Plottr Reviews

Summary: I'm a relatively new user of Plottr, but not new to writing books. I am using Plottr to vet new story ideas, create new book outlines, and check storyflow after writing the book. What more can I ask from one digital writing tool? :-) Thank you, Plottr designers.

Positive: What do I like about Plottr? Everything. No joke. This is the book writing support I've dreamed of ever since my first book. No more volumes of 3-ring binders and boxes of note cards to wade through.

I love how easy Plottr makes it to create a series and keep track of characters, plotlines, and all of the moving pieces in each book as well as between the related books. But the best feature for me? Finding plot holes and keeping the story on track, no matter how many plots, subplots, characters, locations, and actions I mix in.

This has to have been designed by writers, or at the least with tech paying close attention to what writers need in a digital writing tool!

Negative: The only complaint I have is I want more! And even this becomes a positive because of the way the Plottr team encourages feedback from the users and makes it easy to ask for new features.

Summary: Overall, Plottr has gotten me through the first phase of my novel plan and I am currently working on part 2. I do not doubt that the process would be a lot longer if I didn't have this great tool. So far so good.

Positive: Very easy to use. I can get right into plotting my manuscript without having to go through a lot of tutorials. All you need is a quick overview and you can be on your way.

The Timeline is super easy to navigate and there are plenty of options to work with.
There are still a few things I need to learn, but I can do that as time goes on. Right now I am enjoying the ease of getting my novel plotted.

I like the character feature and have my photos and info all set up and the same is true with the places section.
Great overall.

Negative: At this point, there isn't anything I would change. I'm fairly new to Plottr. If I come across anything as I go, I will add it to a comment section.

Summary: Great. Would recommend. For the price the best plotting tool on the market. I still use other tools for editing and planning. But now I've narrowed it down to using just Plottr and Scrivener. Together they have everything I need.

Positive: Gives a clear view of the whole plotline. This helps me weave the threads of the main plot, subplot and various POV's.
The thing that makes Plottr the best tool for me though is the export to Scrivener feature. I do a lot of work with the layout and how I want my nesting to work in Scrivener, and do all this in Plottr. As soon as I have everything nailed down its a quick export and I'm ready to write. Great tool.

Negative: It could be made simpler to use regarding the dashboard and series. It took a little while to get used to it, but thats a small gripe for the heavy lifting it does.

Summary: My overall experience is fantastic, honestly better than I could have ever expected. Plus, it's not only easy, it's fun to use!

Positive: I am so happy I found out about this plotting program! It is fairly intuitive to use, so you can practically hit the ground running with this one. Despite the ease of use, it offers amazing tools for helping you plan, plot and visualize your story.
The preset story and scene template options are a game changer, and the ability to craft your own templates means you have the freedom to craft your story YOUR WAY.
I've had this program for less than a month and I already feel confident using it. It's already helped me find places I need more information in my current project.
The only thing I wish is that I got this sooner.

Negative: Honestly? Very few.
My first issue was that the Story Circle isn't included as a preset for the scenes like it is for the overall plot. I like plotting my scenes with this method as well as the overarching story.
The only other issue is that you have to leave a scene to set up a new character, place or tag.
These are both really minor inconveniences, and don't really take away from the experience once you get used to it.

Summary: I've always been a pantser using physical notebooks, but now that I have a series with more than three books and a few spin-offs, I needed something more robust. Plottr has gone above and beyond to answer the call. If you're a visual person like I am and don't want to keep using post-it notes on the wall of your office, this is a game changer.

Positive: More than just a timeline and outline. Plottr works amazingly as a quick reference for key details from my series bible.

Multiple rows on the timeline are not only great for different character POVs, but also the templates. For example, I like to add the Romancing the Beat template below the two leads' POV rows, and at a glance, I can match beats to what I've already got. It also helps me see what beats I'm missing.

The ability to filter attributes is great. As a fantasy romance writer, I have a huge cast of characters and roster of locations and of course a ton of chapters. At a glance, I can figure out where I last left a character that might not have been seen in a while. I can also make sure I'm not using a certain location too much and not neglecting the other fantastic settings I've worldbuilt.

The colors! I've always color-coded my physical notes, and Plottr makes it really easy to incorporate that color code. In the Notes section, I can assign each note to a particular book and brainstorm the basic outline there before bringing it over to the timeline. With colors, I can see at a glance which plot/subplot threads are carried through and if they need to be spaced out. I then create tags in the Tags section in the same color code and tag each chapter with each particular plot/subplot.

Negative: There currently isn't an easy way to copy attributes through characters over books in a series, but I'm happy to see that this is on the developer's roadmap as something they are working on fixing.

Pictures added to locations are placed in an awkward position halfway down descriptions and off to the right side. It'd be nice if there were an option to set a main picture for the icon and to have an image gallery or carousel at either the top or bottom of location entries.

Summary: I use Plottr along with Scrivener. Plottr allows me to keep a bird's eye view of my storyline, subplots, characters in each scene, etc.

I gave "Ease" a score of 4 because as with every app, there is a learning curve. While Plottr is very easy to get started with, it took me a while to better decide how to use it for my writing. I am a new writer, so this isn't Plottr's fault. It's just there are so many great features, it takes a while to see which ones I want to use and how to use it.

Positive: 1. I can create a visual timeline to help me keep track of my plot.
2. I can add pictures that represent my characters
3. I love the flexibility of using the tags,
4. I can easily keep track of which characters are in which scene by adding that character attribute to the scene.

Negative: I would like to be able to hide individual columns. The app does allow you to shrink all the sub-columns in an act, but it would be helpful to be able to hide individual columns at times. However, this isn't a show-stopper.

Summary: I love it and it comes in handy during Nanowrimo. It’s also great to use for series and writing novels with multiple point of views. I also love that it has templates for character development

Positive: This software is great for plotting your novels and is even helpful if you’re venturing into another genre or don’t know where to start because it has multiple templates for different genres. It’s very organized and customizable. I also love how you can export your outlines to Word and Scrivener if need be. It’s definitely worth the money!

Negative: One might be overwhelmed at first by all the ways they can organize their time line.

Summary: I succeeded planning and plotting my 4 books saga quicker than I ever imagined, it's easy to use, I can't wait to go deeper in the writing of my saga to work with Plottr on all the next steps !

Positive: Easy of use, tons of tutorials and materials, huge community to help the new user, team quick to answer to our problems, software is always looking for ways to improve the experience and add new options, and it's available in French too!

Negative: Some things don't work completely yet (my iPad version is difficult to work with, I can't swipe the timelines from side to side which prevents me from using the iPad version. I prefer to use the web version on my iPad).

Some features are missing but I'm sure that it will be addressed sooner or later.

Summary: Great. I've bought lots of bits of software, but this is one I open up EVERY TIME I sit down to write.

Positive: Plottr is really helping me finish my novel. I find plotting tricky and I need a powerful visual to help me organise my thoughts.

I use Scrivener to write in. I know it has a corkboard but I find Scrivener too difficult to use, (I still can't compile properly). Plottr is easy and I find they work well in combination with scenes and chapters in Scrivener and a colour-coded visual map of my plot in Plottr.

I can add chapter text to the plot points and I really like that fact that I can colour code as I have flashbacks for some characters.

It's simple, straightforward and motivating, as I like to change the colour to green when each scene is completed. I can easily see at a glance how far I am progressing.

If you need colour and a visual map of where each character is heading - this is for you!

Negative: Need to spend some time understanding how to do multiple character timelines effectively. I just focus on my main character for now.

Summary: It is easy to install and to keep up with the upgrades and improvements. The videos keep you right on track with what's new. The team asks you for what feature you want next, and they really deliver. I've had to sue support a couple of times, and they are on it and do a great job. For me this is a 'must' tool. I use it all the time.

Positive: Very easy to use right out of the box—intuitive. Visually, it's very helpful, especially for those details in your novel. You can keep track of time and characters with tags. I love the templates. I made my own for my scenes, and there are some really good ones that are included. The tutorials are just right in terms of time and detail. The support team is fantastic. I love the fact that if I want to change a scene in my book, I can do it on Plottr first and see how it flows, then do it in Scrivener.

Negative: I like it. I can't think of a con. I mean, what's not to like?

Summary: I used to plot all my stories and worldbuilding timelines using note cards and whiteboards and sticky notes all over my walls (because I'm a very visual planner), but Plottr makes it easy to accomplish that visual planning in a more streamlined way AND have it all saved in one place so I can reference it anywhere and don't have to worry about losing any of it. It's truly been such a helpful tool for my story planning!

Positive: I love the visual nature of Plottr. I write a lot of multi-POV stories, and it is SO helpful to be able to create color-coded, visual timelines of my different story arcs and see them all in one place. I also love the built-in outlines with pre-set Beats--I don't always stick exactly to them, but I use them for brainstorming and initial outlines, and that's been a game-changer for my story planning. It's SO much quicker than it used to be, now that I can line up different beat structures, customize them to my story's needs, and see everything at one glance. It's also so versatile... For example, for one of my projects, I renamed the "Beats" into time periods for my story timeline, and was easily able to use the same plotting features to create a whole historical timeline for my story, tracking different characters and groups of characters over time so I can keep my worldbuilding consistent.

Negative: I had some technical issues early on, but those have been resolved. No complaints, currently!

Summary: I definitely recommend Plotter 100%. I began with the trial version but soon changed to an annual account.

Positive: Plotter is an easy but powerful tool. I love to use it to make my novels' plots and follow the scenes sequence. It is straightforward to use and has a lot of helpful tutorials, which I use to learn not only about the use of the tool but also ways to improve my writing craft.

Negative: I found it too hard to print my plots. There is a screenshot option, but it doesn't correct the situation. I can print using the Word option, but that changes the look with squares and changes it to simple text.

Summary: The software has been very helpful. An added bonus is all the instructional videos and interviews and stuff. I've learned so much. Great support from the team.

Positive: It makes it so easy to organize all my random ideas and turn them into a coherent plot. I can also incorporate any method, like Save the Cat or Story Grid.

Negative: I honestly can't think of anything right now, unless it's that it doesn't like to be left open between sessions (I get an error message).

Summary: Novels length editing is overwhelming me. Now I have the tool that can get me across the finish line.

Positive: Easy to move content around (lots of storytelling structures or a custom one). Great visual tools!!

Negative: No export to PDF/print to help w/large structures!

Summary: I am am a visually oriented person, which makes Plottr the perfect writing tool. Despite my love for writing, my schedule is not conducive to daily writing sessions. The timeline feature provides easy access to the information that I need to assess my progress and game plan my next writing session. In the timeline, I can simultaneously view the scene cards and structural beats, identify gaps in my outline and begin each new writing session knowing exacting where I left off in the previous session.

Plottr also frees me to dream during my writing sessions. As I outline my scenes, I write little notes on the scene cards containing “what ifs” or ask myself questions about character motivation or conflict. I mentally visualize different iterations of the same scene and with a quick glance of my outline, assess the impact of those potential changes on later scenes, without ever losing my train of thought for the scene that I’m writing. Plottr helps me stay on course as I navigate from scene to chapter, chapter to act and act to final resolution.

Whether you are writing for fun or for profit, Plottr is the complete writing app and should be a part of every writer’s toolbox.

Positive: Plottr is feature packed, easy to use and has good support. It is the linchpin that keeps me organized.

Negative: I have nothing negative to say about Plottr. I’m not sure whether or not this is true, but Plottr strikes me as an app that was written and designed by people who actually use it.