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"[StoryCraft
Software is] the best story-development tool
on the market today..."
Charles Deemer,
ACE Award-winning playwright and webmaster,
Screenwriter's and Playwright's Home Page
"This elegant program was designed to teach
perfect, pure storytelling.... And, it delivers
exactly that, helping writers to take a mere
idea and make it into a full, living breathing
story."
John Scott Lewinski,
Scr(i)pt Magazine (Jan./Feb. 1999)
"It's not hard to figure out why it's
become a standard.... I've encountered a lot
of people who use StoryCraft
and rave about it, and I recommend it...."
Skip Press, Insider's
Guide to Hollywood Producers, Directors, and
Screenwriter's Agents (1998)
"The program is extremely easy to use and
is well constructed. The user has only to follow
the steps outlined in the tutorials that appear
with each section, and they are well on their
way to creating their masterpiece."
And: "StoryCraft...allows
your creative juices to flow.."
Thomas B. Griffith,
Editor-in-Chief, Screenwrite Now!
"StoryCraft
is...easy to use, well organized, and has very
helpful tutors.... I was very pleased with its
user friendliness and found no glitches."
Patti Cearley,
Writer's Workshop (Dec. 1994)
"...an ideal program!"
National Writer's Association
(Winter 1994)
"The Jarvis Method...has been the accepted
standard for years."
And: "[StoryCraft
writer's software] works like magic."
Michael Dale, Writers'
Journal (March 1996)
And here are a few more extraordinary commendations
from among the literally hundreds of laudatory
compliments that have, over the years, been
given to StoryCraft
writer's software and The Jarvis Method:
StoryCraft writer's
software is frequently mentioned or reviewed
in Writer's Digest. It was Lawrence DiTillio,
writing for Writer's Digest in the December
1994 issue, who was among the first major reviewers
to take seriously the then-revolutionary program.
And in the popular national writers' magazine
Writers' Journal (March 1996), software reviewer
Michael Dale states succinctly that StoryCraft
writer's software is "a story processing
program that works like magic."
And in the Writer's Digest's January 1995 overview
of writer's software by Edgar Bryan, StoryCraft
writer's software was among the highest rated
software programs for writers.
In the Fiction Writer magazine (July 1999),
Keir Graff notes that "Writer John Jarvis's
amalgamation of the teachings of Aristotle,
Joseph Campbell, Lajos Egri, Rudyard Kipling
and others recognizes the equal, intertwining
importance of five distinct elements of fiction
-- concept, category, type, components, and
structure...[and the software] lays out your
choices in these categories step by step."
Graff pictures Hollywood execs using StoryCraft
even for evalating films: "Though you can
use his guidelines to create a novel or a screenplay,
one pictures a bunch of Hollywood execs using
this type of material as a checklist, much as
Joseph Campbell's works are often used: There
must be a quest, a helper, a mentor, a nemesis,
etc."
Graff also marvels at how the software improved
his own work: "It did do interesting things
to my story. Reviewing the character archetypes
presented to me, I felt my buddy tale seemed
unbalanced and [I] added a love interest....
In StoryCraft parlance,
Julie...is the antagonist, for she spurs the
change in Travis.... Hank is the gate guardian
because he warns Travis off from his goals...."
Working within "the narrow parameters of
the Jarvis method made me feel my story was
more manageable."
Furthermore, a review by Patti Cearley in the
prestigious Writer's Workshop magazine (Dec.
1994), observes the way in which StoryCraft
"forces tight writing which is what keeps
a story moving and interesting." Dr. Cearley
states further:
"StoryCraft
delivers and [I] give it a thumbs up. The tutors
give you the nuts and bolts to put your story
together, and it's a flexible program enabling
different treatments and different types of
stories...."
The top-rated, nationally syndicated computer
column of Universal Press Syndicate - On Computers
by Bob Schwabach - poignantly noted (Oct. 1994)
that, as a learning tool, StoryCraft
writer's software "is closer than [its
leading competitor] to what most people expect
from a writing instruction program!" Says
Schwabach:
"The program takes you through the creation
of a completed work of fiction. This will not
be somebody else's work of fiction but a story
you...write!"
In the prestigious PC Magazine's overview of
writer's software programs (June 1999), it is
emphasized that "StoryCraft
is far less complicated to use than they [all
the other programs] are -- and has a much lower
price tag."
In a remarkable review from the New York Screenwriter
(Jan. 1996), the reviewer was particularly struck
by the sheer volume of information contained
in the StoryCraft
writer's software program.
Even The Nightmare Express: The Newsletter for
Horror Writers states in its Sept.1994 issue
that StoryCraft
writer's software "provide[s] computer
users with the capability of writing a complete,
sophisticated story. Story writing, it appears,
has finally entered the 20th century."
Indeed, StoryCraft
has been one of the most reviewed and talked-about
writer's software programs around, including
top endorsements from Skip Press in his bible
of screenwriters' reference books, The Insider's
Guide (1998), and from John Scott Lewinski in
his review column for the prestigious scr(i)pt
magazine (Jan./Feb. 1999).
In the publication of the National Writers Association
(Winter 1994), the editors observed that StoryCraft
writer's software is "an ideal program,"
especially "for those who desire a more
structured look at writing." Indeed, StoryCraft
virtually forces its users to sit down and write
rather than to grope haphazardly for a story.
In the North Carolina Writers' Network's The
Network News (Sept/Oct.1994), the editor writes,
in part:
"StoryCraft...allows
writers not just to type and process words,
but also to create and structure whole stories,
a story-processing program!"
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