Story Tree
Once upon a time there was a new writing app…
$9.99 Developer Jana Shepard, jalesha.com Requirements OS X 10.11 or later, 64-bit Mac
Story Tree aims to rethink minimal writing tools for creative writers, primarily by taking a two-pane interface and welding clever features to it. The basics are familiar: project windows have a writing area where you knock out words, and a sidebar for storing chapters and scenes that can be reordered. At first glance, it resembles a basic version of Scrivener, but there’s also a focused single-pane “writing mode” and four alternate color schemes if you’re not a fan of “desert” (read: beige).
Story Tree’s interesting bits are the Tools and Prompt buttons. The former opens a window used to define a timer and word count, while the latter throws up words to trigger ideas, offering over a billion combinations. Two clicks while writing this review gave us “monk/doctor’s office/garbage can/winter/joy” and “zoo keeper/movie theater/Halloween costume/1972/facial tics.” Throw in cutesy animation for the former or a bucket of gore for the latter and you’ve the basis for a Disney animation script or throwback horror.
Some seasoned creative writers maintain you should regularly write as quickly as possible. It doesn’t matter whether you end up using whatever you create – instead, this keyboard hammering should be considered exercise for your writing muscles. For the Tools and Prompt features alone, we really wanted to fall in love with Story Tree, but the execution is lacking.
The app’s release follows a year of testing, but it nonetheless feels unfinished. You can’t select and view multiple scenes or chapters, making Story Tree horribly limited for writing stories when compared to Scrivener or Ulysses. The Tools and Fonts windows have annoying backgrounds, and prompts vanish the second you start writing, forcing you to juggle them in your head. Bizarrely, the app also blocks access to OS X’s spelling and substitution features. There’s simply a single “Check Spelling” option lurking in the Tools menu. We suspect this is to force the writer to focus and write quickly rather than tidily, but it backfires to stop OS X helping when your fingers are at full pace. What you’re left with is an undercooked writing app with two superb features for creative writers, one of which is a bit broken. This might still be enough for some to take the plunge, and we hope the story doesn’t end here, because Story Tree definitely has potential.
the bottom line. There are some great ideas within Story Tree, but the basics of the app need work.