Story Planner for Writers 4+

Great App / Great Developer

If you are a creative writer, this is a fantastic tool to have in your writing toolkit! Even if you think you don't need it, you should take some time to consider its features and benefits. As a screenwriter, I find it is excellent for helping me outline solid stories with rich and well developed plots and characters. It goes beyond just “fill in the blanks” and encourages you to consider the “why” behind your creative choices. This app can save you countless hours of rewrites by helping you lay a solid foundation to build your story on.

The app is reasonably priced and as an added bonus, the developer is also extremely responsive. When the new version 5 was released I reported several bugs I encountered and they quickly addressed the issues and asked further questions for clarification. They seemed genuinely grateful for the feedback I gave and within a week or so the issues were fixed.

Story Planner is an essential part of my creative writing process and I would strongly recommend it to anyone looking for a tool to assist them with story development.

Happy writing!

Has potential

NOTE This will only communicate with Scrivener if you have paid for the version 3 update!!

I write with Scrivener, and part of the reason I purchased this software was because you can export your project directly into Scrivener. I created an outline with Story Planner and enjoyed a lot of the features. However, when I went to export, it gave me options for Scrivener 2 (what I currently run) and Scrivener 3 (a paid update of that software, which I do not have). I created a Scrivener 2 export, which then wouldn't work in my version of Scrivener. I understand this issue is related to Scrivener's functionality as well. Instead I tried to export my outline as an RTF and just import that into Scrivener, but the export only shows previews of text, so it was basically useless- my details about what I wanted to happen in a scene cut off after the first two lines!! Instead I had to dual screen and then copy/ paste from one program to another, which was time consuming and not was I was expecting when I paid for this program.

Bottom line- I enjoyed creating an outline using this software, but it stopped being easy to use as soon as I wanted to actually use that outline to write in another program. There is basically NO information about actually exporting your project on their site (a blurb paragraph). Their website doesn't have as much info as I'd like, and as an annoying large number of glaring typos, considering it's a software for writers.

Will lose work

This application needs a lot of work. The concept was great and the interface is okay but the real problem I have with this app is it's incredibly lazy implementation for syncronization. It uses icloud backups and it does a horrible job. I've lost countless story ideas in this application because of the syncing. Wow it's bad. The application locks up while it syncs. Whenever you're typing it locks up as you type. I don't know if it's syncing while typing. No clue why it does this. I've had this happen on a brand new macbook as well as a brand new iphone. Async is a thing, I would look into that developer. I would never seriously put anything that I care about in this application. The upside is that you don't actually lose the work but it's hidden in one of many "back up files" in your icloud. That you have to independently load to look for the missing work.

I'm glad I'm a developer because I'm just going to make my own solution and hopefully save people from the headache of this application. You should go back to the drawing board developer because the power of this "sync" is totally broken.

Developer Response ,

Hi there! Thank you for your comment, and sorry for the inconvenience. Obviously that is not the behavior that the app should have and that is why we are working to fix it. We don't want our users to lose any of their projects.

But please keep in mind that we do not perform synchronization through the iCloud backup system. That is our own backup system, and it is independent of synchronization. We created it precisely to prevent anyone from losing their work.

For the sync we were using a framework that has indeed given us a lot of problems and we were not happy with it, so we have been working to switch to using NSPersistentCloudkitContainer. The update with the new sync system will be available in the coming days, and the sync in Story Planner will become reliable then.

Again, sorry for the inconvenience. Any further comments or suggestions, you can write to us. We are always happy to get your feedback.