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Contour Story Structure Software

flyingtartflyingtart
edited June 2010 in - Resources
I have been working with a programme called Contour for the last few months. It helps you build your story according to the Three Act Structure by breaking it down into plot points. It's the clearest and most useful I've found. Although designed for screenwriting it would help with novels or any other story format. There are lots of examples from recent films to help you see the structure in them.

It isn't free but you can download the demo for a month's free trial before you have to pay anything. I'd recommend it to anyone who struggles with plotting their story, especially the second act which is notoriously tricky.

http://www.marinersoftware.com/sitepage.php?page=138

Comments

  • DwightDwight
    Gee, thanks for this, FT. I'm interested in screenwriting, only because it looks easy ;) . It's tempting to follow your example and take advantage of the month's free trial, but it would stop me from doing job no.1 at the writing front. This three act with the difficulty of the second act sounds good.
  • flyingtartflyingtart
    Dwight I must confess writing software is my favourite waste of time! Some programmes seem like a good idea until you try to use them, but I've managed to stick with this one so far. Haven't sold a screenplay to Hollywood yet, though! :)
  • DwightDwight
    Oh c'mon. You must be going the long way round, FT.
  • Woll22Woll22
    Like you, Flying Start, I am a writing software addict too, I have Write Ambition, Write It Now, Movie Outline and New Novelist, not the latest mind you but still works. It is subjective as to whether or not it is a waste of time, some work better than others. I found Y writer which is free,not much help to me, Oh yes, I have Quick Plot as well. You just have to experiment to find which suits you.
  • flyingtartflyingtart
    That's right Woll. Not every programme suits everyone and we all have different ways of working. How do you like Write It Now? I got that last year but since getting the Mac I've been using Scrivener and I think it's cured me on the formatting.
  • Woll22Woll22
    I like it for some things but I think my staunchest favourite of all is New Novelist. The old story being each to their own or to put it another way, one man's meat can be another's poisson[pun on poison - get it?]
  • flyingtartflyingtart
    :)
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