There is a point in everyone's life when he feels the need to share his experience with the rest or the world. For some people, this happens at an early age and has all the premises of becoming a profession while others just feel the need to write their memories. Whatever the reason, the process is a lot easier if you have the right tool and StoryMill fits the role perfectly.
The LooksLike all well organized applications, StoryMill has a very clean interface that provides easy access to most of the features, saving for the menu bar only the most complex ones like measuring word frequency, the progress meter or the clichs highlighter. The main window is separated in three different areas that allow you to easily access all the elements of your story like characters, places, scenes or the research made for the novel.
The WorksWhen you first start the application, the main window contains a tutorial designed to familiarize you with each field, providing information about the most important features, but also tips that you can find to be very useful. In order to actually work, you will have to open another window but you can access the tutorial any time you like. You can find it in the menu bar under Help. This way, you will learn that you are able to create notes on your work just like the "professionals" do, without using printed material. The feature represents a great addition if you consider the amount of time required by the "translation" of hand notes, although this is not all: you may also add pictures as notes. This brings us to StoryMill's main purpose: efficiency.
Any traditional novel that follows the classic pattern needs a story, a narrative line that can be followed. That is why you must synchronize your characters, places, ideas and organize them properly. Even if you are trying some highly experimental writing, a certain consistency must be provided. In order to help you with that, StoryMill offers, besides the window with all the basic functions and features made available by any respectable word editor, other three main areas. The first one, displayed on the left side of the main window, lets you easily browse through chapters, character descriptions, places, scenes, tasks or the research notes made upon a subject. Just select one of them and the information is automatically displayed in the work area. This means that all your data is a click away, so all the headaches generated by the millions of files and folders that were usually opened at once on your desktop are finally dead and buried. And this is not all: you can easily add and erase items or move them in order to better suit your needs.
If the entry selected is a folder that contains only one item, the second area completely disappears; if the entry has multiple files, the application displays the content of the folder right above the editing area. On the right side, the third area displays the attributes of a certain entry but also allows you to set awards for each one: 1st draft, 2nd draft, 3rd draft, not started, unfinished, needs work, final or published. There is information about the number of words and the notes added to each document. In the same area, you may add tags that you can further use to connect different entries that have the same characteristics. This way, you can organize your ideas by using different coordinates, sparing a lot of time required to browse through notes that you simply cannot remember where you have stored.
The program also provides a place called "Room to Breath", where you can go and write whatever comes in your mind without going through the trouble of immediately classifying it, and integrating it in the story plot. Another great feature is represented by the timeline provided for the scenes. Using this option, you can create a graphic representation of the events. But my favorite feature is the full screen option that simply hides all these small elements designed to help you and leaves you alone in front of the monitor. What could you want more?
The GoodYou might say that StoryMill provides almost all the features of a usual word editor and that its specific characteristics are very simple. Indeed, the simplicity of the solutions offered is only topped by its elegance, thus making it a truly unique product.
The BadThe application can be very useful to aspiring writers but $44.95 might seem a bit too much, considering that their ancestors only needed a piece of paper and a pen.
The TruthI believe that creative writing is quite similar to going to the Opera for the first time. If you do not enjoy it from the start, you can educate yourself in order to appreciate it but you will never truly understand it. The truth is that, if you have what it takes to become a writer and the time / determination to learn how to mingle with all the StoryMill features in order to get the best result, you could be just a step closer to your future novel. Your imagination is the only limit.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
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