Storyist App Reviews

This will be a nice product in (near ?) future. As of now, it is functional; however, annoying bugs keep me from viewing wildly favorably. I am skeptical that the other reviewers put it through the paces.

Best writing app Ive found. Pretty much has everything I need. I switched syncing from Dropbox (which was good) to iCloud (which is great!). The UI took a little getting used to, but now its my go-to app on both iOS and OS X.

I anticipated I would be able to work on a Scrivener project on my Ipad and also be able to work on the same project on my airbook (using Scrivener). However, after purchasing this and attempting it, and reading about the attempts of a few others, it appears this is not likely to work. First, you can only read in Scrivener files using iCloud, because storyist cannot use the scrivener file format created by dropbox. However, storyist does not sync well with icloud. The folder created to sync with icloud never appeared on my other devices. The forums suggest this is a common problem. Second, its not clear that storyist saves Scrivener files. So you cant create a file on ios storyist and then save it to Scrivener. You can import a Scrivener file, but you cant sync it, and you cant create a file and then save it to Scrivener. Not really practical. If I ever figure it out Ill update this.

I used this to edit Scrivener files on my iPad for a while, and it...did that job, but very poorly. It changed formatting. I couldnt copy and paste into it without losing italics. Very haphazard. It was the only game in town for a while but now that its not, Im never using it again.

I have used Storyist for years. It keeps my manuscripts, research, and notes efficiently organized. I love that it has the option to sync to iCloud. I often begin writing on my Mac and finish on my iPad. Storyist and iCloud let me switch between devices without fear of the dreaded version conflict. I love coming back to my Mac and finding that my changes are there even if I hadnt saved. Could Storyist use a new coat of paint? Sure. Its looking a bit dated next to Scriveners new app, but it does its job. It does it well.

I had a manuscript on this app and now its gone one day it was there and now you changed the look of the icon and my entire story is gone. Im very upset because I put a lot of time and effort in this story.

Storyist is really fun to use, and designed with thought and skill. The interface is just perfect - and I love that the correct formatting is all explained, in their excellent and easy instructions. And the correct formatting is completely provided for our use in their templates (although anyone who wants to can go in a different direction with no problem). Also, export options are plentiful. I cant believe Im going to recommend this over the other main app out there, but yup, I like Storyist better. It does more of the things that are meaningful to me, and gives me a sense of security thats important to me. That fear of doing something wrong has vanished. This is the one!

This app is insanely amazing! I recommend it to everyone. There is a lot of depth to it, but they have a guide to help. Get it!

These guys must be well connected b/c my original negative review was removed. If this app were .99 or even $3, id give it more stars, but at $10 and marketing itself as a pro app that allows you to make pro submissions it is way overreaching. It a good development tool with a clever keyboard. For that i give two stars. If you read the positive reviews carefully youll se that people are happy with the app at first, as was I. It takes a bit of usage to see its flaws, its biggest being that you can not really do pro submissions without things like Spell check, which is does not have despite the "fix." Word count is also not accurate as it counts the chapter heading as part of the total, another amateur move. I cannot speak for other reviewers but Ive had numerous books published and actually do pro-level submissions and I really wish this app would step up so i could use it as advertised. So, for now, Pages is still my go to app for mobile writing.

I have tried many, but Storyist is the most creative. Also, thanks for throwing those helpful documents in there. They were extremely helpful! There are just little things here and there. Like for instance; When Im typing on a character sheet and press edit to add or delete characteristics, doesnt let me shift them up or down. Also, I would appreciate if you guys could come up with a smoother transition into having the index cards parallel to a document. I dont like the fact that I have to press a button, then another, then another.

The idea behind Storyist is not new. An all-in-one program allows the creative juices to flow, without having to jump from app to app collating ideas into a finishing app. Storyist offers the opportunity for the writer to break down their story to its basic components. It manages this by offering easy to access and easy to create sections within each project. Helpful tools include pages for character profiles, a plot summary, blank text pages for notes, complete text and paragraph style functionality, and even an images folder. Like many all-in-one programs, there is a tendency for some parts of the app to shine, leaving other parts that dont live up to their potential. The index card feature is a perfect example. It is cumbersome and while integrated, seems to function much differently than many much more intuitive and functional index card apps. Inserting images into a document is an exercise in frustration. It is as if Storyist treats images as one of the many text styles (basic or custom). I am not sure why one would want to include images in a novel manuscript or screenplay submission, as it is highly irregular. But the option is available, if you can figure out how to make it work. The most disappointing issue is text flow. Storyist offers such advanced style sheet customization and extended keyboard functionality, I was surprised to find that Storyist advances words in a sentence to the next line, despite there being plenty of white space left on the previous line and no custom margin settings other than the standard, left align. Perhaps an example is best. I will use a sentence demonstrating how most text editors would correctly handle a sentence: "Storyist could be a great application for writers," Here is how Storyist might render the same sentence: "Storyist could be a great application for writers." Notice how Storyist advances text to the next line when unnecessary? Storyist handles sentence flow in this fashion far too often. A manual solution to the problem is to perform a cut and paste operation, placing the words where they should be, thus fixing the irregular text flow anomaly. Having to do this at least one time, in nearly each paragraph is unacceptable. Updates/Upgrades: Storyist responded with four updates in 2013, and none in 2014. It has now been nine months since the last update. The bottom line: If the rudimentary settings are not changed, Storyist provides the writer templates to create properly formatted manuscripts for both novels and screenplays. Many other apps do the same. The extra ability to create a finished document, with custom formatting, provides the user with page-layout functionality. There are better page layout apps in which text flows properly, images can be inserted, scaled, masked and to which text wrap settings can be applied. My opinion: Storyist is an almost great app for writing stories, screenplays and novels. For in-spec novel manuscript or screenplay submissions, Storyist functions best when you use the formatted templates and change nothing. Having said that, the style sheet options are among the best, and the extended keyboard options are handy. I use Storyist for this reason alone. It makes great short, ready to print documents. The inability to work with images, a less than stellar index card function and the incredibly poor text flow glitch prevent it from being capable of doing much more. Though it had four updates last year, it has not seen an upgrade since 2013. In the effort to create an, "all youll ever need text, screenplay and page-layout app," Storyist comes up short. I give it three stars.

I’ve been looking at a number of index card-based writing tools and so far I have yet to find the one that will take me through my whole process, which consists of three broad steps: 1) jot down my plot points and other brief ideas on index cards until I have a basic skeleton of the story; 2) take up each index card and expand on them with more lengthy notes, as well as add additional cards, also with lengthy notes, for the scenes between my plot points; 3) start writing the manuscript. I currently use the Index Card app, which is perfect for the first two steps but which does not have a function to write a formatted manuscript, so I have to turn to Word to do that. Storyist, unfortunately, is lacking on my step 2. Sure, you can write extensive notes on the card itself, but it is a limited view and I would be doing a lot of scrolling to review those longer notes (which can go a full page or more). Index Card has a couple of ways to add lengthy notes to each card, both of which provide a full screen view which has been awesome. That’s what Storyist lacks and it’s a biggie for me. In addition, I don’t find the functionality very intuitive, but that may just be a learning curve. Other things that don’t work great for me: I would like to pin the navigation pane while in profile view, rather than having to be in landscape view, because profile view fits my hands perfectly when writing. I understand that would limit the space for the manuscript, but couldn’t you move the cards across the bottom in that case? (a la the Skeleton app)? Also, it would be nice if you could view longer card notes while in this view as I am often referring back to the while writing, maybe by expanding the card. So the long and the short of it is: I was hopeful at first, but am now a little deflated, particularly after paying $10, which is a rather steep price. But, I’ll keep checking back with the hope that some future updates will incorporate the functionality that I need.

There are so many useful features. I use it for screenwriting, creative writing, academic writing, and journaling. If there were an OS X app, it would be my next purchase. Devs- I double dog dare you to make an OS X app companion.

This app seems really stable, and the interface is gorgeous, responsive, and pretty nicely laid out. I havent been using it for long, but I already can see a couple of things that will drive me nuts in the long-run. 1) Having to long-press an index card to edit it. Id prefer to double tap it. Its just quicker. 2) If you delete a section hash mark, the card and notes corresponding to it get deleted as well. Undoing reinserts the hash mark and generates a new index card, but the notes associated with it are not restored.

...so that I can give it a all the stars.

This app does everything a written needs to write script, novel, etc. its very organized and the flow is smooth. I rate five stars because it is well deserved. Thank you to the developers of this app. You have made my life a lot easier!

...seamless writing and editing, great Dropbox support, superb formatting options, and a great support and user group. Makes Word and Pages look like a ball and chain around the writers ankle. Just buy it already!

nice app but the UI is in dire need of work for the iPhone 6+ in draft mode, the text is massive! I mean like 36pt. if you turn off draft mode the text is scaled to the page - which is better, but when you scroll up or down the page floats crazily so its not good for editing also they keyboards are way too big! especially in landscape - the keyboard occupies 2/3 of the screen. so the writing experience is not great on the iPhone 6+ .... I am sure it will be fixed soon with an update? IMO the iPad functionality desperately needs to be added for iPhone 6+ users, in particular the extended keyboards. otherwise looks like a fine app

This is a five star app but it needs to be updated. The template sheets are not fitting correctly on the screen. They tend to be too tall and its hard to see what you are typing at the top of the page. Hope the dev updates it soon for the new iOS 8.

After years of waiting, I finally jumped ship waiting for literature and lattes to come out with an iPad companion app for Scrivener. I was told about storyist and jumped in with both feet. A few issues - first is the app does not automatically sync documents, this is up to you to do as the user. Im told that the new storyist Mac app syncs with iCloud but no such option available in app. The design is a little plain and as I am running iOS 8, it looks more dull than it would otherwise and has a few up bugs which I dont think are directly the apps fault, but it would be great if there were updated to iOS 8. Over a year since the last update and while I would admit this doesnt need to be changed every 30 seconds, it would be nice to keep up with OS updates. 5 stars when we get iCloud sync in app and iOS 8 update.