It is unquestionable that having tools at your disposal to help complete a task is beneficial, regardless of the task at the hand or the industry one is working. However as the saying goes “too many cooks spoil the broth”, too many tools can cloud the persons mind and land them in a state of analysis paralysis whereby they have so many options and different routes they could go down, they end up doing none of them well and stagnate into mediocrity. Therefore it is vital that any tools one does use provide not only assistance, but complete clarity as to what it can help with to avoid becoming a jack of all trades.
This is naturally true as well in the world of publishing and writing, where in recent years there has been an explosion in the number of software tools available to assist writers in all sorts of ways. Most of these have been created with the best will in the world, but sometimes as we mentioned end up doing too many things averagely as opposed to one thing excellently. Not only does this diminish the quality of the product itself, but also negatively impacts the end user, who may end up underwhelmed by the tool or even worse, having to try out multiple different ones until they find the right solution.
One company looking to change all that is Dabble. Dabble is a software tool that put simply, aims to help writers complete there work. In this review we will take a look at whether or not their claims stand up, how exactly it works and ultimately whether or not a writer should consider using the product to assist with their writing.
Dabble Backstory
Dabble was founded by Jacob Wright who has been developing software since 2004 and developed a passion for writing in 2010, the year in which Dabble was created.
Having been left frustrated by the books he was reading, he felt compelled to write his own and so decided to combine his software development skills with his blossoming passion for writing. In doing so, he learnt about various writing tools and felt they were all too complex or overly inundated with features that clouded the user experience. He created Dabble with three words at the fore of what he wanted it to become; simple, easy and beautiful.
What is Dabble?
Dabble is a software tool that helps writers to plot and plan their novel or story and write it with all of the stories notes close at hand. If the writer does not plot in advance, Dabble helps after you have written the first draft, making it easy to plot afterwards and easy to edit the draft chapter by chapter and scene by scene.
Any writer working on a novel or story should be able to use Dabble to;
• Plot the primary story alongside any various subplots or narratives.
• Plan how each interweaving plot line and character arc interacts with the main story using Dabble’s ‘Plot Grid’
• Allows for complete focus on the writing itself as opposed to being bogged down with distracting format issues.
• Writing itself comes with with typewriter scrolling, auto-fade and an aesthetic writing interface
• Users can easily organise their manuscript, working closely and in detail with each scene, chapter, and book independent of one another.
• Syncing takes place authomatically and users will always have a backup creating peace of mind and security
• Goal setting is tangible with easy progress trackers helping users stay on track whether it is a word count goal or overall progress of the book
Who Would Benefit From Using Dabble?
• Writers whose work style includes intensive planing of their work prior to putting pen to paper
• Authors who want an incredibly organized and centralised writing experience that facilitates easy rewrites or restructuring during the editing and evaluation phase of their work
• Self-published authors who need that little bit of extra help that they may not have without a mentor or taking classes, allowing for a holistic overview of the project
• Published authors or authors who plan to be published via the traditional route of making a submission to a publisher, providing them a happy medium for organising their work between traditional tools and cluttered modern software
Dabble Pricing
As is to be expected Dabble has various price points based around length of sign up as well as which features are included. A full breakdown of this can be found below, although it is worth pointing out that all plans commence with a a 14 day free trial grace period that comes with access to all features.
Basic – $10 a month. Unlimited Manuscripts. Cloud Backup and Sync. Access on any Device. Goals and Stats. Manuscript Organisation. Spell Check. Text Highlighting. Email Support.
Standard – $15 a month. Everything in Basic plus the following. Plot Grid. Story Notes. Focus Mode. Dark Mode. Sticky Notes. Comments.
Premium – $20 a month. Everything in Basic and Standard plus the following. Advanced Grammar and Style Checks. Co Authoring. Priority Support via Chat.
There are various differences in price from the above with annual subscriptions compared to monthly payments which can be found on the website, as well as lifetime pricing and special options for teachers and students.
What are the Alternatives to Dabble?
As we mentioned at the beginning, there are a huge number of software tools created with the aim of helping writers. These include tools such as; Feathr, FollowMe, Guestboard and Plottr to name but a few.
It would be redundant to break down every single competitor in comparison to Dabble as it would be endless but the key thing to know is there are many tools who provide similar services but that Dabble is an incredibly well reviewed and popular product.
Ultimately, each writer should self evaluate their own personal circumstances before doing their own independent research, to see which tool is best for them, as it is absolutely the case that one size does not fit all with regards to writing software.
Dabble Review – Final Verdict
To summarise then, it is clear that Dabble is an effective, popular and reasonably priced tool. Anyone who uses it will almost certainly benefit enormously from its clean interface, easy to use features and problem solving nature. However, that does not mean that every single writer in existence would benefit from using Dabble.
Some writers simply may not be in a position to need such a tool. This may be beacause their style of working is more old school and less focused on technology, operating with a preference for pen and paper who freestyling the project as they go along.
Also a writer may be in a position where there are nearing the end of a project and do not have another one upcoming, meaning that signing up for such a service would not be beneficial.
Lastly, a writer may find that upon doing their own research, another tool suits them better. Maybe this would be due to the price point or it could be that they need certain features and do not need others with another option being a better fit.
What is of certainty though, is that any writer who ends up using Dabble would likely benefit, and at the very least utilising the 14 day free trial to experience the tool first hand, is a great low risk entry point into seeing the type of impact a tool like Dabble could have.
3.5 Stars
