Free One Week Trial

Free one week trial

New character development tool with relatability/likeability measure and 3D printout.

Recommended by all top 10 Future Unknowns authors.

‘So good I bought the company’ ~ I. Wright

“Ooh, ooh! You must get it!” yelped Psycho Motor Dabrowski, one of the five Dabrowski Dogs, the overexcitable canine companions of Little Plump Jo, the current Artisan in Residence in Malory Tennyson’s Cloudbank Cabin for Arthurian Studies.

“Well, I. Wright is one of my favourite authors. If they recommend it, I would like to try it” replied Jo. “I could take the free trial and then, if it is really good, maybe someone would pay for the full version for me.”

“It seems like a waste of time to me!” cautioned Intellectual Dabrowski. “I mean, we have the characters visiting us in the cabin. How can a computer program be any better than that?”

“But you get a relatability/likeability measure and a 3D print out with it,” said Jo. So you can find out whether your readers will like and be able to relate to your characters. And you can print out and set up all the figures like a diorama and move them round to help you envision the story.”

Jo followed the link in her Facebook feed to the program’s website. There were two levels of membership for the program – the Free One Week Trial and the Full Program.

With Psycho Motor Dabrowski bouncing up and down beside her and bumping her elbow she hit the Free Trial button without reading exactly what was included in the trial version compared to the full program.

She filled in the form which appeared, giving her email address and, instead of LPJ, calling herself Elle Pee Jay. Then she had to agree to the Terms and Conditions.

“Read all those properly!” cautioned Intellectual. “You do not want to agree to something and find out you forfeit your rights. And you want to know….”

“Yeah, yeah, that is all just stuff about not reverse engineering their site and stuff like that and not using their site for evil purposes. Go on! Just tick the box!” yelped Psycho Motor bumping Jo’s elbow again.

Jo hit the Enter button and a new screen appeared.

Welcome Elle Pee Jay

Let’s start to create your character

Do you want to view a tutorial?

“Yes” said Intellectual.

“No. Just start!” said Psycho Motor. “How hard can it be?”

Jo clicked on Create Your Character and was presented with forms to fill out.

Character Name – The box allowed only ten letters for the name

Character Occupation - The box allowed only ten letters for the occupation

Eye colour- A drop down box allowed selection of 

Blue

Brown

Green

Random -we choose

There were other eye colours offered but they were all in grey writing and not able to be selected. 

Hair colour - A drop down box allowed selection of 

Black

Blonde

Brown

Red

Random -we choose

There were other shades of hair colours offered but they were all in grey writing and not able to be selected.

Which character should be created/evaluated first?

Jo had not read all the details and was not sure whether there would be a limit to the number of characters she could create in the Free Trial; or whether she could use the program for a week without a limit on the number of characters.

She did not want to risk missing the main characters; but she did want to try it out on a less important character first.

She chose Dagonet the Jester. She set the eye and hair colours to Random - we choose.

She pressed CREATE and was rewarded by an array of colour light globe images rotating around the edge of the screen and carnival style music playing.

A new screen appeared with the instruction

Envision your character entering the portal

Write your description here and press

ENTER

Jo wrote a lively description of Dagonet cartwheeling through the portal and pressed Enter. Intellectual pointed out that the program was actually making the author do the work of writing, which was a good thing from his point of view.

After several minutes, just as Jo was preparing to exit the site, an image of a jester appeared in the centre of the screen, growing in size so that it appeared to be coming through the portal toward Jo. The image halted and the number 73.5% started flashing in the centre of it. An arrow appeared pointing down to a button which read PRINT NOW.

Jo pressed PRINT and her little old printer spat out a black and white free use clipart picture of a jester with 73.5% on his chest and a grey TRIAL VERSION watermark repeated several times on the diagonal of the page.

Jo could not find any way of saving her character. She wished she had been taking screenshots as she went along.

“You could ‘Ask I. Wright’ in the chat box on the bottom there!” pointed out Psycho Motor.

Jo opened the chat box.

I. Wright: Hey there! How can I assist you?

Elle Pee Jay: I want to know how to save the character I have created.

I. Wright: Are you using the Free Trial or the Full Program

Elle Pee Jay: The Free Trial

I. Wright: It is not possible to save a character in the Free Trial program.

To upgrade to the Full Program  

Go to the Home Page and select Full Program.

Elle Pee Jay: I do not want to get the Full Program yet.

I. Wright: I can offer you a 40% discount on the Full Program if you purchase in the next 5 minutes.

Elle Pee Jay: How do I access the 3D printout option?

I. Wright: 3D printout is not available in the Free Trial version.

See the Comparison Tables on the Home Page.

To upgrade to the Full Program

Go to the Home Page and select Full Program

I can offer you a 40% discount on the Full Program if you purchase in the next 5 minutes.

Elle Pee Jay: How many characters can I create using the Free Trial?

I. Wright: You can create 2 characters in the Free Trial version.

See the Comparison Tables on the Home Page.

To upgrade to the Full Program please go to the Home Page and select Full Program

I can offer you a 40% discount on the Full Program if you purchase in the next 5 minutes.

“Get the full program!” yelped Psycho Motor Dabrowski. “You can get 40% off if you do it in the next – I guess we are down to 2 minutes now!”

“NO!” barked Intellectual Dabrowski. “ So far we have not seen any indications that the program is worthwhile.”

“But I. Wright  said….”

“And I do not believe that is the REAL I. Wright. The writing style is not his. The punctuation is not correct. He missed a question mark. I think this I. Wright is an AI Bot!”

Little Plump Jo gave a deflated sigh. It had been such an exciting possibility.

But, she had to admit, Intellectual was right. They had not seen any evidence that the program could produce results which she could not if she applied herself to her writing. Maybe the full program could give a 3D print out, which would be very cool. But the full program was impossibly expensive even with a 40% discount. 

And she was probably even more disappointed that she had almost certainly not been chatting with the real I. Wright.

“No, I won’t be getting the full version,” Jo said. “But let’s not waste the second character evaluation. Who wants to volunteer? How about you, Lancelot?”

Lancelot, who often felt queasy and disoriented by the strobing effect of light between trees when he rode through a forest, looked warily at the flashing lights on the screen. Heureux, his battle companion/assistance dog, rumbled a warning.

He shook his head, making his coal black curls bounce and waved a dismissive hand.

“What about you, Elaine? If I take plenty of screenshots on the way through we could put together a nice promo package for Charlotte’s Web Weaving.”

“Ooh, yes please! But make sure you put in a really great description of me so that I get a really high likeability rating!”

So they compiled Elaine’s character sheet

Name: Elaine  (Not enough letters allowed to put Lady Charlotte-Elaine, Lady of Shalott)

Occupation: Entrepreneur (There  were not enough letters allowed to put Entrepreneur Weaver.  When Elaine was asked to choose between Entrepreneur and Weaver she chose the former)

Eye Colour Blue (Elaine wanted Cornflower Blue but that was in grey letters and only available in the full version)

Hair Colour Blonde (Elaine wanted Honey Blonde but that was in grey letters and only available in the full version)

Jo pressed CREATE and the coloured light globe images rotated faster and the carnival style music got louder.

A new screen appeared with the instruction

Envision your character entering the portal

Write your description here and press

ENTER

Jo wrote a description of Elaine striding purposefully through the portal and pressed Enter.

After several minutes, an image of a modern day business lady in a tailored pants suit appeared in the centre of the screen.

The image halted and the number 43.6% started flashing in the centre of it. An arrow appeared pointing down to a button which read PRINT NOW.

A muffled scream could be heard coming from inside the program.

“That’s not me! What am I wearing?”

The number in the centre of the screen started rotating in a downwards direction ending up at 40.2%

“Why is my hair muddy yellow, not honey blonde?”

The number descended to 39.6%

“Stop complaining, Elaine. Your likeability is going down!” called Jo “I am going to Print Now and get you out.”

“NO, DON’T PRINT! I am going to sit in here until they give me back my dress, fix my hair and give me a decent rating!”

The number descended to 15.9%

“Elaine, STOP, Don’t say anything. I am going to Print Now.”

Little Plump Jo hit PRINT and nothing happened. A notification popped up on her screen informing her that her printer was out of ink. She had ordered more ink two days ago but it was not expected to arrive before next week.

She typed furiously in the Chat Box

Elle Pee Jay: I am out of ink and cannot print my character.

I. Wright: Save your character and print later.

Elle Pee Jay: I cannot save my character. I am using the Free Trial

I. Wright:  Go to the Home Page Select Full program

I can offer you a 40% discount on the Full Program if you purchase in the next 5 minutes.

Elle Pee Jay: What will happen to my character if I cannot Print and I cannot Save?

I. Wright:  I do not understand your question.

Go to the Home Page Select Full program

I can offer you a 40% discount on the Full Program if you purchase in the next 5 minutes.

Little Plump Jo was frantic. “I can’t save her! What should I do?”

Lancelot sprang to his feet. “I will save her! Type me in.”

Jo pressed the icon to return to the previous page and wrote a description of Lancelot rushing through the portal and pressed ENTER.

The lights around the screen began spinning at an alarming rate and a klaxon alarm blared. Words flashed on the screen.

WARNING! WARNING!

Unauthorised second character in program.

A few moments later a picture appeared on the screen showing Lancelot staggering out, dragging a protesting Elaine with him. The relatability/likeability rating on Elaine was now showing at 1.3%. Lancelot’s curls were standing on end as if he had touched a static electricity demonstration ball; but he had a relatability/likeability rating on his chest of 98.7%

Little Plump Jo quickly took a screenshot.