A Zero Friction UI I had been using Apple's Numbers to plot my novels. Numbers is a great general purpose number-crunching tool. But it's not designed specifically to build plots. I tried Plottr, and about ten minutes into my evaluation, I bought it. I liked how it supports multiple plotting frameworks (my favorite is the Seven Point Plot Structure), but even without those, I would still have purchased it. Its interface was designed to lay out a plot the way a writer thinks about it. The UI offered zero friction with creative thinking. Instead of spending mental energy fighting a general purpose tool, I could focus on coming up with plots to entertain readers. The only drawback? I can't blame the tool if I don't deliver! It's all on me, because Plottr is everything it needs to be, and nothing it doesn't need to be.

Plottr helped streamline outlining I bought Plottr slightly over a year ago because I wanted to outline a novel in a way that would be easy to edit, but the available tools didn't seem helpful- Google Sheets seemed like it'd be clumsy while copy & pasting, plus visually distinguishing cells could be mentally cumbersome. I was averse to index cards for a number of reasons (my legibility is poor, space reasons, keeping track of them all, didn't want to write and re-erase everything, etc.). So I bought Plottr- and to be honest, I'm quite pleased with it. Over the next few months, I found I was able to reorganize my outline relatively easily as I started coming up with events. I don't remember when I got the major plot points into a satisfactory state as it was a gradual process, but I'm in a state right now where I can start writing up parts of my story, save as scenes and then click and drag in Plottr as needed to rearrange.

Plottr is essential to stay organized Plottr is essential to stay organized. I am working on a long novel (or series maybe?), and there are so many places, characters, themes, and plot points to keep track of. Using Plottr has actually allowed me to develop my story in ways I didn't think it could go because it can hold everything for me as I try to fit the pieces together. I have created a database for every single element of my story and it's amazing!

Story Structure and Templates I really like all the options for structuring a writing project in plottr. For a new writer, this is a really good tool so far. It is flexible enough to use my own structure (once I have one) but it is really great to be able to start with some idea of what a good novel should have in terms of flow and plot points. Not restrictive, but helpful.

Never start with a blank page again Plottr is not just a phenomenal tool for ensuring you hit every beat in your story, developing a well-structured, perfectly satisfying story. But it also ensures you never start with a blank page. Whether you're actually a plotter or if you're a pantser, you can use these outlines to kickstart your creative juices, using the beat descriptions as the start to your writing session. I love this tool and can no longer live(write) without it.