Rating: 
Summary: A very useful tool.
Review: Dramatica is a way to organise your thoughts about theme, plot-theme, and characters into a story form as opposed to something that tends towards a story but is really a prose-narrative. Using its own terminology allied to templates, the user is required to fill in a set of questionnaires, which act as the input from which their story is distilled. This can be amended at will if the user feels that they are being too boxed in. The end result is more easily managed than stacks of cards and papers. It can also be easily shared with other Dramatica users by distributing files across the internet to each other (given that version sync isn't an issue). It's like having a collaborator in front of you all the time - if needed - with regard to the structure, but won't be of any help with poor prose, prose-style, bad dialogue, lack of motivation or any other essential aspects that the writer would need to know about. A badly written story, which is bang-on structurally, as far as Dramatica is concerned, is not a useful end product. In other words, the user would need to be a decent writer in the first place, using Dramatica as a tool to refine and focus their work, and not regard it an easy way out. It's not. So bearing that in mind, Dramatica shouldn't disappoint so long as the user is prepared for the discipline of story writing, in its strictest sense.
Rating:
Summary: A very sophisticated approach to story development
Review: Dramatica provides a tool to use the most sophisticated story model ever developed. The dramatica model is surprisingly general and adds quite a bit of force to your story without constricting creative freedom. Some structures, like a ladder, provide more freedom, not less, and Dramatica's structure is like that. If the idea of following the dramatica story model still seems formulaic to you, you are free to tweak it or change it as much as you want, or even use it's best ideas to form your own model. The point is that a sophisticated model produces a sophisticated story. The software is actually quite easy to use. The hard part is learning the model, because it is quite sophisticated. It will take a few weeks to get it, and probably a couple of tries to make it really work well for you. You can also get help from the community of dramatica users on the internet, who are supportive and friendly. If you're the kind of author to employ both a creative and analytical side to your craft, you will learn to love this tool. You'll hate how hard it makes you work, exploring every nook and cranny of your story in new ways, but you'll love the result as it pushes you into forming characters and plot rich with dramatic tension, thematic development, and thorough development of your story.
Rating: 
Summary: Get Real
Review: It seems that Charles Smythe writes a lot of reviews (unfortunately creating a false average). It also appears that most of the reviewers use the exact same prose as Mr Smythe. If the product cannot stand on its own, it can't, do not force the rating by writing multiple reviews.
Rating: 
Summary: elaborate, for sure
Review: As a new user, DRAMATICA PRO 4 feels like an elaborate system of thinking created to help you, the writer, better structure your story. Keep in mind, you must have an idea for a story beforehand, as DRAMATICA will force you to think about it in more ways than you thought possible or necessary. It's a good thing...with sweat trickling down your forehead as you scramble to answer the many, MANY questions regarding your project...you're unknowingly rounding out your story in ways you probably normally wouldn't. I spent about two days trying to enter all the descriptions it was pressing for and I still hadn't completed the entire process. In the end, I actually abandoned the DRAMATICA system and just wrote the darned story from scratch...but I think that was only possible, really, because I had thought about all the angles to my story through the DRAMATICA PRO system. I was disappointed at the fact that DRAMATICA PRO is "old" software, circa 2000 (when the registration asks for "what year" you purchased it, "2001" is the latest year possible), and there's no Mac OS X support. It does run in Classic mode, however. It seems like it could be a very valuable tool, but it demands a healthy investment both in your time and in your understanding of its theory. I would only recommend the monetary investment if you're committed to the mental one.
Rating:
Summary: Gets me where me needs to be.
Review: Noticing that quite a few contemporary made-for-TV movies have a distinctive and polished intricacy, suggested this was probably to do with Dramatica, that I had noticed a friend using for a novel-cum-screenplay. So I read the comprehensive manual from her installation, and concluded that this was a good way for me to go, too. Progress was slow to begin with, mostly because one needs to be patient and go through it all, ( a few times) in good order, to avoid getting mightily confused, since a great deal of the explanation is often another way to convey what is already known - sort of - from many other sources. So it needs to be taken all as a piece to make satisfactory progress. Which makes sense, because the Dramatica application is a self-contained system, with its own terminology, which responds to your accurate and considered input to a set of inter-related questions about the characters, plot, motivations, outcomes, etc. The accuracy of your answers is an important to the result, so clear thinking has to be applied. I'm far from hero status with Dramatica, but have found its use to be extremely helpful because it makes me THINK about what I am writing about. It doesn't write the piece for me, or box me in, in any way, as others have suggested it does. In conclusion, I am very satisfied with Dramatica and how it has improved my writing. It's also good to be able to discuss and share files with other users ( internationally), who are all pretty much on the same wavelength, which avoids/minimises having to navigate different terminologies and approaches.
Rating:
Summary: The Cure for Cancer?
Review: Ok ok...the title is a bit far fetched...but I had to use something to get your attention. I was afraid "The Cure for Writers Block" just wouldn't cut it... But that's just it. No, it's not a cure for cancer, but Dramatica has definitely helped me overcome writers block! I've tried many different processes to come up with a story to write (always has been in novel form, this time I've decided to try to do a screenwrite for a film). None of these have worked. The farthest I've gotten in writing a story was one without an outline many years ago, when I stopped at the middle of the book, not knowing what to do next. The most research I've ever done on a topic got me nowhere. All that I have printed out and is tucked away in some drawer. Using Dramatica has helped me. Although I only just got into it today, in a matter of hours I have turned the rough idea of a few characters into an entire cast, the rough idea of a theme into a lifelong lesson that everyone will appreciate, and a rough idea of a plot into an entire story. The only part of Dramatica I've explored is the StoryGuide (the button that says "Start Here"). I tried the level one storyguide which gives you approx. 60 questions to answer (some multiple choice, others a choice of 2 options, and others a text box for you to jot down ideas). these questions go in some what of an order, and you can save it and go back and add more to anything. There's a spot to put a basic outline when you first begin, and later you go back, after answering questions and adding depth (with this programs help of course) to your characters, and can revise your outline with more details. Of course you can go back to anything at any time. This is so great for me because I'm a computer geek who does much better on this old thing than I do with a pad of paper and a pen. My biggest problem is, by far, writers block. This program continues to ask you questions (which you can skip and come back to) (if you dont understand the words they use..such as protagonist and antagonist..they have buttons giving brief summaries of their definitions--big plus!). By asking you so many questions about a number of topics, the writers block seems to go away. So far, I'm at the point where they help you create scenes. So I have my skeleton and all it needs is some meat and flesh. Then get it reviewed by some of my friends. Then off to the producers..then the movie theaters! Like I said, I'm not familliar with all aspects of this program, but this one section..the query system as they call it..has really helped me. If anything, I say it's worth the money just for this one part....
Rating:
Summary: Very useful tool.
Review: Dramatica is a way to organise your thoughts about theme, plot-theme, and characters into a story form as opposed to something that isn't. Using its own terminology allied to templates, the user is required to fill in a set of questionnaires, which act as the input from which their story is distilled. This can be amended at will if the user feels that they are being too boxed in. The end result is more easily managed than stacks of cards and papers. It can also be easily shared with other Dramatica users by distributing files across the internet to each other (given that version sync isn't an issue). It's like having a collaborator in front of you all the time - if needed - with regard to the structure, but won't be of any help with poor prose, prose-style, bad dialogue, lack of motivation or any other essential aspects that the writer would need to know about. A badly written story, which is bang-on structurally, as far as Dramatica is concerned, is not a useful end product. In other words, the user would need to be a decent writer in the first place, using Dramatica as a tool to refine and focus their work, and not regard it an easy way out. It's not. So bearing that in mind, Dramatica shouldn't disappoint so long as the user is prepared for the discipline of story writing, in its strictest sense.
Rating:
Summary: The Cure for Cancer?
Review: Ok ok...the title is a bit far fetched...but I had to use something to get your attention. I was afraid "The Cure for Writers Block" just wouldn't cut it... But that's just it. No, it's not a cure for cancer, but Dramatica has definitely helped me overcome writers block! I've tried many different processes to come up with a story to write (always has been in novel form, this time I've decided to try to do a screenwrite for a film). None of these have worked. The farthest I've gotten in writing a story was one without an outline many years ago, when I stopped at the middle of the book, not knowing what to do next. The most research I've ever done on a topic got me nowhere. All that I have printed out and is tucked away in some drawer. Using Dramatica has helped me. Although I only just got into it today, in a matter of hours I have turned the rough idea of a few characters into an entire cast, the rough idea of a theme into a lifelong lesson that everyone will appreciate, and a rough idea of a plot into an entire story. The only part of Dramatica I've explored is the StoryGuide (the button that says "Start Here"). I tried the level one storyguide which gives you approx. 60 questions to answer (some multiple choice, others a choice of 2 options, and others a text box for you to jot down ideas). these questions go in some what of an order, and you can save it and go back and add more to anything. There's a spot to put a basic outline when you first begin, and later you go back, after answering questions and adding depth (with this programs help of course) to your characters, and can revise your outline with more details. Of course you can go back to anything at any time. This is so great for me because I'm a computer geek who does much better on this old thing than I do with a pad of paper and a pen. My biggest problem is, by far, writers block. This program continues to ask you questions (which you can skip and come back to) (if you dont understand the words they use..such as protagonist and antagonist..they have buttons giving brief summaries of their definitions--big plus!). By asking you so many questions about a number of topics, the writers block seems to go away. So far, I'm at the point where they help you create scenes. So I have my skeleton and all it needs is some meat and flesh. Then get it reviewed by some of my friends. Then off to the producers..then the movie theaters! Like I said, I'm not familliar with all aspects of this program, but this one section..the query system as they call it..has really helped me. If anything, I say it's worth the money just for this one part....
Rating:
Summary: Ahead of the curve.
Review: Having worked with, and studied the Dramatica theory of story development, and also looked at and read a few of the examples it is based on, it seems to me that Dramatica 4 is a product somewhat ahead of itself. By this I mean, that to convey the principles of Dramatica the prior art examples are either too archetypical with no real requirement for the use of Dramatica by those who intend writing such archetypes, or are too flawed so that they do Dramatica no favours due to them being little more than the nearest point of common reference. But by treating Dramatica as a philosophy and an abstraction, and not using it to see how prior art can be aligned to its principles, one can quickly see how Dramatica will enable the writer to create stories and forms hitherto unattainable, simply because the organisation of the story's elements and form would have been too difficult to keep track of. Therefore, in order to get the desired results from using Dramatica, the user has to gain expertise in the way of defining and structuring a story's elements with Dramatica, and not be trying to defend the outcome on prior art which is a close call. This is the hard part to Dramatica, since ideal prior art probably doesn't exist, from which to refer, except for the possibility of future works skilfully created with Dramatica. Now there's a chicken or the egg paradox.
Rating:
Summary: STOP, fear not the blank page
Review: There are NO shortcuts. Formulas are for fools. Writers block and fear of the blank page drove me in a moment of desperation to seek answers outside myself. Do not make my mistake and waste time and $$ on this "get creative(rich) quick" sham-scam product. It's worthless and will end up doing more harm than good, smothering your creativity to death. See Adaptation. There are no shortcuts. Work. If you're scared and desperate, write about that. But, please, do not buy this. Run away while there is still time.
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