Customer Reviews

Storymill [Old Version]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

StoryMill is novel-writing software for Mac OS X, specifically 10.4 or 10.5. Mariner Software says that StoryMill helps novelists outline, write, and publish novels. How? By tracking, tagging, and filtering characters, scenes, locations, research, and submissions.

There are also for counting word frequency, metering your daily writing goal, finding clichés, annotating your text, inserting photographs into annotations, bookmarking any part of the text, tracking submissions to agents or publishers, and storing research data. Smart views can search tags and prepare lists, like male characters or rural settings. Full screen allows you type on a blank screen that fills the entire computer screen, but switching fonts requires switching views and selecting Text - Font from the menu bar. You can select the color of the Full Screen and the font under preferences, and you may show or hide the ruler.

The main project window has four panels. The left column provides the source list and sublists of chapters, scenes, characters, locations, tasks, and research. The central column has a top panel that shows what is in a source clicked on the left; selection of an item on the source list shows the text of that item in the text field below the item list (much like an email list with the selected email message in the panel below). The third, right panel provides "metadata," which is basically the status information for the selection in the central panels (like 1st draft or incomplete). Scene view is required to see the date you started working on the selection, file location, storyline position shown as metadata.

Mariner calls the basis of this software a "dynamic outline," although a technical representative said that outline is just a metaphor; it definitely is not visible to the user. Furthermore, the software does not generate outlines of scenes, chapters, or storyline.

Using the software requires reading the User Guide or watching the online tutorials. I found both necessary to access the full range of functions and in order to comprehend the vocabulary and features unique to Mariner. The basics are simple, once explained. To add a new chapter or scene or research note, you "insert" a blank document into the item list in the upper central panel, name the document in the right panel (metadata column), and then type, paste, or import the text in the lower central panel or the Full Screen. To delete a document, you highlight it and select "remove."

The "scene" is the basic organizing principle, and multiple scenes make up a chapter, the idea being that the narrative flows from scene to scene within each chapter. This may work for an action story with many changing scenes, and the software allows skipping scenes and merely drafting chapters for storylines not requiring multiple scenes, but some search functions require the scene-level text. Of course, the writer might write a chapter as a "scene." Chapters and scenes can be rearranged by merely highlighting the item in the central item list and dragging it to the new location.

The software enables you to read a scene in the order it appears in your narrative or in the chronological order of a timeline, useful if your storytelling bounces around in time, albeit only the micro-time of weeks, days, hours, and minutes; stories that cover months or years are beyond the timeline capabilities. The timeline views may be useful for a novel like Six Days of the Condor, but not for a historical novel or even following a single character through years.

There is no feature to allow posting a note at the foot of a page or end of a chapter, thus preventing the author or an imaginary editor from having a voice separate from the narrator?s.

What would be a book folder in any standard word processing program is a project in StoryMill. Basically, this software forces an organization upon the writer presetting the source document types. It also eliminates the cutting and pasting to move text (whether in units called scenes or chapters), and it offers search capabilities with multiple variables. Furthermore, StoryMill can export different pieces as a single document, chapter text, names, scenes, selected chapters, text with or without annotative notes. It can export in different formats, but only as recent as Word 2007, yet also Word 97, HTML, PDF, rich text, and plain text.

At this stage in development, I recommend using a standard word processing software rather than StoryMill. It is the writer's job to write, not to modify a story to fit the limitations of a software or to write around the software. Moreover, learning this software takes time from writing, without sufficient benefits to compensate for the time lost.

Finally, a product that helps keep all the chapters organized and together instead of going from document to document. StoryMill helped me get more motivated to write because I could see the book unfolding. And I am using this to write a non-fiction book. You can use it for either! A must have for the MAC writer!!

I wrote my 50,000 word NaNoWriMo novel using this software. It is great for keeping track of the myriad parts of a long work, and does convenient word count. It also includes a template for one of the more popular novel plans. I highly recommend this, although most of my writing friends just sort of shrug and say that why should they buy anything else when they have Word. For novel writing, this is just much better than Word. It is so worth the very reasonable $49 price tag. You can always export your work into Word. Only problem: need to spend time figuring out the formatting interface between the two. I lost some of my paragraph indenting, but I think there is probably a way to work this out in StoryMill.

I write a lot of science fiction and this product really helped my organize and export all of my ideas. A must buy for any fiction writer, and even non-fiction. It has very useful tools like the distraction free mode and timeline. But a word of caution, this will take some time to get use to.

Installed this and THEN discovered that this is NOT the software itself being sold for $49.99 at Apple Stores, but a DEMO CD. You have to go online and register, and then pay $49.99 for EACH of the components (and there are four or five of them inside), if you want to use this more than 30 times. And if you are writing a novel, you most certainly will want to use it more than 30 times or you lose everything since you cannot copy or edit it after that, or even print it. And THEY DO NOT TELL YOU THIS ON THE BOX. What a total rip off. Just use the Microsoft Word and organize it yourself. I bought it thinking, "This will be fun and will encourage me to do what I know I need to do" but when you open it up and cannot enter the serial number because you cannot buy it without spending $49.99 for each of the four/five components inside, you feel like a damned fool for buying it in the first place. There ought to be a law that tells you on the outsie that you are buying A DEMO CD and not the real deal in the Mac store. Sheeesh. BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD!

I am incredibly disappointed and I have been completely ripped off. It's as simple as this. They allow one activation so if your computer stops working or needs a re-boot or if you want to use this with your laptop and desktop forget it. they also can't be bothered with customer support. They closed down their customer support so you can't even get another activation code. This is not a company that cares aout its customers.

I purchased this as a Sweet 16 gift for a niece who is hard to buy for because her parents have been fortunate to provide so much for her, plus her favorite "brands" are pricey for my budget. I know she plans to begin writing novels after she has hit her mid-20s in her professional sports career. I Googled around, came across this, and thought it would make a truly special Sweet 16 gift. She was THRILLED! She has tried it and said it's a really great tool for getting and staying organized through the creative process. She said she LOVES, LOVES, LOVES it!