If you write fiction, you know that everything revolves around the plot. You can create fascinating and sympathetic characters but they still need to be part of an engaging story. Plot Factory was created to help writers devise plots that will compel their readers to keep turning the pages. In this Plot Factory review, we’ll look at the features, benefits, limitations, pricing, and any Plot Factory discounts to help you decide if you should add it to your writer’s toolbox.
The plot is the central focus of any story or novel. Whether you’re a novice or experienced writer, you may struggle with questions such as:
What should happen to my characters?
How do I create suspense and conflict?
What’s the right way to structure the plot?
How do I create a satisfactory ending?
These and other such challenges can be made easier with Plot Factory, a software created especially for fiction writers.
Top Benefits of Plot Factory
Free signup gives you access to basic features.
It makes it easier to create characters.
Create organized plots for any genre.
Works on any device with no installation required.
The dark mode is easy on your eyes.
Track your writing stats daily.
Now let’s look into some of Plot Factory’s features in more detail.
Write and Edit Your Stories Online
With Plot Factory, you can write stories on any device and edit at your convenience. You can use various software applications for writing, but many are limited to certain devices or operating systems. With Plot Factory, you can write at home or on the go with your phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop. Everything is cloud-based, so there’s no need to download any software.
Do you ever find that certain scenes don’t belong where you first put them? With Plot Factory, you can easily drag and drop scenes, either within a single chapter or from one chapter to another.
Story Outline Templates
With Plot Factory’s pre-made templates, you’ll find it easier to create and edit your stories. Every plot is unique, but most contain familiar elements. Each genre, such as romance, suspense, horror, and science fiction, has qualities that fans expect. Templates help you keep your stories in the appropriate mode and guide you so that you can keep the reader hooked. A template can’t do the writing for you, but it can help you stay on course.
Plot Organizer
A plot for longer stories and novels is usually divided into acts. Each act has to build upon what came before and set the stage for what’s to follow. One of your challenges as a fiction writer is to organize your plot in a way that makes sense and drives the story forward. Plot Factory helps you create more compelling and seamless plots.
Keep Track of Your Characters
The two main components of any story are plot and characters. While you can talk about them separately, they must combine seamlessly to create a compelling story. Keeping track of characters can get challenging, especially in longer stories and novels that contain lots of characters.
Did you ever read (or perhaps even write) a story where key facts about a character are inconsistent? This could be anything from the character’s name to his or her age or occupation. Alert readers will quickly spot this kind of mistake and will harm your credibility. It can lead to negative reviews, as well.
Plot Factory has character lists that make it easy to keep track of all relevant facts about your characters such as name, gender, age, ethnicity, personality, and anything else that’s relevant. If you have a minor character you barely remember later in the story, you don’t have to go back and look up what you wrote about them. You can view your character list from your editor for easy reference. Plot Factory even has a feature that lets you create character avatars. This way, you can visualize each character as you write about them.
Character Sheets
Plot Factory doesn’t only have features to help you keep track of your characters. It also helps you create new ones. It’s not always easy inventing characters that are a perfect match for your story. Character sheets, available in the Enthusiast and above plans (see the breakdown of plans below), make it simpler to devise believable, fleshed-out characters who your audience will love (or hate).
Universe Notebook
This feature is great for authors who are writing a series. Many books today contain recurring characters who return for sequels. The “universe” of these characters needs to be consistent from one book or story to the next. Whether your characters are police detectives, explorers of distant planets, or ordinary people living in a small town, you need to create a world for them that’s coherent and consistent.
Statistics About Your Stories
It’s always good to know how many words you’re writing every day or in every session. Plot Factory’s writing statistics, however, go far beyond this. You can break it down to identify how many words you’re devoting to each character. This helps you avoid the problem of giving too much or little attention to a certain character.
Audio Narration
Hearing how your stories sound out loud helps you identify awkward passages. You can even choose narration options such as male and female voices and English accents.
Additional Features
Notes – Create notes about the plot, characters, web page links, or anything you may need to reference. You can easily access these notes as you’re writing.
Auto-save -Your work is automatically saved, so you never have to worry about losing everything.
Share links – Send chapter links to friends, beta readers, agents, or editors.
Name generator – You don’t have to worry about getting stuck thinking of a character name.
Export – You can export your projects into multiple file types: Word, PDF, ePub, Text, or HTML.
Beats mode – Lets you provide a synopsis for your scenes and view the plot on a single page.
Plans and Pricing
Plot Factory offers several plans, including a free one, that caters to your needs based on how much writing you do.
Basic: Free. Lets you create 1 story and 1 universe with unlimited backups, daily goal tracking, 250 words of narration per day.
Hobbyist: $9/month or $90/year. Unlimited stories and universes, character sheets, remove ads, 1000 words of narration per day.
Enthusiast: $14/month or $140/year. All Hobbyist features plus plot organizer, story questionnaires, and sidebar quick viewer, unlimited narration.
Novelist: $19/month or $190/year. All Enthusiast features plus ePub format exports, beats mode, advanced word analysis, and story drafts/versioning.
Plot Factory offers a 14-day free trial for all paid plans.
Occasionally and periodically, Plot Factory runs short-lived promotions, like right when COVID hit, around the beginning of camp Nanowrimo. At the moment, right when you sign up for the free trial, you will have the option to upgrade using coupon code early-bird and get 30% off your first year of membership (monthly or annual).
It might be useful to compare Plot Factory to Scrivener, probably the best-known and most comprehensive writing software on the market. Here are some of the leading benefits of Scrivener.
Templates for all types of writing. While Plot Factory is specifically for fiction, Scrivener can be used for nonfiction as well as screenwriting. You can organize research for term papers, format a script, or use the novel template.
The Corkboard feature helps you organize any project. The digital version of a traditional cork board can organize chapters, scenes, research on a specific topic, characters, or anything else.
Set project and session targets. Scrivener lets you set up targets for a particular session or the entire project.
Import files from anywhere. Depending on what you’re writing, you may need to incorporate material from many sources. With Scrivener, you can import images, text files, PDF files, or web pages to use in your current project.
Reasonable pricing. For software that does as much as Scrivener, the price is quite affordable. You can download it for Windows, Mac, or iPhone for a one-time fee of around $40.
Is Scrivener better than Plot Factory? It really depends on your needs. While the above are some of the biggest reasons so many writers love Scrivener, there are also some reasons you might prefer Plot Factory.
The biggest advantage that Plot Factory has over Scrivener is that it’s quite a bit simpler to learn and use. Scrivener has a fairly steep learning curve, to the point that there are several courses on the market to teach you how to use it. Plot Factory is more streamlined.
Plot Factory is also more convenient than Scrivener if you’re using multiple devices. With Scrivener, you need to download the software. As noted, there are pros and cons to downloadable vs. cloud-based software. Plot Factory, with its browser-based functionality, is more agile in many ways. Some writers who work in multiple formats use both Scrivener and Plot Factory.
Pros and Cons of Plot Factory
Plot Factory, like any tool, has both benefits and drawbacks.
Pros
Simple to use from any device, including phones.
It helps you to generate plots, which is one of the main stumbling blocks of fiction writing.
It helps you create and keep track of your characters.
Cons
No offline mode. This is one drawback of an app that can only be accessed online.
Mainly of use to fiction writers. While nonfiction writers, especially if you’re writing something like a biography or memoir, can use it, the tool is not really made for non-fiction.
Plot Factory: Value and Recommendation
Plot Factory is an efficient tool that can help you create and organize your plots and characters. While it doesn’t quite have the range of capabilities as Scrivener, it’s a more focused software tailored to fiction writers’ needs. It’s important to realize that any writing tool can only help you apply your ideas. You still need to tap into your own creativity if you want your writing to stand out. However, the right tools can make the process simpler. Plot Factory is especially recommended for fiction writers who use multiple devices and want to work from anywhere.