Plottr Reviews

Summary: So far, Plottr has really helped me to juggle the scenes and developments as I have worked through the plotting of my novel. It has helped me take a few rough ideas and create a story arc in less time than usual.

Positive: This is a great story plotting tool. I start by writing character descriptions, and there is a function for writing and tagging them.

Next, it's easy to create the elements of your story and organize them the way you want. Plottr uses digital index cards, which can be moved and linked as needed. There are lots of ways to organize these elements: main plot and subplots; by character; or however you want to conceptualize the threads of your story.

Then you can look at these cards in outline form, adding the characters, places and tags that are involved.

There are a number of templates available to jumpstart your project using a framework you can customize as you like.

Negative: I'm using a structure defined in the book "Save the Cat!" and there is no template for that built into Plottr. I had to create it from scratch. I might submit a template based on this method as a template for others, if that's possible.

I haven't found a print function. You can export your data to Word and other word processing programs, but the formatting is not very good. It will take some clean up if I need printouts to share with others. I'm not sure that is necessary for me, though.

Summary: I have written another book that was focused on more of an educational product. Recently I have stepped into the world of fiction and writing my first techno-spy-fiction novel. I came across Plottr from a recommendation of another author. I think they way Plottr works so it was a perfect fit from the beginning. I love how I can lay it out and see the beginning from the end and all the parts in between. As I create and develop my story line, being able to visually see the big rocks is a huge blessing!

Positive: I love how I have the flexibility to visually create as I develop my book. I had been doing some of these steps manually then I found Plottr and it's great! They also have informative videos and documentation to help in using it to the fullest. BTW it's very easy to use. The added niceties are the webinars and interviews with established successful authors. I really appreciate how open they are and freely share how they use Plottr in their creative process.

The support team is very timely if you need any questions answered or help with a feature. They are friendly and knowledgable which is rare with some companies now a days.

I highly recommend Plottr!

Negative: Nothing - I used to be a software engineer and I appreciate the thought that has gone into creating a solid product.

Summary: This is seriously essential for my writing. I use it to keep track of my plot, characters, and locations in my fiction series. If you're looking for a tool to keep track of everything from character eye colors to what actually happens in Chapter 16 -- stop looking -- this is the software you're looking for.

Positive: The timeline feature is essential for me. I use the Series timeline to track dates of events and such and the individual book timelines to map out chapters/scenes/subscenes. I'm also a dork about color... I just can't use something if I hate the color (too distracting!) -- and Plottr lets me change colors of things, which both helps me not go crazy with colors I hate, but also helps me categorize cards and such.

Negative: Occasionally, I run into a weird bug -- but the support for Plottr has been super responsive and have always fixed what I needed fixes quickly.

Summary: If you have trouble plotting in straight lines, and don't have walls you can cover in moveable post-it notes (and/or you want to be able to take them with you).

Positive: It is so visual, and easy to move things around. I'm also impressed by the speed at which they are adding features, and outstanding customer service.

Negative: Sometimes I've got confused about which version of a manuscript I'm working on. This may be my fault -- perhaps there's a better way to play with multiple options than I've figured out.

Summary: I had already filled two notebooks with ideas but I didn't know how to start to write my story until I heard about Plottr and installed it. Being able organise the plot points in different timelines fueled my creativity and I finally got started.

Positive: -The easiness to move the cards to different places in the same timeline but also to other timelines.
-The possibility of zooming in and out of the story's plotline in order to see the whole thing in a glance or have a detailed video of the content in that plot point.
- The availability of plot structures to get inspiration from.

Negative: If I could have been able to draft my novel in Plottr, I would have done so.

Summary: This has definitely helped me stay on track and keep details right, especially when writing in a series. Now my characters should have the same eye colour in book 3 as they did in book 1. Or even chapter 15 as when it was mentioned in chapter 3.

Positive: I love that I can create characters and there are existing templates to add elements I hadn't even thought of, same with the plot templates and how I can easily add my own elements. I love how I can pull it into Scrivener and have a read-to-go template to write to.

Negative: Every time I come up with something I would like improved, a new version comes out and they've addressed it so I can't think of any cons at this point in time.

Summary: Instantly loved feeling a part of the Plottr family, I feel supported in my writing by both the product and the team. I'm excited to see my project take form after years of not knowing how to grapple with my ideas.

Positive: I'm able to get a view of my entire memoir in one place, and I'm using it to help develop story arcs, timelines, and themes.
Great people behind this product, very genuine and helpful.

Negative: Different windows meant I lost my work on one occasion by closing the main window when I shouldn't have.

Summary: Plotting my books in Plottr saves me time, and enhances the creative experience. The existing timeline templates mark the critical plot points, making it easy to map my story's pacing to reader expectations in my genre. I especially like that I can view and develop different characters' journeys against a primary story template. Plottr lets me add in additional templates for secondary plotlines, or edit an existing template to meet the story's needs. The new character development templates are a great enhancement. Truly a pleasure to use.

Positive: Plottr's dashboard is clean and easy to navigate. The list of starter templates and timeline notes make it easy to plot out a story. The project window helps keep track of books within a series that share the same characters and settings. Customer service has been great, although I've rarely needed to use it.

Negative: This tool is largely confined to developing plots and characters. Although it allows the writer to take notes on settings, these notes only serve as references for developing the plot(s). It would be great to see these aspects of the software expanded to offer setting templates similar to the plotting and character templates.

Summary: Overall, it is a very useful writing software and I will definitely recommend it to friends! The price is a bit too high.

Positive: Especially suitable for multi person split acting scripts, it achieves the arrangement and combination of different elements (time, location, characters, emotional nodes, deductive stages, game stages), etc., making the work of script weaving a great pleasure. Bringing a flow of mind experience to writers, when using this software to create, you don't feel the passage of time at all, just want to write and continue writing.

Negative: During the writing process, there may be a phenomenon of stuttering, which sometimes leads to a lack of textual content. We hope to find a solution.

Summary: I have never used this type of software before and really didn't know what to expect. Thus far, it has far exceeded my expectations.

Positive: Has everything I need to plot out a book in advance, and yet is extremely easy to learn. Writers can be an impatient bunch and like it when new tools don't slow down the process.

Negative: I sometimes have to quit out of the program and restart it to open my document. But this doesn't happen frequently and is no big deal.

Summary: Plottr is easy to use right from the beginning. It gave me a big jump start to outlining my story when I was struggling.

Positive: I love being able to visualize all of the moving parts of my novel. Organize everything from acts to beats. Track POVs. Create a timeline. It's great.

Negative: No major cons at this time. They are always improving.

Summary: My overall experience with Plottr has been highly positive, as the software offers an array of useful features that greatly enhance the storytelling process. The timeline feature, in particular, has been a standout aspect for me. Being able to seamlessly add character notes, biographies, and track various story elements within the timeline has proven invaluable in keeping my narrative organized and cohesive.

Positive: I like the timeline feature. I love the way I can add character notes and biographies, create items or places and track them in the timeline. I like the templates so we can build up a story from a Save The Cat or Snowflake Method template.

Negative: I would love it to integrate with ChatGPT quality writing AI. I wish we could divide the story into acts as well as chapters. I understand that is coming.

Summary: Plottr is, from what I can tell, the ultimate story-mapping tool. It's flexible enough to store all your accompanying notes on characters, lore, and plot elements, then plug them into your scenes. Plottr wasn't designed to replace your wordprocessor, but with some creativity it could do so anyway.
Visually, I enjoy the timeline feature a lot, while the other tabs can look bare-bones by comparison. As a visual person, the other tabs leave something to be desired in that department, but are still totally usable, and even pleasant to use--just not as fun to look at. I suppose this could be helpful, enabling you to focus on function, rather than form. Though I admit I'm not a designer, I wouldn't mind seeing some subtle visual improvements added to these other corners of the app.
So far, my main frustrations with this software have been due to my own impatience, and slowness in using tutorials when I need to. Coupled with the fact that I can be slow to pick up on new things. But if you're like me, it is well worth learning how to use this powerful tool. Just use the instructional materials they provide you instead of trying to jump straight in.

Positive: This review was provided in exchange for a $10 gift card by the provider of this product.

- On mobile and desktop
- Visually appealing
- Places to track things such as places and characters
- Notes section with the flexibility to categorize things such as important items or lore for the story
- Good-looking and flexible timeline layout for your outline
- Built-in templates to help you stay on track if you want to try a specific storytelling model
- Opportunities to learn more about writing, through bonus webinars

Negative: - There's a bit of a learning curve, but this is because of the flexibility the tool offers: it just requires some effort up front.
- While the timeline tab has nice visual flare, the rest of the app can be a little bland. While still functioning and being "readable" as an interface, it's just not as visually exciting.

Summary: I am massively impressed by the software and I've been telling everyone I associate with who writes that it was the best writing decision I've made so far. I can finally visually organize my thoughts without feeling like I am wasting a metric ton of paper and Ink.

Positive: I really like the visual organization, and the ability to change the layout so that it best fits the way I organize my thoughts. The ability to sort by Series, Book, and Chapter is really useful and I especially appreciate the ability to tag certain categories and attributes to the locations and characters that I create.

Negative: I am unable to change the sizing of images, which is a major part of how I identify characters and locations within my writing projects.

Summary: As a pantser, plotting is my worst nightmare. It sucks the joy out of discovery writing for me, but Plottr has changed that. I'm able to visually plot the journey of my novel with the flexibility of adding only the level of detail that I want so I can still 'discover' the story as I write, but I have a structure to work towards. A guideline I can follow while I pants, with the added comfort of knowing that I can go back in and shift the guideline and make it malleable to the ideas that emerge in the actual writing process. I'm still a new-ish user but I see myself really using this software.

Positive: Ease of use.
Visual layout.
Ability to expand scene cards to include attributes, themes, places, and characters across the whole project.
Fluidity with being able to move and shift POVs, scenes, and characters along the timeline.
Flexibility of viewing the project in various ways.
Ease of labelling aspects with the project to suit individual needs, eg, scenes chapters or parts, or all of the above.

Negative: This isn't a con per se, but I'd love to see a feature where you can print the visuals out as a PDF.
After the initial download I might have included a few cons but as I've used the software, it's started to feel more intuitive. With any software, there's a learning curve, which isn't a con as much as it is patience to learn. I've found the various videos, instructive documents, community help, and webinars on the use of Plottr very helpful.