Software Review: Plottr

If, like me, you are not a natural plotter but still need to keep your writing ideas organized, Plottr may be exactly the tool you’ve been searching for!

Before I finished the first draft of Oil and Dust, I started (and trunked) nearly a dozen novels. Each time, I began with a great idea and a lot of enthusiasm. But at some point I’d get stuck.

The lack of progress inevitably sucked away my creative energy, and my unwritten novels died from neglect. I didn’t know why my ideas died, but looking back, I suspect my progress stalled because I didn’t understand (or know about) story structure.

Here’s my ugly truth: I was a pantser, defined as one who writes by the seat of their pants. But I was mostly a pantser because I didn’t know how to outline a novel.

Now, there are a zillion craft books on how to outline, but each time I picked one up, overwhelm quickly followed. The rules put forth by the outlining books dismayed me.

Worse, their dire warnings about badly written stories—the result of writing without plotting—made me anxious.

Last, the outlining exercises in the books felt like homework to me.

Exhausting homework.

All I wanted to do was write!

However, since not plotting resulted in my afore-mentioned trunked novels, I needed to find a way to plan a book that would work for me.

My Evolution Toward ‘Plantsing’

I found my way into a type of outlining by reading about story structure. Once I understood the milestones of standard (western) story structure, I came up with a storyboard-style method for outlining. In it, I used the 4 Act variation of the 3 Act structure.

In my storyboard process, I started by writing a sentence or phrase about what happens at each of the story milestones. Then, I brainstormed what could happen between these moments. This gave me a loose possible plot and a visual way to see how much space I had to support the milestones.

This process put me into the realm of a plantser, one who incorporates both plotting and pantsing activities.

While my storyboard method worked for completing drafts, I found I was constantly erasing what I’d written in a square so I could “move” a scene. To solve this, I started writing my scene ideas on small sticky notes. The sticky notes allowed me to move and stack scenes. But, the system was still fairly static, meaning if I wanted to insert something, I had to move everything else too. Plus, the sticky notes provided little room to flesh out the meatier scenes.

As an example, here are my storyboards for Books 3 and 4 of the Elemental Artist series.

Once I completed the storyboard, my next step was to transcribe my scene ideas into Scrivener’s corkboard view. The corkboard allowed me to move the order of the scenes, but like the sticky notes, Scrivener doesn’t automatically renumber chapters.

Transcribing my storyboard into Scrivener was tedious, but only after I had brought my scene prompts into Scrivener, and set them in the right order, was I ready to draft. I used the sentence or phrase from my storyboard as a writing prompt to discovery write each scene.

But, considering I’d often scrap my scene prompt and write whatever I felt like, this was a time-intensive process… and why I found Plottr so intriguing.

What is Plottr?

Plottr is desktop or web-based visual book planning software. It was originally developed by YA author Cameron Sutter, and provides a way to construct a visual timeline and a searchable story (or series) bible.

Plottr’s Timeline feature includes starter templates that are fully customizable. Alternatively, you can build your own project from scratch. Plottr provides both a card (i.e. digital corkboard) and outline view, and the software easily allows you to flip between the two. You can add, delete, or stack scenes, and color code plotlines or scene cards. If you create custom attributes, categories, and tags, you can also filter your timeline or outline on the categories and tags you created.

The story bible features include a place to track characters, places, and notes. Like the scene cards, you can create custom attributes, categories, and tags for these items. Once created, you can use them to sort and filter. The software includes character templates you can customize. Alternatively, you can create and save your own character templates.

How Does Plottr Work?

When you first start, the software provides you the option to build a blank project or to use a starter template. As of this post date, Plottr provides starter templates for writing everything from mystery to romance. From children’s books, to folktale, to manga. Many of the templates are from popular methods such as Snowflake, Take of Your Pants, and Romancing the Beat. Not only are the templates customizable, but they’re stackable too!

Once you’ve created your story’s Timeline, you can drag your scenes around, revise them, move them between timelines, or delete them. Here’s a short video showing the Timeline.

Does Plottr Work?

Yes! Not only is the software as simple to use as the videos show, the team behind Plottr has released many updates and enhancements since I purchased it.

Create Timeline

For the purposes of this article, I created a demo project titled Seeds of Doom for this article using a starter template.

Details for Each Scene Card

In the next image, I’ve opened up the scene card for Chapter 2. I’ve written a 1-line description of what I plan to write in that chapter, but you could really write as much as you like. You can see on the left side bar that I’ve added tags, characters, and the location of the scene. Note, I often refer to my chapters as scenes, since I usually write one scene per chapter. However, Plottr lets you call them whatever you like. You can call them Chapters, Beats, Acts, etc.

I created custom attributes for these scenes too, viewable by clicking the Attributes tab.

Optional: Characters and Places

The Characters and Places sections work like the scene cards with templates and attributes, and you can fill them out as little or as much as you like. If you do use the character and places sections (not required), you can select them in your scene cards so you can see at a glance who is in the scene and where the scene is located.

As a bonus, if you add books to the series, the characters you’ve created in one book are available in the other books as well. This lets you build a series bible over time!

Export

Once you’re satisfied with your project, you have the option to export to Scrivener or Word. For Scrivener, Plottr provides advanced Export Options.
Here’s how my data looked when I opened the Scrivener file. As you can see, the import brought over my chapters, details, characters, and places. I did not create any notes, but it still created a folder for me, in case I wanted to add some on the Scrivener side.

As a comparison, here is the export to Word for the same Chapter.

What I Like

The software has a simple, intuitive feel. As you drag and drop your scene cards, the timeline (and outline) moves accordingly. I also like that you can bring in new templates on their own plotlines to refer to as you’re building out your story. The process to build a basic timeline is fast too—I built Seeds of Doom in about 30 minutes.

The program is amazingly flexible, and none of it is “required”. You can mix and match templates to build your own or start from scratch. When writing a series, you can keep multiple books in the same project, allowing you to reuse characters and places, and you can flip between books easily.

The filtering available in both the Timeline and Outline views is great. I really like that I can view the Timeline horizontally or vertically, and that I can use the scroll bar or the buttons to advance to the Beginning, Middle, or End.

Software Integrations

It is terrific that Plottr exports to both Word and Scrivener, although I ran into a few issues (described in the next section) when exporting to Scrivener. When I draft in Scrivener, I do so with the Inspector tab open, which allows me to view my storyboard prompt. The Plottr export put my details in the Synopsis, and custom attributes visible in the Notes section of the Inspector Tab.

I started with the desktop version of Plottr, and save my files to a folder on Google Drive. This has allowed me to work on the file both from my MacBook Air and my PC. The software looks and feels exactly the same on both systems. However, since the free upgrade to Plottr Pro, I no longer have the option to specify where my Plottr files are being saved. I haven’t investigated where the files are being stored, but I’ll do so in the future.

Plottr has provided all kinds of video tutorials on YouTube. Not only can you find an easy breakdown of how to use any part of the software, there are a lot of videos where different authors explain how they use the software in their processes.

What Could be Better

While the user interface is intuitive and easy, I think there are a few enhancements that would improve the experience.

First, I’d like to flip through scene cardss without opening and closing each one. It would be great to have an arrow for next scene/previous scene. This would let me quickly compare and contrast the details between scenes.

Next, I would love the ability to save more than one photo per character or place. I often collect multiple images of a person or place. Right now, I paste the file location of additional images in the character or place card.

Plottr makes it easy to save my custom attributes as a template. But it doesn’t let me apply the template to all the scene cards in the project. So rather than add my custom template to all scene cards manually, I create the same custom set of attributes in each project. That way, my custom attributes apply to all scenes. Alternatively, it would be great if we could build an untitled scene and duplicate it for the desired number of chapters.

When I bring starter templates into a new plotline, the beats all stack up on the left side of the timeline. However, each template beat provides a suggested percentage of where it fits into the story. Thus, it would be neat if the templates slid into the timeline with the beats at their suggested places.

Export Issues

Plotter doesn’t export into the latest version of Scrivener (Scrivener 3). Thus, you cannot export Plottr into an existing Scrivener file.

My workaround is to fully develop the project in Plottr before exporting it to Scrivener. Once exported, Scrivener rebuilds the file in the latest version.

However, this means you must finish your work in Plottr before you export. The alternative is to manually update your Scrivener file AND apply the same changes to your Plottr file. I suppose you could continue to work in Plottr and export to a different Scrivener file. But then you’d need to copy/paste into your working Scrivener file. That’s a lot of extra work.

Final Thoughts on Plottr

Plottr is so flexible that I spun my tires a bit when I first started using it. I was worried about the “right” way to use the software. However, the program’s flexibility means we can use what works for us, and ignore the rest. After that realization, I enjoyed digging into the software to see what was possible. Now, after I’ve captured my storyboard on paper, I transcribe my ideas into Plottr. Once my ideas are digital, I continue to add to the plot. I can also develop subplots and capture snippets of scenes as they come to me. Currently, I’m only filling out a few attributes per scene card. But as my process develops, I may add more attributes or templates to flesh out future books.

Right now, I’m working on the plot for Charcoal and Smoke, Book 3 in the Elemental Artist series. However, I plan to create timelines for the earlier books, even though they’re both already written. Keeping my notes, places, and character names in one place will make drafting the last books in the series easier.

For future (unwritten) books, I’m also considering using Plottr during the revision process. I could create a new timeline to record what actually happens in each chapter. This would be helpful since I never follow my storyboards verbatim. I could also create a timeline to make notes for scene-level revisions as I’m doing my initial read-through.

Although I currently use Scrivener, I’ve been watching the development of the Atticus writing software. A future Plottr/Atticus interface would make me much more likely to try out Atticus.

Finally, I liked Plottr enough that I signed up to be an affiliate. If you decide to purchase the software, please consider using my affiliate link. It won’t cost you anything extra, and I’ll earn a small commission. Win-win!

How do you plot or plan your books?

Header Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash