How to tell a Story: Live, Lite, Turbo

[Curt]

In September 2011 Gizmo's Freeware told about Story Lite:

Free Fiction Planning Software Makes A Great General-Purpose Organizer Too
Updated 21. September 2011 - 12:26 by r.schifreen

StoryLite is a free application which is mostly aimed at those who write fiction (by which I mean novels and short stories, rather than expenses claims!).  But it's actually a great general-pupose organizer too.

It's basically an electronic whiteboard onto which you can write sticky notes and move them around.  What makes this program particularly handy is that you can zoom and pan the screen, which means you can fit loads more information on it.

If you want to try it, you can download StoryLite at http://www.storylite.com/.  It's free, and is a 19 MB download for Windows.  A Mac version is also available. 

-Gizmo

I tried the program and was mildly impressed, but thought the program was not for me, because Story Lite is different from what else you have tried, and I didn't bother to learn how to use it. But of course, I need to learn how to tell a story, so I've stayed in touch.

Today I have received an email invitation to become a member of their new site Story Live:

Story Live: How to write fiction, stories, movies, film script writing, poetry, essays and more

Become you – a real writer. This site will be your first stop for all things writing related, both for fiction and script writing. All information and tools in ONE PLACE – this will save you a lot of time! Plus pro courses with top tutors in Fiction and Script Writing.

-Story Live

Story Live is offering a free "Silver" or an early bird $5 per month "Gold" membership. Gold is including tutor feedback.

In February they are planning to launch the pro version of Story Lite, Story Turbo.

http://www.writingcoursestorylive.com/
http://www.storylite.com/
http://www.storyturbo.com

[Curt]

Can you wait? (I hope so) Apologies for the delay in arrival of Story Turbo, it is still getting debugged, but should be ready fairly soon.
Yet more news: we have a Story Software iPad version due out in a few months, this will be crowd funded, I will keep you informed of all that.

Like us on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StorySoftware

Google+ via http://www.storylite.com/#google

Business Presentation quick tips via our front page http://www.storylite.com/
 

-Geoff Davis

[Curt]

STORY TURBO  with images NOW!
No more waiting
Just one message in this newsletter:


VISIT STORY TURBO NOW and check out this huge upgrade to Story Lite
- import Images, 400% zoom, more features.

Windows and Mac versions. There are even more things to be added over the next few months.

Intro offer:
We are giving you a 50% discount on the usual price as an introductory offer, so it is only $9.99 (usually $19.99), or about £5.50 for the United Kingdom, or €7.80. This is a give-away price for advanced software, so buy now before the price goes up!

You can order as many licenses as you want in the purchasing system which uses Paypal, or a credit/debit card. If you order over ten ask for a discount, we can negotiate bulk rates for schools, businesses, government, charities and so on.

Please note Mac installers will be arriving later Tuesday 12 June. Order now, download very soon.

Visit Story Turbo now > http://www.storyturbo.com/

Thanks,
Geoff Davis

[Curt]

STORY MOBILE with Images, Instagram/Flickr and more

We have a exciting new project which will improve your Story Lite usage, as are also adding a new website and more Import/Export functions, to help people using Story Software.

Note: The online investment period is extended to the end of August!

Visit Story Mobile crowd funding pitch, on Appsfunder site >

The address is:
http://appsfunder.co...project/story-mobile

[superboyac]

Seems to me not that different than OneNote.

[Curt]

new temporary price less than $1, so no free trial:







even though the address still is saying there is a trial:
http://www.storyturb...l-demo-free-version/

edited:

---------------------
just to remind of what the program is for:

[superboyac]

I'll have to try this out.  I've tried most story software, and the ones I eventually found myself using were treesheets for doing initial rough brainstorming.  and for laying stuff out however I want, guess....autocad.  I know that's weird and overkill, but it just feels so good.  You know why?  because it's just lines, shapes, and text in the end.  And my big beef with most story tools is the printing capabilities.  In autocad, I have super duper precise control on the printing.  So whatever I do, I can print out exactly the way I want without transferring content to other applications and all that headache.  I have this problem with all outliners, which is why I gave up using them for developing stories.

Just as a quick example, look at this page from a voltage drop explanation document I did in autocad, I love it:
How to tell a Story: Live, Lite, Turbo

That's me, after trying out MS Word, Indesign, Scribus, and maybe a few others, and saying "F it.  I'm doing this in autocad.  I know it, I can do just about anything I want, that's it, I'm done with the rest."  That's also me rebelling against the standard academic two-margin paper format, too.  I like comic books, I like how they present a story...so that's how I'm going to tell the story of voltage drop.

[Curt]

edit#4 (November 5'th, 2012): The author of the program has written me and asked if I could moderate my wording, because the program has more than 50.000 users but no-one else has ever reported anything similar to what I was complaining about when I first wrote this post. In all fairness (to DonationCoders) I am leaving (the rest of) the post as is, as it was, but must stress that I now have the new version 2.2, and it does not have the following problem:
-----------
original post:
-----------
hmm... this was terrible. At first launch, a license screen the size of a house popped up and totally blocked the screen! It really was gigantic; I could only see a fraction of it, and had no way to move it. I pressed Alt+Tab and killed it via my task manager. Now I am wondering if I should try again, or just use the "money return guarantee" ($1).

 

edit:

I tried again, but there is no way I can begin testing this program.

click thumbnail for full 1024x768 screenshot:

How to tell a Story: Live, Lite, Turbo


This is not the best way to begin telling a story...

 

Edit#2: A new version is coming later today tomorrow. Maybe...
Edit#3: The software author has asked me to tell that "my" problem is the first of its kind, that they have heard of.

[Curt]

A new version 2.1 is ready, now with a normal trial; you don't have to first purchase the $1 program.

Sadly it didn't change anything for me. I am puzzled by the apparent fact that no one else has had the same problem as I am having. @superboyac, did you test it?
 

[Renegade]

I had a look there at the site, but couldn't find a compelling reason to use it. I guess that I already have a lot of other tools to do those kinds of things though, so I'm not really the target audience for it. (e.g. Word, InDesign, Photoshop, etc.)

I guess that there are people that could really use it, and for $0.99? Sheesh. It's worth a buck just to play with it if you're remotely interested.

[Curt]

Version 2.2 is here, and the bug has been worked around, so I am finally able to test the program. My first impression is that it launches weirdly slow, but that may be because of the many templates included. Also, the GUI is surprisingly simple; is this really all it takes?

Anyway, the price is less than a dollar, so shut up and smile!