Story Development Software: Good Or Evil?
|
In the early days of the personal computer, we're talking the mid-'80s here, there was speculation that someday books would all be writen by computers. It sounded a little too science-fictiony for most writers. After all, words on a page---no matter how well they appear to work together---are meaningless without the insights and experiences of the writer behind them.
At this point in time, I'm happy to report, computers are not writing all our books for us.
However, writing software has progressed far beyond the basic word processing abilities of Word and Word Perfect.
Today, we have a wide variety of story development software. Most can be used to write novels or screenplays, even television scripts or stage plays. Programs such as Truby's Blockbuster or Dramatica Pro teach their own unique approach to story development. Other programs, such as Power Structure, StoryBase, and StoryWeaver provide prompts for help with character, structure, and theme.
They do not write the story for us.
But they are coming closer.
Dramatica Pro, for instance, uses what it refers to as a story engine, that reveals relationships of deep structure independent of subject and content. It takes you by the hand and shows you what character, plot and theme issues you need to address. And finally, it weaves all your plot points together for maximum Dramatica Pro impact.
Truby's Blockbuster helps you find the best story form for your genre work, helps you develop the 7 keys that provide the nucleus for your story, and then lays out the 22 steps of story development to carry your plot from start to finish.
I've used most of these programs at one time or another. While I believe Dramatica Pro has great potential and a unique take on story development, it also has a steep learning curve. Personally, I turn to writing software to save time. If it drains my time to learn how to use it properly, then it defeats its purpose.
Truby's Blockbuster, on the other hand, quickly gets me to the heart of my story and has me putting the pieces together in a relatively short time. I don't use it for all my projects, but find it most helpful for the bigger books.
Could I write without the use of software?
Of course.
Would my stories be better for it?
Probably no better. Probably no worse.
Then what's the point?
The point is this: story development software can serve both good and evil, depending on how you use it. If you rely too heavily on the software, then you defeat the purpose of being a writer, which is to bring your own take on the world into your work. Your stories will likely begin to all read alike, very cookie-cutter and pre-fabbed. You'll be moving us another step closer to the day when computers will write our books for us.
But if you use the software to organize your thoughts, to make the initial brainstorming process quicker and more efficient, without relying too heavily on each and every aspect of the software, then it can serve the good in your work.
Much like the rules of grammar, the rules of struture and story development are there to guide you. Once you thoroughly understand how they work, you're freer to break them. This is when you step forward as a writer, with your own voice, and your own creative approach to writing.
If you'd like to check out some of these programs, here are some good places to get started:
Novel-Writing Programs: http://thesuccessfulwriter.com/novelwritingsoftware/
Screenwriting Programs: http://thesuccessfulwriter.com/screenwritingsoftware/
Whether you decide to use story-development software or not---Steinbeck, Hemmingway, Faulkner and many others did just fine without them---always remember to bring yourself to your work.
That's the only true way you'll ever be an original writer.
David B. Silva
The Successful Writer
http://thesuccessfulwriter.com
|
|
|
Microsoft Great Plains Security Setup - Overview For Consultant
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains is very good fit for mid-size company and probably good budget solutions for large corporation. Former product name was Great Plains Dynamics / eEnterprise. Both versions: old and new are Great Plain...(related: Software)
Inherent Dangers Of File Sharing Via The Internet.
Cyberspace has opened up a new frontier with exciting possibilities of "File Sharing." We can explore any interest imaginable and research any topic of choice. We truly are global in reach with high speed internet usage at our disposal and a keyboard at our fingertips. We can share music, movies, games and even personal photographs.However, with this global reach and easy to explore medium, comes the many dangers of the internet. Many of these dangers lurk behind the scenes and without our knowledge or consent, we are observed by Spyware.Spyware infiltrate computer systems along with file sharing downloads. Personal information about us circulates the globe via the World Wide Web, and a web it truly is! This information finds its way to different entities or companies that are keen on knowi...(related: Software)
Putting Screensavers Under Control
No matter how much you enjoy your favorite screensavers, sometimes they can be rather annoying. Don't like them interrupting your presentations? Hate them disturbing you watching movies? Look no further. This article will show you how to gain full control over your screensavers in no time.There's no doubt screensavers bring a pleasant variety to your desktop. Not to mention they prevent your monitor from burn-ins. Still there are times they had better sit quiet and hadn't interf...(related: Software)
Microsoft Great Plains Subcontracting ? Overview For Microsoft Business Solutions Partner
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains is very popular ERP/MRP applications in the USA, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Middle East, South Africa, Latin America. Considering high number of new Microsoft Great Plains partners and the desire to subcontract occasional customization, integration and reporting projects, we would like to advise you on Microsoft Great Plains subcontracting guidelines, based on our experience in dealing with Great Plains VARsCandidates for subcontracting:? Great Plains Dexterity customizations ? Dexterity was and still is the IDE and programming language of Great Plains, especially workstation thick interface. However since Microsoft bought Great ...(related: Software)
Microsoft Great Plains Ecommerce: Overview For Developer
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains was designed back in the earlier 1990th as first graphical ERP/accounting system for mid-size businesses. The architects of Great Plains Dexterity ? this is the internal mid-shell, all Great Plains was written on, designed it to be easily transferable between graphical operating systems (MAC, Windows, Solaris ? potentially) and database platforms ? initially Great Plains was available on Ctree (both Mac and PC) and Btrieve, a bit later high end version Dynamics C/S+ was available on Microsoft SQL Server 6.5. But the idea was to catch or switch winning/losing database platform ? nobody could predict if MS SQL Server, Oracle or DB 2 become a dominant DB platform, like Windows among OS. All these trade-ins for being potential...(related: Software)
How To Create A Data Capture Procedure Checklist For Your Small Business Crm Software
Fortunately one of the most common reasons cited for the high failure rate of CRM systems - poor data quality - is also one of the easiest to avoid. Your CRM software is only as good as the information it contains. As the old programmers motto goes 'garbage in, garbage out'.So how can you avoid incomplete, incorrect, irrelevant or out-of-date and generally unfit-for-use data from permeating your CRM software?You need to gather your key CRM users together and thrash out a DATA CAPTURE PROCEDURE document, defining the rules of use.Spell out:? Who has what rights to the system; who can Create, Insert, Modify or Delete records, assuming your software supports all these functions? Forward this information to your system administrator to action.
Business Planning Software
Once a business idea is selected, it is highly recommended that we sharpen the concept by a detailed planning process. The result of this step is a comprehensive business plan, with its major components being the marketing "mix," the strategic plan, operational and logistical structures, and the financial proposal. The purpose of the business plan is to recognize and define a business opportunity, describe how that opportunity will be seized by the management team, and to demonstrate that the business is feasible and worth the effort.While this may ...(related: Software)
Information Products: A Business Owners Best Friend
We live in a post-industrial age where information is the coin of the realm. Knowledge is the most valuable asset that a business owns. For most businesses, that knowledge exists primarily in the heads of the people who work there. For entrepreneurs and sole practitioners, what's in their head usually is the business. That's both limiting and dangerous.Let's take the example of a successful management consultant. Drawing on her knowledge and experience, she's able to hire herself out at a substantial hourly rate. The trouble is, every time...(related: Software)
S Is For Spying, Surveillance -- And For Software As Well
Words we choose to describe things and phenomena often show our attitude towards what we say. They imperceptibly reflect our opinions and judgments, prejudices and preferences, moral convictions and beliefs. Whether we like it or not, good deal of words we use are biased, or should I say "slanted", --positively or negatively. Two people will call the same thing differently, depending on their points of view.Look at this example: "Monitoring", "surveillance", "control", "data interception", "gathering evidence of wrongdoing" -- on the one hand; "sleuthing", "spying", "eavesdropping", "snooping", "peeping", "prying", "tapping"--on the other. A neutral "information gathering device" vs. negatively loaded "bug"--choice of words clearly shows whether we approve or disapprove it....(related: Software)
Snort For Network Ids
What is Snort?Snort is an open source network intrusion detection system (NIDS) that can audit network traffic in real-time. Snort is a packet sniffer, a packet logger, and a network intrusion detection system.Snort as I mentioned before is an open source software which means it can be configured and complied on most operating systems. Snort has been ported over to Microsoft Windows operating systems also, but it's bread and butter is back on the UNIX/Linux side of the house. Most Linux distributions now include Snort as part of their install package, and ...(related: Software)
Marketing Your Winrunner Team
It won't matter how effective your WinRunner Team is if no-one outside your immediate organizatio...(related: Software)
Microsoft Great Plains On Ctree Or Pervasive Sql ? What To Do ? Tips For It Manager
As you probably know, when Microsoft purchased Great Plains Software ? the whole strategy for Great Plains Dynamics/eEnterprise line was changed. Initial GPS strategy was to maintain DB platform independence ? via it's C-written engine Dexterity, based on the believe that C programming language is platform independent. So ? Grea...(related: Software)
How To Avoid Getting Hooked By Pfishing
"Pfishing", sometimes spelled "Phishing", is a word that's used to describe amethod of identity theft where con men use fake e-mail that looks like it comesfrom legitimate sources. This e-mail is designed to hoodwink you into givingout personal and financial information. Once the scammers receive yourinformation they...(related: Software)
site-map - Copyright © 2006 | Contact Webmaster | All Rights Reserved. | Software