Review: NewNovelist 2.0

NewNovelist 2.0 from Creativity Software Ltd. is a Windows application designed to help writers produce properly structured stories.  After having readers provide some very high-level information about the story they want to tell, the software presents a series of chapters structured to tell that type of story.  The writer can use the proposed structure as-is and write chapters or scenes to match the software’s suggestions, or adjust the proposed structure to suit the needs of the story being told.  The software provides a basic word processing functionality to store the writer’s work, and can export the finished story in RTF format for use in a variety of other word processing programs.  It also includes a Resources pane which stores character, location, and object descriptions – as well as the author’s research for the story.

Installing and Using NewNovelist 2.0

NewNovelist is simple to install.  Launch the installer, click through the wizard, and the program installs itself on your computer. 

Once installed, you can launch the software through the Start menu.  It will initially open with a splash screen:

Click “Next” and you’re asked to supply a working title and one-line description for the story you want to tell:

Click “Next” and you have the option to choose a Story Category, which is either Plot, Epic, or Character.  The three pictures at the bottom of the screen indicate each of the three available types.  Clicking on one of them changes the contents of this screen to reflect the type you selected, providing information about each type to help you select the one that best fits the story you want to tell.

(Being something of a nit-picker, I noticed that the Story Concept on the above screenshot ends with the phrase “first females president”…)

Once you’ve selected your Story Category, you can select from a number of Story Type options for that category.  In this example, I chose a Plot category, with a “Kidnap and Rescue” story type.  The text on this screen explains the basics of the selected story type to help you choose the correct one.

After you’ve selected the Story Category and Story Type, you are presented with a screen explaining the implications of your choices:

If you read the above description and don’t feel it is an appropriate match for the story you want to tell, clicking the Back button will allow you to change your earlier selections to find a story structure that comes closest to what you want to write.  Once you’ve found the right mix, click “Finish” and NewNovelist will drop you into the main program window.

The main NewNovelist window has three panes.  The left pane, framed in orange and labeled “Chapters”, provides the description of a series of chapters or scenes which will tell the type of story you selected earlier.  When you click on one of the Chapter icons in this pane, you are presented with a summary of the recommended events that take place during a scene or chapter of this type.

(In the above screenshot, note that the boilerplate text provided by the developers uses the British spelling, which my system flags as misspelled because I’m in the USA where we write “color”.)

For the story category and type I selected here, it suggests that I start with a chapter that shows the “hero” character in his normal environment, doing what he normally does.  It suggests any interactions, foreshadowing, or mood and context that the software developers recommend including in the story at this point.  Examples of similar chapters or scenes from popular films and books are given where appropriate.

If you look at the above screenshot, you’ll see one of the things that struck me as a little odd about the software.  Under “Examples of Personality Revelation” there would appear to be three bullets (or asterisks).  The first two have no text next to them.  The sole example appears in the third.  I don’t know if this was an oversight in the software’s QA process or if these would have been filled-in had I had the laptop online.

By clicking in the (now slender) editing pane in the center of the window, the writer can begin creating a chapter to match the description set out in the instructions window.  In theory, if you create a story based on each of the provided chapter descriptions, you should have a well-rounded story.

Suppose you don’t like the structure NewNovelist provides.  Are you stuck following it anyway?  No.  Notice the “Edit Chapters” button at the bottom of the Chapters pane.  You can click this button to bring up an interface that allows you to remove chapters you don’t want, add new chapters of your own design, or rearrange the existing chapters to match the story you want to tell.

For example, if I wanted to add a “Hero gets a new car and goes for a drive” chapter, I could click the “Insert” button and provide information about that chapter.  It would then be visible in the main story window.  Similarly, if I didn’t want the “Hero’s rescue attempts continue” chapter, I could click on it in the above list and delete it.  I can also click the Edit button and change the chapter’s description.

On the right-hand side of the NewNovelist window, you can see a “Resources” pane highlighted in orange.

This pane allows you to provide descriptions of the Characters, Places, and Objects you plan to refer to regularly in your story. 

This review will look at some of the features for the Characters resources, but will not cover Places and Objects.  The three are essentially similar, just focusing on a different type of story resource.  The last item “Research & Ideas” allows you to organize any online or other research you’ve done to support your story, such as news articles on which your story is based, links to relevant Wikipedia articles, etc.

When you create a new Character resource, NewNovelist asks you to provide a character name and gender.  If you’re having trouble selecting a name you can click the “get new names” button and the software will generate some names for you.  As you can see in the example, it tends to select some very strange (at least to me) character names. 

Once you select a suitable character name and gender, click “Next” to continue developing that character.

Tell the program if this character is one of the major archetypes, such as a Hero or Antagonist. 

To further describe the character, click the “edit” button next to Appearance, Personality, Likes/Dislikes, or General.  The software will then ask a series of questions about that aspect of the character.

Once you’ve gone through all the provided questions for a character, you’re offered the opportunity to attach a graphic or photo to the character description.  This could be a picture you’ve taken or downloaded which features someone who looks like the character you’re writing about, or a simple cartoon sketch that helps you remember the character’s features.

Notice in the yellow area of the above screen that the software asks a number of questions about a character.  Suppose you think it’s irrelevant to ask what your character smells like, but a lot more useful to know how that character solves problems.  Just as you can adjust the chapter descriptions and order, you can also adjust the questions that the software asks you about characters.  Select “Edit Default Attributes” under the “Edit” menu and you can work with the questions that appear on the screen pictured above.

Just as with the chapter descriptions, you can change the number of questions, the text of the questions, etc., until they suit the way you prefer to write.

The “Research & Ideas” area provides you with a somewhat free-form place to store anything you want to keep track of that doesn’t belong in the chapter area or the other parts of the software.

You can store web page links, files, and notes right here where they are handy as you write.

Under the “Words” menu, you’ll find a dictionary and thesaurus function.

Enter a word you want to look up and click the “search” button.

The software then provides the definition of the word and some alternative words you might use instead.

When you save the progress of your work in NewNovelist, it’s stored in a file with the extension “NNB” on your hard disk, wherever you selected it to be stored.  I’ve seen a review on Amazon.com which implies that NewNovelist stores your story information on the vendor’s web site somewhere.  I have no idea how that reviewer came to such a conclusion.  I tested the software on a laptop that had no Internet connection (wireless or otherwise).  It worked perfectly and stored all of my work on the laptop.  Unless the reviewer can provide some hard evidence backing up that claim, I believe they are mistaken.

Other reviewers on Amazon.com indicate that this software is limited in terms of the stories it can help you tell.  In one sense, that’s true.  It comes with approximately 21 pre-defined story structures in it.  However, as demonstrated earlier, those structures can be modified by the writer to mold the story into any desired shape.  So, if you stick with the canned structures, you’re limited to those which are built in.  But if you are willing to take the extra steps to add, remove, change, and reorder the chapters presented by NewNovelist, there is no limit to the number of types of stories it can help you create.

The built-in word processor is fairly basic.  I’d compare it to the WordPad application built into Windows.  If you want to take your text to the next level of formatting, you’ll want to get it out of NewNovelist.  To do that, click the “Publish” button at the bottom of the NewNovelist window.

You have the option of printing or previewing the document, or exporting the work you’ve done to a Rich Text Format (RTF) file. RTF files are supported by most word processing programs, including Microsoft Word, OpenOffice.org Write, WordPad, and TextEdit on Mac OS X (to name a few).  Once you’ve gotten the text into the other writing tool, you can manipulate it as desired.

NewNovelist also provides a variety of help information, both related to the product and to the writing process.

Clicking on any of the help topics takes you to a page with more detailed information.

Another interesting feature of NewNovelist that is interesting is the little “Readback Text” box in the lower-right corner of the window.  If you have a chapter open in the editor and click the “Play” button in this box, NewNovelist will use the Windows text-to-speech feature to read your novel back to you.  This can help you hear what your novel sounds like to a reader.  It can also help you figure out if your story dialogue sounds normal when spoken aloud.

System Requirements

NewNovelist 2 requires Windows 98, XP, Vista, 2000, or NT.  It ships on a CD-ROM.  When launched on a system, it consumes very little memory (around 28MB on the test system, an older XP laptop).  Although some features do utilize an Internet connection (specifically the “Online Support” option), the software does not require an Internet connection in order to function.

Comparison to Other Writing Tools

In my quest to find the writing tool I like best, I’ve used a few others so far.  These have included Microsoft Word, OpenOffice.org Write, Dramatica Pro 4.0, Scrivener, and Storybook.

Full-featured word processing tools like Microsoft Word (and the free OpenOffice.org suite) contain more text formatting, grammar checking, and other features that are not part of the word processing functionality of NewNovelist.  On the other hand, Word does not provide story structure help, a story resource library, or fiction writing advice and examples.  If you feel you already have a good command of story structure and a solid system for storing your resources, then you may not need NewNovelist.

Dramatica Pro provides an incredible depth of story structuring features.  If you are having trouble fleshing out your story, and need prompting to help you develop your characters and story in more detail, Dramatica will provide a great deal more help than NewNovelist.  On the other hand, Dramatica is a bit more rigid than NewNovelist and will tend to coax you toward following a particular story structure.  I’ve found Dramatica to be very helpful in brainstorming a story and making sure I’ve thought through all the angles.  NewNovelist isn’t really aimed at helping you brainstorm a story so much as it’s intended to help you structure and write it. 

Literature and Latte’s Scrivener software (available for Mac OS X and soon for Windows) is much more free-form than NewNovelist.  It does not provide or enforce any kind of structure on your story.  It provides a repository for story related information, which can include character profiles, location descriptions, articles from the newspaper, etc.  This repository isn’t organized in a formal way like the one in NewNovelist, and it doesn’t provide any prompting for character traits and location descriptions.  On the other hand, its Corkboard feature allows you to very easily shuffle around the chapters and scenes in your story.  By comparison, the interface for making those changes in NewNovelist is less friendly (though by no means bad).  If you need some guidance in structuring your story, Scrivener won’t be much help to you.  NewNovelist will.  On the other hand, if you like complete control of your story structure and resource data, Scrivener is likely to be more flexible.

The free, open source Storybook software also does not provide any assistance with structuring or brainstorming your story the way NewNovelist does.  On the other hand, Storybook does providing an editing environment and story resource management features that are similar to those in NewNovelist.  Storybook can also help you keep track of which characters are in which locations at which part in your story.  It can help you organize your story into “strands” (which could be sub-plots or character arcs) and keep track of where each strand is at a given point in time.  It also has timeline features that NewNovelist does not.  NewNovelist doesn’t really need some of these features because they tend to be associated with keeping a story’s structure solid.  Since NewNovelist provides a basic structure, it is less necessary to offer timeline tools.

Conclusion

I did not encounter any bugs in NewNovelist during my testing.  There was, however, one odd quirk.  When I exported my story into RTF format, the software wanted to create and save an XPS document (like a PDF) first.  This could have been a fluke caused by a configuration problem on my friend’s laptop, I don’t know.  It did not impair the software’s functionality.

Since I am still very much a novice at writing novels, the fact that NewNovelist suggests a suitable story structure appeals to me.  The fact that I can customize that structure to fit the needs of my story suggests that it would continue to be useful to me for some time.

You can purchase NewNovelist 2.0 through Amazon.com for $54.99 as of this writing.  At that price, it gives you a decent word processor, story resource organizer, and a variety of usable (and modifiable) story structures.  It doesn’t provide the depth of Dramatica Pro, but doesn’t come with the hefty price tag either.  It provides more story guidance than Scrivener, Storybook, or a standard word processor.  But if you don’t need the guidance, you might be better serviced by one of those programs.

While writing this review, I learned that Creativity Software Limited has released NewNovelist 3.0.  From what I can see on their web site, they’ve re-vamped the user interface to look a bit more modern, added a dictation feature for Windows Vista/7 users, a variety of story analytics (Gunning Fog Index, SMOG Index, etc.), and a variety of visual themes.  Apart from this, it appears to be the same product.  Unless the developers want to grace me with a free copy of the software (or my friend coughs up the money for the new version), I don’t plan to review NewNovelist 3.0.  Version 3.0 is currently available (January 2011) for $49.99.

I definitely believe there is value and usefulness to this product.  I’m still enough of a novice writer that having a starting template for my story (that I can modify as needed) is a very useful feature to me.  Had I discovered NewNovelist before purchasing Scrivener and Dramatica Pro, it might well have been all I needed.  NewNovelist is a stable product that provide enough structure to guide a writer through the storytelling process without providing so much that it gets in the way.  Since it is offered with a money-back guarantee for 28 days, it is worth checking out if you believe it might be useful to you.