Novelcrafter Review (And 3 Amazing Alternatives)

September 20, 2024

Helpful Summary

Overview: We review Novelcrafter and explore top alternatives like DreamGen, Scrivener, and Kobold AI. Each tool offers unique features to enhance your writing experience.
Why you can trust us: At DreamGen, we’ve helped countless writers and role-players craft dynamic, character-driven stories with AI, providing unmatched immersive storytelling experiences.
Why it matters: Choosing the right AI writing tool ensures seamless story development, greater creative control, and flexibility for diverse writing needs.
Action points: Explore DreamGen for customizable story-writing experiences that allow creative freedom and narrative control
Further research: Visit the DreamGen blog for more resources on AI role-playing and creative storytelling.

Looking for the Best Novelcrafter Alternative?

Novelcrafter has long been a go-to platform for writers, offering a suite of AI-powered storytelling tools designed to help you dream, draft, and deliver your story from start to finish.

However, some writers may seek more creative freedom, advanced features, or simply a different approach to storytelling.

In this DreamGen article, we’ll review Novelcrafter’s strengths and weaknesses and introduce some of the best alternatives available.

But first…

Why Trust Us?

At DreamGen, we have firsthand experience empowering users to craft immersive storylines and engage in dynamic character interactions through our cutting-edge AI tool. We understand the unique needs of writers and role-players, and our expertise allows us to provide insights into the best AI storytelling and role-playing tools.

What is Novelcrafter?

Novelcrafter is an AI-powered novel writing platform.

It’s designed to be an end-to-end writing partner that supports you through brainstorming, outlining, writing, and editing. At a fundamental level, it does this by providing a nice, functional editor and a great selection of organizational tools… but the real draw is the platform’s AI features.

The platform lets you “bring your own models” and use them to chat with characters, get feedback on plot points, and even generate whole storylines.

Key Features

The Codex: Store and organize information about characters, settings, and lore in a personal wiki to help maintain continuity and depth in storytelling.
Story Board: Visually organize and outline your scenes, plots, and narrative flow. It gives you a bird’s-eye view of your narrative structure and pacing.
Distraction-Free Writing Mode: Access a clean, minimal writing space with essential tools tucked away.
AI Customization: Bring your own AI models and integrate them into the platform, giving you access to your specific writing style or needs.
Workshop: Brainstorm with AI—discuss characters, explore ideas, and receive custom writing prompts that align with your story's world via Codex integration.

Pricing

Novelcrafter offers a tiered pricing model to suit different needs:

Scribe: $4/month—includes unlimited books, series, and basic review features.
Hobbyist: $8/month—adds AI integration (bring your API key).
Artisan: $14/month—unlocks full AI chat, Codex integration, and advanced features.
Specialist: $20/month—adds collaborative writing and team management features for larger writing teams.

Why Consider a Novelcrafter Alternative?

Limited Creative Flexibility: The structured nature of tools like the Story Board, designed for detailed planning, might limit those who prefer a more spontaneous, interactive, free-flowing writing process. Such users might prefer AI story generators that provide fluid and flexible writing environments.
API Key Requirement: Access to Novelcrafter's advanced AI features, such as the AI-powered Workshop and writing assistance, requires an external API key. This requirement can be a barrier for some users who prefer a more seamless, all-in-one platform.
Minimalistic UI and Formatting Issues: Although Novelcrafter's distraction-free interface is designed to keep writers focused, some users find it too minimalistic. Essential tools can be hard to access, and certain formatting options are limited.
Repetitive AI Suggestions: Some users feel that the AI-generated suggestions in the Workshop can lack creativity or uniqueness, often producing results that feel generic or don't align with the writer’s style.

Our Top 3 Novelcrafter Alternatives

DreamGen
Scrivener
Sudowrite

1. DreamGen

The first Novelcrafter alternative on the list is our tool–DreamGen. At DreamGen, we believe storytelling should be limitless, so we created an AI-powered platform that gives users a seamless, inspiring, and completely unrestricted AI story-writing experience.

DreamGen is built for writers who want to experience the time-saving, headache-reducing benefits of AI without sacrificing their own unique voice and style. Our AI features keep you in the driver’s seat while supporting you with:

Paragraphs and dialogue
Fresh ideas and plot twists
Character development
Powerful descriptions

…and more.

Whether you're writing fan fiction, role-play scenarios, or something completely original, our platform gives you the freedom to explore.

Key Features

Open-Source Accessibility: Our models are available on HuggingFace, letting you customize and understand how our AI works. This gives you full control over your creative process.
Unrestricted Creative Freedom: Our AI models let your imagination run wild. We don’t impose limits, so you can explore a wide range of narratives without restrictions.
Multi-Character Role-Plays & Stories: Create multi-layered stories based on your inputs. You can tailor characters, backstories, and settings to fit your vision, offering endless creative possibilities.
Advanced Scenario Crafting: Move beyond simple chats with our advanced tools. Create detailed and customized scenarios to enhance your role-playing experience.
Story “Steering”: Guide your story with precise instructions. As your narrative unfolds, you can direct the plot, influencing the direction and outcome.
Advanced Editing Tools: Our editor streamlines your storytelling process. It helps with editing, character impersonation, and forced character responses, making it easier to craft detailed and enjoyable stories.
Image Generation: Generate high-quality AI images in all kinds of styles in seconds—just enter a prompt and find the settings you like.

Pricing

Starter: Great when the smaller AI is all you need.
Advanced: Leverage the best AI model and have better AI memory.
Pro: Unlimited use of the best AI model and the largest AI memory.

Pros

Supports complex multi-character scenarios
Limitless creativity–no NSFW restriction
Real-time, interactive story control
Open-source models allow for customization and transparency

Cons

Learning all the features on the platform might take a bit

2. Scrivener

Scrivener is a comprehensive writing tool designed for authors, screenwriters, and anyone working on long-form content. It’s known for its well-designed organizational features, making it a favorite among writers looking for a non-AI alternative to Novelcrafter.

Key Features

Corkboard and Outliner: Organize your ideas visually with the corkboard, or use the outliner to structure your manuscript.
Research Integration: Store research materials, including PDFs, images, and web pages, directly within your project.
Scriptwriting Support: Access purpose-built formatting tools for screenplays, stage plays, and comic strips.
Customizable Templates: Use built-in templates or create your own to suit your writing style and goals.

Pricing

Standard License: $59.99 for macOS or Windows, includes all features and updates within the major version.
Educational License: $50.99 for students and academics.
iOS Version: $23.99, offering a mobile version of Scrivener with most of the desktop features.

Pros

Comprehensive organizational tools ideal for planning complex narratives
Easy access to research and notes within the writing environment
Customizable workspace with multiple views (outline, corkboard, etc.)
Provides specialized formatting tools for different types of scripts

Cons

No built-in AI for writing assistance
The rich set of features makes the interface feel cluttered

3. Sudowrite

Last but not least, Sudowrite. Sudowrite is a well-known Novelcrafter alternative (that we’ve covered extensively on the blog already).

It has an almost identical feature set to Novelcrafter. There’s a nice editor to write in, project organization tools, and the ability to outline your novel. In terms of AI features, you can use Sudowrite to generate images, items, characters, and whole scenes.

The main downside is the expensive pricing.

Key Features

Customizable AI: Choose from a range of proprietary and premium models from providers like Anthropic and OpenAI.
Story Engine: Store details about your story and characters for easy reference.
Character Builder: Create detailed profiles for your characters, including their appearance, traits, and relationships.
Chapter Generator: Use AI to generate scenes based on the details in the aforementioned Story Engine.

Pricing

Sudowrite is a subscription-based platform. The price of each plan is determined by the number of credits it includes:

Hobby & Student ($10/mo): 225,000 credits per month
Professional ($22/mo): 1,000,000 credits per month
Max ($44/mo): 2,000,000 credits per month

Credits get used up when you use any of Sudowrite’s AI features. And according to many users, you’ll need to upgrade to Professional or Max before you have enough credits to write a novel.

Pros

Nice editor with helpful features
Wide range of AI models
Amazing worldbuilding tools

Cons

Very expensive

Unlock Your Creative Potential With the Best Novelcrafter Alternative

We've explored three alternatives to Novelcafter, highlighting tools that offer better flexibility, AI customization, and storytelling support.

While options like Scrivener and Sudowrite provide creative control, DreamGen stands out as the most reliable alternative. With its interactive fiction capabilities, customizable scenarios, and real-time control, our platform enables you to craft immersive, dynamic stories effortlessly.

Whether you’re a hobbyist or a professional writer, DreamGen’s blend of AI-driven creativity and user-friendly design makes it the ideal choice.