
Separate bars for things like characters and locations.
Creating different lines for different story arcs.

Cons: There is a learning curve to working out how to make things work
Was extremely buggy for the first year, but most of those bugs have been fixed.

Overall: Since I tend to plan out my stories to its finest detail, including word counts, dates, time, and characters involved, having a tool to put that all together efficiently made things a lot easier.

Pros: -The easiness to move the cards to different places in the same timeline but also to other timelines.
-The possibility of zooming in and out of the story's plotline in order to see the whole thing in a glance or have a detailed video of the content in that plot point.
- The availability of plot structures to get inspiration from.

Cons: If I could have been able to draft my novel in Plottr, I would have done so.

Overall: I had already filled two notebooks with ideas but I didn't know how to start to write my story until I heard about Plottr and installed it. Being able organise the plot points in different timelines fueled my creativity and I finally got started.

Pros: I love that I can create characters and there are existing templates to add elements I hadn't even thought of, same with the plot templates and how I can easily add my own elements. I love how I can pull it into Scrivener and have a read-to-go template to write to.

Cons: Every time I come up with something I would like improved, a new version comes out and they've addressed it so I can't think of any cons at this point in time.

Overall: This has definitely helped me stay on track and keep details right, especially when writing in a series. Now my characters should have the same eye colour in book 3 as they did in book 1. Or even chapter 15 as when it was mentioned in chapter 3.

Pros: I'm able to get a view of my entire memoir in one place, and I'm using it to help develop story arcs, timelines, and themes.
Great people behind this product, very genuine and helpful.

Cons: Different windows meant I lost my work on one occasion by closing the main window when I shouldn't have.

Overall: Instantly loved feeling a part of the Plottr family, I feel supported in my writing by both the product and the team. I'm excited to see my project take form after years of not knowing how to grapple with my ideas.