Customer Reviews

Write Brothers Dramatica Pro 4 (Win/Mac)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

As a new user, DRAMATICA PRO 4 feels like an elaborate system of thinking created to help you, the writer, better structure your story. Keep in mind, you must have an idea for a story beforehand, as DRAMATICA will force you to think about it in more ways than you thought possible or necessary. It's a good thing...with sweat trickling down your forehead as you scramble to answer the many, MANY questions regarding your project...you're unknowingly rounding out your story in ways you probably normally wouldn't.

I spent about two days trying to enter all the descriptions it was pressing for and I still hadn't completed the entire process. In the end, I actually abandoned the DRAMATICA system and just wrote the darned story from scratch...but I think that was only possible, really, because I had thought about all the angles to my story through the DRAMATICA PRO system.

I was disappointed at the fact that DRAMATICA PRO is "old" software, circa 2000 (when the registration asks for "what year" you purchased it, "2001" is the latest year possible), and there's no Mac OS X support. It does run in Classic mode, however.

It seems like it could be a very valuable tool, but it demands a healthy investment both in your time and in your understanding of its theory. I would only recommend the monetary investment if you're committed to the mental one.

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 is a software program intended to help you transform your story from a sequence of related scenes into a coherent exploration of a thematic concept...a real story. Note: Dramatica will not write your scenes for you: if you need help constructing a vivid scene, this is not where you should be looking. What it will do is help you decide which scenes are needed and which are superflous. It will also help you decide who your characters need to be, and how they should relate.

Dramatica is an analytical method of constructing a specific kind of story, a Grand Argument story in the program's lingo. Not all stories fit into this model: if you wanted to write something like Joyce's Ullyses this tool would be no help. But most conventional stories can be shoehorned into the model. Note I didn't say what a Grand Argument story is. Well, it's complicated...

Dramatica is also a theory of story built around a complex vocabulary. You can find a 54 page dictionary of terms at Dramatica.com, here's a definition from it:

Grand Argument Story (GAS) -- [Dramatica Term] -- A story that illustrates all four throughlines (Overall Story, Main vs. Impact Story, Main Character, and Impact Character) in their [sic] every story point so that no holes are left in either the passionate or dispassionate arguments of that story -- A Grand Argument Story covers all the bases so that it cannot be disproved. From the perspective that it creates, it is right. There are four views in a complete story which look at all the possible ways the story could be resolved from all the possible perspectives allowed; these are represented by the perspectives created by matching the four Throughlines with the four Classes---(the Overall Story, Main vs. Impact Story, Main Character, and Impact Character Throughlines matched up with the Classes
of Situation (Universe), Activities (Physics), Manipulation (Psychology), and Fixed Attitudes (Mind) to create the four perspectives of the particular story they are operating in). Every complete storyform explores each of these perspectives entirely so that their views of the story's problem are consistent and that they arrive at the only solution that could possibly work, allowing the givens built into the story from the start. When this is done, a Grand Argument has been made and there is no disproving it on its own terms. You may disagree with they story's givens, but as an argument it has no holes.

Whew! Much of the full theory is expoused in a 400+ page book free for the downloading from the same site. I've read a good bit of it...the definition above is a fair representation. The good news is that you don't really need to know all this to use the program, it'll teach as you go. The program features a hand holding module which will walk you through the process, teaching you the terms and concepts you need along the way. The bad news is that if you really want to use it to it's potential, well the learning curve is daunting.

Dramatica is a numerological theory based on based on the magic number four. Well, okay, not really...but the idea of taking a breaking a concept or process into four pieces occurs over and over again in the theory which underlies the program. Does this result in a complete decomposition? I'm not convinced.

Following the lead of the authors, I've referred to ideas behind the program as a "theory," but that's really too strong a term: theory implies some foundation of evidence to suggest the ideas describe some objective truth. There is no such thing. At best, Dramatica is a story model, and might uncharitably be described as a formula. It's subtle, it's complex, but still it's a formula.

Is it worth the effort required to learn to use the formula? Obviously, I don't know. I would suggest that if you love structure, this program would be a great toy. If you hate structure it might be a life, or at least career, saver.

I was concerned at first because there is no word processing capability, and I was worried that it was going to be alot of extra work, but I've found it really helpful. It not only helps me order my ideas, but it clarifies them, before I've written 1000 words and not had them make sense. It also helps when it is a complicated story so that your story lines interweave gracefully, without getting lost in a maze of concepts. I am a beginner, and it is great for me, but I believe that I will be using this for a long time.

This a well structured and thought-out piece of software that DOES NOT WRITE THE STORY FOR YOU! Ironically, although based in many ways upon Aristotle's 'Poetics', it brings unique slants and methods to character building, including building deep psychological profiles, a organized story line and focus on the story's intent. When used with maximum features one is forced to examine the role and purpose of "every" character in the proposed story. Have some loose ideas? Answer a series of questions and a preliminary structure is provided. But there is no requirement to follow it slavishly, it is an aid to creativity, not a substitute. There is no doubt that it is a complex piece of software that trys to introduce new ways of stoy telling and answer the primary question that should be in any writer's mind, what is this story about? What "argument" is being presented and how is that argument resolved? I have learned more about writing in learning to use this software than I have in the last 20 years. In addition their website offers a plethora of insight, options and even has the original book behind the concept online and downloadable. This is NOT software for people who are not serious about their writing. what literature means in today's society, and requires a substantial amount of work to learn and use properly. It integrates with Screenwriter 2000 and Storyview very well, as well as a number of other common story writing and formatting programs. In short, this a product that requies thinking, a serious approach to writing and the willingness to spend time using it and learning a new method of story craftsmenship. I own hundreds of software programs, and this is among those that was worth every bloody cent. But one must always remember, writing is hard work and this software, nor any other software program will NOT do that WORK for you. To expect that by just filling in some templates and characterization forms and then have a "Story" written and ready to go is absolute nonsense. If you're serious about writing, try their demo. I highly recommend this product, but it suited me very well and bought several of their other products. BUT, try the demo, it may not be your cup of tea, or maybe like me you'll become so stimulated by it's thought provoking proceses that I wouldn't write a 3 character, one act play without using it. This is a well thought out and serious system, and has to be approached with that in mind, or in fact it might appear to a waste - but personally, I think that's the "writer's" fault. Not the program.

I've been disappointed more than once by software that promises to make life easy in some way or another. I've bought software that promised to help me write a business plan, one application that was supposed to help me design a house, and one package that would teach me Italian. In each case those applications did about ¼ of what they promised. Dramatic, though, delivers. For me, coming up with a story idea is easy. I can write dialogue without breaking a sweat. My weakness is getting bored with all the details required to construct a long-form story. Dramatica makes it fun. It doesn't make it easy. It might even make the process of story development a little harder, but if you use it, you'll have a better-developed story with deeper more interesting characters.

I hedged on this tool for some time. Feared it was too cultish, too intent on reinventing the wheel in it's emphasis on a 'Dramatica story' rather than help with My story. (sorta like a gym that jetisoned free weights and traditional equiptment in favor of some mad scientist's dreams of rubber bands and balsa wood or something).

Pleased to say that I was mostly wrong. Dramatic theory is more a collection of tools and views on story structure than a manifesto toward a new structure. As such (and continuing the gym analogy) it is resistance exercise. I've both learned from its theories and in my ocassional arguements with them, further developed my personal dogmas.

More importantly, Dramatica is helping me be a better writer. It has given me a broader understanding of the writing process and I'm using it to both fix a failed manuscript that I've pulled from circulation to put 'back in the shop' and improve my current work in progress. As a tool, its biggest benefits are its ability to quantify why something failed, and its forecasting capability in respect to the consequences of writing choices, meaning it nips in the bud those wrong choices and pointless digressions that in the past tookup 2-3,000 thousand words of writing before the pointlessness of the path began to emerge.

Is it for you? This is not a program that tells you "Insert story element A into story position B" In my view, the Socrathic Method supporting such a program (a good one, that is) will be obsolete the moment a user reads the manuel; to interface with such a program the writer would have to learn her story in the program's terms and then feed the program 1,000 or more answers. In the course of doing that, she would figure out what the program was going to tell her. To a degree that happens with Dramatica, answering it's 200 plus questions is an active indeaver and I learn quite a bit from feeding the beast even before it does its part.

Noting that some of the users who dislike the program raised the point of return on investment. In my view it is worth every penny. To contrast other investments a writer might make in their development instead of Dramatica; if a hyperthetical newbie novelist came to Amazon with $500 in startup cash (and assuming they've already got the hardware, Word, coffee maker etc.) I'd say spend $225 on texts, then buy Storyview and Dramatica. Assuming Newbie spent the first $225 wisely and well, the marginal utility of throwing more money at books on writing would be far lower than an investment in Dramatica software.