• Home
• About
• The Story Tool

What is the Beemgee story tool?

Beemgee is a tool dedicated to helping authors and storytellers develop narrative material – from the idea to a fully formed story. Because it seems to us that when the author has complete control over the material, there is a better chance of emotionally engaging the audience.

The Beemgee author tool works in your browser (even offline) and helps you outline your plot and work out the dramatic function of the characters in the story.

The web-app is divided into a suite of three interconnected tools, each accessible whether you have signed up to a FREE or a PREMIUM Beemgee account:

Authors and storytellers of any medium, genre, or level of experience use the tool-set to create personal online writers’ rooms for the purposes of story development and outlining.

• The PLOT outliner features a zoomable horizontal timeline as well as a cork board that enable the author to organise the scenes of the narrative and have all information on-hand about each scene.
• The CHARACTER developer concentrates on dramatic function in narrative, enabling the author to create character motivations in the form of attributes, so the author is actually working on the story by working on the characters.
• The PITCH tool succinctly organises key information about a story to reduce the time it takes industry professionals to fully understand not only the narrative structure but the story’s potential.

This combination is unique.

Learning storytelling craft

Discreet in-app dramaturgical background information at every stage of the outlining process helps you see and understand your story in new depth and detail. Just click the | ? | button.

Pre-writing or re-writing

Beemgee is a tool for “plotters” and “pantsers”. Some authors use Beemgee to plan their work before writing, others to get their story drafts into shape. Whatever kind of writer you are, Beemgee can help you make your story emotionally more engaging.

PREMIUM benefits

Some functions in Beemgee are free.

While you don’t need to register to TRY THE TOOL, we recommend that you sign up for a FREE or PREMIUM account. This way any project you create is saved and safe.

Sign up to a PREMIUM account so you benefit from all the special features and functions that will help you develop your stories professionally. Premium benefits include:

• Considerably more plot attributes with which to enrich your plot events (structural markers, motifs, point of view, writing cautions, essence, scene types, hero’s journey, plot beats, etc.)
• Dozens of PREMIUM character attributes, for example on the inner needs of the character, characterisation, etc.
• DETAIL VIEWS of characters and plot events.
• DETAIL VIEW of your step outline treatment with the plot information you have attributed to your events.
• STORY questions, concerning for example your theme and central conflict.
• PITCH information like your genre or audience as well as the logline, synopsis and blurb
• Export PDFs of your character sheets, the plot, the step outline, or the entire project.
• Export a treatment or a manuscript document as RTF text file.
• Copy projects for drafts and versions.
• Set permissions such as view only or can edit when you share a story with a collaborator, editor, publisher, or produces.

>> Sign up to PREMIUM.

We are continually updating the tool, adding functions and improving usability. Since the tool works in your browser, you don’t need to install any updates in order to benefit from them. The tool is always up to date.

Beemgee – Your Story.

See the full list of features here.

Or read about the software’s functions and features.

Click here for details on pricing and features. 

Why do authors use the Beemgee story tool?

If you are a fiction author – established or aspiring, for stage, page or screen – you probably spend a great deal of time thinking about your characters and working out the details of your plot.

After all, authors must master two equally important creative processes:

• Writing – finding the right words to formulate what you want to express. Whatever you call it – for instance style or voice – it has to do with language.
• Storytelling – constructing coherent narratives that have an emotional effect on the readers or audience. Whatever you call it – outlining, plotting, story development, dramaturgy – it has to do with structure.

So, apart from language, stories have plots and characters. Creating plots and characters is a craft.
Beemgee is a tool for this craft – for structuring narratives and developing characters.

Without a strong plot driven by fascinating characters, even the best writing can’t save the story.

Motivated characters lead to compelling plot structure.
A strong plot creates emotional engagement in the audience.
A satisfied audience spreads the word, creating a wider audience.

That’s why story development is such an important process.

You’re an author

It’s probably natural for you to use a word processor to write. Now you’ve found an online tool specifically designed to help you develop your material.

Story Development

Beemgee is where you structure your narrative and compose your story. It is a comprehensive toolkit for narrative structure, perfect for fiction and also memoirs or even narrative documentary. With Beemgee you outline compelling plots and create memorable characters. Beemgee focuses on dramaturgy and composition and is designed to help you get to grips with everything from subplots to character transformation, from logline to step outline.

Beemgee is not a text editor or writing app – authors type their stories elsewhere, using what they have developed in Beemgee as a basis for the text.

Beemgee is for outlining

There is a craft to storytelling. Much of that craft has to do with the structure of the story, the composition of its narrative. Much as an architect designs the plans of a building before the first bricks are laid, or a composer writes the music before it can be played, many authors plan the story composition first before filling the first page with text. The process of planning how the story is structured is known as outlining.

There are significant benefits to outlining. For one thing, going through this process usually entails fewer rewrites later. When the author knows the direction of the storyline(s), it is easier to keep all the threads under control while writing. Without this direction, there is a danger of losing the plot half way through.

Authors use Beemgee to structure stories they are conceiving – to outline them before writing them. Publishers, editors or film and TV producers use Beemgee to examine and work on the structure of stories already written, for instance to evaluate or improve early drafts. Academics and narratologists use the tool for comparative analysis of the narrative structure of films, novels or other narratives.

Outlining does not concern only the plot. It includes determining the motivations of the characters.

Beemgee helps you develop your characters

Stories have characters. All of them do. Authors devise characters, just like they devise plots. Often, the act of composing a story cannot be easily separated into structuring plot and developing characters. Indeed, why would any author want to? Characters arise out of plot ideas as much as plot ideas arise out of characters.

The Beemgee Character-Builder is designed to help you determine the narrative function of the characters in your story. By honing or sharpening the essential dramatic function of the major characters in the narrative, an author is at the same time honing and sharpening the plot.

Beemgee for conscious composition

Simply using Beemgee raises authors’ awareness of dramaturgy. If storytelling concepts or features of the tool are unclear, context-sensitive advice is available anywhere in the tool with the | ? | button.

The in-app help gives quick guidance. MORE ABOUT buttons leads to in-depth articles containing techniques, tips and a wealth of background information. Beemgee will give you pointers, without ever being prescriptive.

Further resources

In our Beemgee blog you’ll find many articles on structure in storytelling and narrative that relate directly to the functions and features of our author tool. Beyond that, our blog provides insight into the world of storytelling and plenty of advice about how to create emotionally engaging stories.