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Story Wizard - Creative Writing Software for Kids Review
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Manufacturer: Creativity Software
Find all Creativity Software reviews
ESRB Rating:
Platform(s): Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT
Release Date: December 31, 1969
Average Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars
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Retail Price: $34.99
Online Price: $34.99
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Features:- "The magic is that it doesn't feel as if you are writing a book" The Sunday Times of London
- "Story Wizard is motivating and fun and earns a Best Budget Buy Award" Computer Shopper magazine
- Provides everything that the young imaginative mind needs to produce creative stories
- Based on a proven adult writing program - Newnovelist - that has sold over 50,000 copies
- Perfect for kids with an active mind, to produce something more worthwhile than the highest score on their Gameboy!
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The best way of describing a product honestly is to let a professional software reviewer give you their opinion. The following review appeared in Computer Shopper, and was awarded the "Best Budget Buy Award" in September 2005.
"Reading is fun but writing is even more fun because you can invent everything!" Story Wizard provides a stimulating environment in which to write stories, including a full dictionary and thesaurus as well as an automatic spellchecker, and there's help at hand when users try to decide where to start or what to write next. It even helps with fictitious names, offering a billion name combinations for convincing characters, and has a place name database covering the whole world.
Although the software doesn't write the words for you, its templates provide structure and guidance. To start you choose a type of story and give it a working title. You also need to decide on its size: short, with three phases, beginning middle and end; medium, with six episodes giving scope for development; or long, with 12 chapters.
Story Wizard then focuses on characters, encouraging users to think about the role they play in the story and about their defining characteristics. It also pays attention to location and themes; indeed, to all the ingredients of a well-crafted story. One of its helpful features is a link to the Microsoft speech engine to read aloud what has been written on the screen, although to use this feature you need Windows XP. Finally, when you want to publish your work it provides facilities to design the front cover.
Story Wizard is motivating and fun and earns a Best Budget Buy award. It is ideal for home users but also deserves a place in the classroom." Janet Swift.
Story Wizard is also supplied to the schools system in the United Kingdom, where it is considered a core curriculum title relevant to teaching creative writing for ages 9-16.
User Submitted Story Wizard - Creative Writing Software for Kids Reviews
Date: 2005-11-22
Cool For Kids
This program has really delighted my 12 year old, and I have also used it, and I've enjoyed it too! It is so easy to use, and just engages you in writing so quickly. I think the parts that my daughter likes most are the diary (which she locks with a password) developing characters with the wizard and the fact that she can quickly write a short story and print it out with its own cover. I think it is a neat program, and I particularly like the way it keeps her occupied, in something that is quite constructive.
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