4 stars (A JUMP START TO MY WRITING) - I looked to this product to give me a little push and shove into writing more and organizing my thoughts. So far, it has worked out pretty well for me. It has made me consider in more detail my character developments and conflicts. Don't expect it to write for you, but if you are looking for some organization it is well worth the price.
1 stars (Junk.) - I suggest saving yourself the $34.49 and instead investing in a Bickpen and one of those little black journals we used in school. All this program is good for is keeping a record of character, plot and motivation. Frankly, all you need is a couple pieces of paper for that.
2 stars (Restrictive and time-consuming) - The problem with most novel-writing software I've been testing is that they involve a lot of "writing before the writing." While some planning is good, the amount of data entry these programs require detract from getting actual pages written, and the reality is that all those plans will likely change as you write anyway.
This program is no exception. I find all the initial set-up to be cumbersome without yielding benefits that might ultimately actually streamline my process in the weeks or months ahead. (By contrast, for example, Final Draft - a screenwriting program - stores your characters' names so that you only need to type the first few letters and press Enter. You can also toggle your scenes from script to outline and back again without re-entering the information.)
As for the more theoretic stuff, the story prompts are clearly taken from screenwriting which is formulaic due to the time contraints of a film. (For example, the lengths of scenes, act breaks, and total number of pages are far more restrictive to fit a 120-minute film than the scenes, chapters, and total pages of a novel.)
Because a novel can be far longer than a 120-page screenplay, there's little here for creating stories with complex plots, for tracking subplots, or for creating backstory for characters. Instead you get a generic list of 'themes,' some of which are surprising vague.
If you have little or no idea where your story is going yet, or if you're a writer whose work evolves, this program will be more hindrance than help. If you're the meticulous type who likes details of the minutae and rarely deviate from your outline once it's set, this may help you.
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