Power Structure
Detailed Review:Power Structure is a complex, but very well-laid out, piece of novel writing software. It also has an instruction manual that you download with it which is possibly one of the best-written and easiest-to-follow manuals I've ever read - huge credit to them there. Power Structure is, as it says, about the structure of your story. It's about getting a well designed and structured outline in place so that you can just enjoy writing your novel. One thing I liked very much about it is that it is extremely customisable. You can change terminology, or options, to suit yourself. One example is that they call 'plot points' what I would call 'scenes'. And so it would be the work of the moment to change that terminology. When you open up a new file in Power Structure you're greeted by the following pop-up:
For novelists, the two realistic options are the first two. I show you below the difference that option makes. Once you've picked your option and hit 'Start New', you'll get the following screen. Do you see where it says 'Chapters', four buttons from the left? Well, that applies if you picked 'Novel Format' as your option. If you picked the Mythic 12-steps, that tab will say 'Journey Stages' and will feature each of the steps on the Mythic journey. The default tab is story/theme, and the drop-down menu (with the red X beside it) has the options of Backstory, Pitch, Premise (shown), Synopsis and Theme. You can fill in these here - it's good to fill in as much as you know. (One of the great things about Power Structure is that you can complete it in any order you choose. As they say, it's a toolbox and it's up to you to use te tools you find useful, and leave the rest. It's about freeing you, not constraining you.)
The 'Characters' tab is next, and here's where you create your characters. You'll see from the screenshot the sort of questions you can fill in. One minor detail is that they only give you the option of male or female. Other novel writing software products allow you to have a 'no gender' option and there are lots of times when that might apply - a robot character, for example. I like the questions they put to you in the drop-down menu: biggest failure to date, biggest success to date, biggest trauma to date, character's back-story, character's role or reason for being in the story, childhood dreams, and current dreams. These are good questions to ask, and can be fodder for the plot. Very cleverly you can also edit these categories or add new ones - so if you think of interesting questions of your own, you can add those too. The creators of Power Structure make it very easy too - just click on the little notebook icon to the left of the question bar.
After you' have created your characters, you can move onto the 3 act structure tab. You'll see along the left hand side the section for Act 1, Act 2 and Act 3. Each has a further drop-down menu which opens to Characters, the Plot Arc and the plot points (i.e. scenes). One thing I liked in the Plot Arc section was the Power Structure asks you to write in what is the Ticking Clock of this act. In other words, what is the danger that the characters are hurtling towards unless their actions manage to avert it. This sense of impending doom is essential to have in a novel, to keep the readers riveted, and I like the way Power Structure makes its inclusion an integral part of the story development. It also includes an option for 'The Climax' which is good too - every act needs a climax, and you need to know what it is. 
In this screenshot you'll see that if you click on the Act heading itself, you'll get a section called 'General Act Information'. It's the section below which is really useful to my mind: you have to list what has to be accomplished by the characters in this act. You fill this out yourself, and then tick them off. You don't tick them off here, though - you do so in the Plot Points section. This makes sense, because you need to write the scene (i.e. Plot Point) before it can be included in the story, and once you do that, it's ticked off. This is a super way of making sure you don't forget any essential steps.
The next stage is to click on the Chapters tab. (In a side note, stories are made of acts, which are made of chapters, which are made of plot points/scenes - and Power Structure cleverly puts the tabs in this descending order.) The questions you're asked make you consider the job of each chapter. What is that chapter's opening hook? (Every chapter needs an opening hook to draw the reader in, just as every story does.) How does this chapter move the story forward? This is essential to know - a chapter that just meanders for its own sake is death to a story. You need momentum and this question will ensure that you have it. And just as for the Acts section, you need to include a list of what happens in each chapter (and again, you'll mark these off by writing a plot point/scene for each one).
In the 'Introduction' section it asks you who the conflict is between in this plot point/scene. This is a very important element. You'll no doubt know that conflict is the life-blood of stories, and nearly every scene has to have conflict. And for conflict you need two parties. Power Structure gets you to focus on this by asking you who these two parties are. You'll see in the screenshot below that you're asked to allocate a colour to this conflict - this will be used later in the graphical illustration of conflicts. Power
Writer (Novel and Fiction Writing Software)
In the screenshot below you'll see a very clever element of Power Struture: in the 'Heightening' stage of the plot point/scene (circled in red), you're asked to indicate no a sliding scale (circled in blue) how high the tension is. This information is useful later when you'll be able to see the rise and fall of tension, to make sure there's a good flow.
And here it is: When you click on the Conflict Overview tab you get a visual graph of the different conflicts, and this is one of the cleverest elements of Power Structure. You can move the dots on the graph to change the tension to make it flow right - and then when you come to write it, you'll know how much tension to put into it.
The Gestalt Tab is just an overview tab, showing how acts, chapters and plot points all flow together:
In summary, when you use Power Structure you'll end up with an extremely well thought-out and constructed story, all ready for you to write it. It's a very well-made product. It's complex, so there is a learning curve, but their manual makes it very clear and easy. I like this product, and recommend it. Power
Writer (Novel and Fiction Writing Software)
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