Plottr Reviews

Summary: I could go on and on about the advantages of using Plottr. As a pantser, I don't actually plot my books, but I keep track of each chapter on the timeline. If I need to go back and fix something in my manuscript for any reason, I have everything right in front of me. I show the POV changes by changing the color of the boxes in the plotline. I love Plottr!

Positive: I use Plottr to organize each book in a series. I set up each project, the timelines, and character profiles either before I start or as I go along. I download pictures of the houses or businesses I need to keep track of, secondary characters I need descriptions of, and timelines for medical school, etc.. The Notes section is where I keep track of the names of book club members who might be mentioned in another book, backstories, stages of planning a high school reunion, and the odd townsfolk who might also be used in another book. You can even add links to anything you want to use.

Negative: There is a learning curve for some things, but plenty of tutorials are available and so is help from Plottr customer service.

Summary: I write in Scrivener but I begin in Plottr. No more orphaned characters and when the protag does something on the timeline I'll write an equal and oppose reaction on the same place in time on the antagonist and/or other affected character.

Positive: Amazing tool and it interfaces with Scrivener. Plottr's key use for: before, I was a pantser and I would intro a character in Chapter 2 then we wouldn't hear from him again until Chapter 16 where he did something significant. The problem is, ignoring him for that long turns him into a deux ex machina when he finally acts. He hasn't been characterized, HAS NO LIFE, and we don't give a damn about him when he finally does act. Well, Plottr helps me see those holes and now I drop in a chapter on him, even if it's only 600 words and he's having coffee -- and maybe plotting with a bad guy.

Negative: I would like a Zap-like connection, an active API that talks to Scrivener and updates Scrivener when I update or drop in a new character or action in Plottr. Without that, I'm chasing to keep house.

Summary: For me is the best tool in town. Plottr is the starting point for a good book and the best companion for Scrivener and other writing tools.

Positive: A lot of templates. Different views. Export to Scrivener for me is key. Plottr is the starting point for a good book.

Negative: The UX should improve. The Interface it's very classic.

Summary: I can't image working on a new writing project without Plottr. I've used it for novels, short stories and as a series bible--it does it all.

Positive: Easily spot plot holes, brainstorm your stories, and avoid going down plot rabbit holes! Updates and tutorials that help you apply new and existing features. Great webinars too.

Negative: I can't think of anything I don't like about this product!

Summary: Plottr is a powerful tool that has helped me organize my novels in an easy-to-use digital interface. Sure, note cards on a table or vision boards work for some, but as a techie, it's a dream to have all my novel's information in one location.

Positive: Plottr's interface is user-friendly and its features make it a top-class product. While the project templates are already robust for planning any kind of writing, these templates are also completely customizable. I'm also a huge fan of the "characters" and "places" features, which have helped me immensely with characterization and setting in my work.

Negative: Plottr so far has fulfilled my needs as a writer. My only complaint is that I wish I could use it to draft my work too. It's compatibility with Scrivener, for instance, is sufficient but could be improved upon.

Summary: This software offers a lot of value for its very reasonable price. The company is super responsive to questions or issues that you might have. They are constantly improving and adding new features that users request. It comes loaded with templates that help you structure and remind you of what should or might need to happen at a certain point in one's story.

Positive: I began with Plottr with an annual license. But seeing the value in what it can do and the changes being made to it, I decided to purchase the lifetime license. When you have a particular way of working that you've used for a very long time it is often hard to pivot. Plottr has made it easy. With its templates for all sort of development with character and plot, it makes mapping out your story very easy. While it is focused for novelists, I use it for screenwriting. But its new tools of bullet points, indents numbering gives it a much more familiar feel to say MS Word toolset. This addition really helps organization of thoughts to plotting. Exporting is super easy as well.

Negative: I'd like to see a few more templates that focus on screenwriting. There could also be more outlining tools to better help with organizing one's thoughts. In the Character Bio Template, there should be Married or Widowed and possibly country of origin. I personally would like to be able to have Characters open at the same time as Outline. That would be super helpful so I don't have to jump back and forth.

Summary: I love Plottr. I needed something to help me map big projects (novel/papers) - and this was it. Go Plottr or go home.

Positive: It's a great product. It's easy to use and definitely helps me visualize the outlining process. Moreover, when one is trying to juggle multiple timelines or layers of data, Plottr's lines facilitate the story/writing plan.

Negative: The outlining layout (which I don't use much) could be improved to facilitate entries/visual understanding.

Summary: This is my favorite plotting software and I've tried everything from Aeon Timeline, to novel factory, to Notion to Scrapple. It can export to scrivener. You can import templates. It's rad. It makes you work efficiently whether you are a plotter or pantser or anywhere in-between.

Positive: Multi-timeline options.
Templates.
Store content details and refer back to them in real time.
Good for any project that requires a timeline, from creative writing to business planning to wedding planning etc. Great for planning a whole series as well as individual plots and arcs within each story within the series. basically like novel factory and notion combined into one, and then streamlined to get rid of all the visual clutter and filler.

Negative: My only qualm is it is still a bit busy for me visually. I would love to have the option to have it simplified so there is less typographical variety etc. just personal preference though. there is a dark mode which is rad.

Summary: My experience using PLOTTR and attending their webinars has been extremely positive. I consider PLOTTR to be one of my critical writing tools.

Positive: I'm a visual plotter. Before I start writing, I like to see my entire plot laid out before me, including the various subplot-lines and scenes, with different colors representing different POVs. I used to plot using sticky notes on butcher paper - which was cumbersome but it was worked for me - until I discovered PLOTTR. This app gives me my digital butcher paper and sticky note tools. If this was all the software did, it would still be the best plotting tool out there, but PLOTTR offers more. PLOTTR provides over 30 preset plotting templates that you can use to guide your plotting. PLOTTR also offers the ability to create your own customized starting template. You can plot individual books or book series. And once you've mapped out your entire book, you can export it to Scrivener where your chapter and scene structure are preserved, making it very easy to start writing. And, as if that weren't enough, PLOTTR hosts writing related webinars that are free and, IMO, very informative.

Negative: There is nothing about this application that I dislike.

Summary: My overall experience with this app is great - it is easy to use, never crashes, updates often, and keeps my work organized. That's all a writer can ask for. There are additional things I'd love the developers to add - but the app as it stands today is still the best organizing app I've ever used for my stories.

Positive: So, I love Plottr. It is so easy to use for organizing all of my thoughts in my stories, coming up with plots and making sure the timeline and outline flow well, and it's so easy to start using, it is portable across devices, and it's affordable and worth the price. If you are planning on writing your first novel, or you're an avid author like me, I recommend this app over it's competitors.

Negative: If I could add one thing, it would be an area for brainstorming. Sometimes I need to write a bunch of ideas that seem a bit scattered, and the Notes section isn't really the best place, because then I may end up with 10 new notes, and they're not connected with each other. A "Brainstorm" page where I can write whatever I want, drag it like a text box, kind of like a "Mind Mapping" tool. That would make this app even more superpowered, and I wouldn't have to use other apps for my mind mapping.

Summary: As long as I can keep coming up with the disposable income, I’ll keep paying the annual fee. The ability to read my notes without having multiple files at once is a serious reprieve for my computer’s hard drive.

Positive: I have been working on writing projects for years now, and it’s challenging to keep files related to my novels organized the same way I do with academic writing. I love that I can have a separate app to hold all the plot and character building I am doing. I enjoy writing thorough outlines and clipping together complex ideas; the separate features of Timeline, Notes, Characters, and Places allow me to compile the notes not only for one but of several books without creating a mess.

I found Plottr because of its collaboration with Randy Ingermanson’s Snowflake Method (who had just discontinued his own $100 software). I found the transition seamless and user-friendly. I appreciate having the option of both Ingermanson’s and others’ templates to work with when I want to follow a set structure.

Lastly, I love the affordable annual price. I’m a student with low disposable income, and being able to spend less than $30 on such an useful tool is a heaven-sent.

Negative: The only complaint I have is the exporting feature. As I said, I like the organization on the app but the transition to a word document can be messy and all over the place with the formatting including odd spacing and font size changes at random paragraphs.

Summary: I really enjoy Plottr and am glad that I gave it a try. It’s a game changer and a great tool to have in my writing toolbox.

Positive: Plottr is laid out the way my brain works, and I love that. It makes outlining, and then following that outline, a breeze.

It is easy to use and navigate. And when writing a series, I love that I can keep the character info, place notes, general notes, etc together in one spot and then jump between book outlines within the series while maintaining all the information for the overall series that I’ve already established.

It also works great with Scrivener, which was a big necessity for me. Everything transfers over seamlessly and I can get straight to work.

When I contacted the company with an issue I was having, they reached out quickly and were very responsive. I was very impressed and got the impression that they care and are passionate about making their product the best for their users.

Negative: None really. It does exactly what I need to do and does it with ease. The newest feature of separating the beats in phases/acts isn’t super intuitive and I’ve been struggling to figure it out, but I also haven’t dedicated much time to trying to sort it out, so that’s also on me.

Summary: Very good experience. I have recommended this product on my blog and in a free ebook on writing that I am creating. I encourage others to give it a try because it is an excellent product.

Positive: I was surprised by all the things it could do. I love that you can put each character in and then lay out your subplots and see how they all stack up so you can adjust where necessary.

Negative: Nothing so far. I've only used it for a short period of time, but so far so good.

Summary: As a person who writes long-form novels but often loses steam or patience during the outlining process, Plottr has been a very helpful tool for streamlining and beautifying what I previously thought to be the most tedious part of writing. The other writing apps I'd tried felt rigid, like I needed to read a manual to understand precisely what each button did before I could use it "properly" or “correctly,” but Plottr allows each of its offerings to be used in as many ways as any author could dream of. The block-based timeline view in particular allows for several different threads of scene, mood, character, etcetera to be tracked in an accessible view where a longer, traditional outline document can leave individual ideas impossible to parse from the larger body of planning. The app makes it as simple as possible to plug in as much or as little information about character, setting, and narrative as you wish, which encourages quick thinking and quicker writing. With the certainty that I'll know where I'm going, I've been able to write every day, even opening the Plottr app before I open my documents because I'm proud of the work I've done and am newly excited to reach my ending.

Positive: The scene-based tagging system is helpful for suspense writing as it assists me personally with the management of subplot, foreshadowing, and the momentary details I wish to return to later but can never seem to remember. Similarly, dragging segments of plot between chapters and scenes is easily done and does not jumble or rearrange the items around it.

Negative: Can’t export the block timeline view into PDF form. Timeline view is my favorite. :)

Summary: An excellent experience. Once I had set up my intended chapter structure, weak points in my plot became obvious. Using features such as scene colour coding I could mark and track those that required revision. The provision of Templates for Scenes and Characters are particularly useful in encouraging me to think in new ways about what is taking place and to whom. Finally, the ability to track almost all of the elements in one place is excellent. I save a lot of time that I can spend on actually writing!

Positive: Once comfortable with the program, the ease of (re)constructing plot flow elements from individual scenes to whole timelines. Also the wealth of templates at timeline, scene and character level are a very useful resource. Sometimes I just pick a never before used template to think about an element in a new way!

Negative: The initial learning curve can be challenging, and the tutorial videos do not always support easy entry to some of the more detailed elements. I could not find a template for the 27 chapter outline when I decided to give that a try. There doesn't seem to be a template option for Places either.