Contour

We all know how moody one’s creative juices can get at times and how narrative devices can appear to be unapproachable not only for regular folks but also for professionals.

Nevertheless, there are technical solutions that come to the aid of people who don’t rely on muses to create great stories, and Contour is once such program.

Coming with a lightweight GUI that packs a variety of skins meant to be as pleasing to the eye as possible and not restrain your creative processes, the tool is designed for screenwriters who want to structure their ideas in a concise and intelligible manner.

Contour is a compilation of literary advice meant to draw a sketch of your story. Designed as a set of well-placed questions you need to answer, the app should clarify the narrative routes you need to take to get one step closer to a relatable and thorough plot.

The upper section of this writing companion comprises a nice map of all the stages a story must evolve through so that the resulting text can have a strong structure that would appeal to readers.

A nice addition to this software solution is that it features a set of famous screenplays that get analyzed and explored based on the principles you should adopt for your own literary endeavor.

Based on these examples, it should be a breeze to add a new entry for an original screenplay and attach an overview, notes, as well as feedback. Settling on a genre should also prove useful and help you stick to a clear-cut direction.

Other than that, all you have to do is start answering the questions that are associated with valuable explanations. This is literary theory in disguise, but the suggestions are approachable, and no academic talk is involved, even though it is quite apparent that the indications are well funded.

In case you have an idea you want to subsequently explore or simply get back to, you can click the dedicated button in the bottom-right corner and illustrate any stage of literary development with more info.

Once your outline is complete, you may employ a spellchecker that can be accessed using the “Edit” menu. Finding a specific string of text is also possible using the same section of the program.

Another notable aspect is that the program also allows you to choose the font that fits your imagination, as well as the text color and size. As for the saving alternatives, you can store the resulting project as a TXT, HTML, or RTF document, and you can also check an option that auto-saves your content regularly. What’s more, exporting your screenplay is possible.

On an ending note, Contour is an approachable program meant to prove that the writer’s block is merely a myth and that a good literary structure is all it takes for you to create a worthy text.