How to: Customize Power Structure

Power Structure is one of the most popular outlining-programs on the market. Created by Ken Schafer - the same mind that brought us ScriptThing, MovieMagic Screenwriter's forerunner, and FrameForge 3D Studio, the ground-breaking previsualization software - Power Structure differs vastly in its functionality. Many of its counterparts focus on story-forming, asking questions about your story and sharpening the story’s focus based on your answers. Power Structure, on the other hand, serves as a virtual filing cabinet that allows you to drop in your ideas as they come, and shuffle information around until you find the story you’re looking for.

While Power Structure’s approach makes it seem like it offers almost no theory at all, there is a twist: It’s customizable. And it seems to be the only program that offers such functionality. If you have read many books on the craft and have pieced together theories on character and structure, Power Structure allows you to tailor them into your own brand of writing principles.

For example, if you are a fan of Karl Iglesias and his book Writing for Emotional Impact, and you like to guide all your characters through the five questions he recommends, you can customize Power Structure so that it asks you Karl’s questions.

Customizing is easy:

• Open Power Structure and go to whichever area you want to customize (character, structure, theme…)

• Depending on the area, the command will be presented differently:
- In the Character area, click on the button that looks like a yellow hand wearing a green wristwatch
- In Theme and the various topics in its section, click on the “create new category” or “change category name” button
- In Structure, right-click on the sequence name and chose “edit”

• Start brainstorming