I've being trying Storyweaver. It's one of the more directive programs concentrating on story structure, as it works by making you complete large numbers of 'cards' headed 'Plot', 'Characters', 'Theme', 'Genre', and subdivided into things like 'Character Relationships', 'Structural Relationship Intros' etc etc.
If you are wondering why you can't think of a decent plot or why your novel idea doesn't seem to be working, this may be just what you need. I applied it to a mass of drafts and sketches I had for a fantasy novel, and came to the conclusion that there was material for two novels, not one. The other conclusion was that the material for the first novel was rather boring and needed something to jazz it up. It also had a lot of unfilled potential for developing the interaction between the various characters.
On the other hand, if you are a seat-of-the-pants writer, you may find the Storyweaver approach anathema. [But if you are a seat-of-the pants writer whose work is consistently rejected or fails to sell on Kindle, you might need to think again
]
There is little to lose in trying Storyweaver, except for your time. It's cheap, and there is a trial version that works the same as the paid one except that you can only export your work from the program (not save it or import it). With the paid program you also get a vast amount of free tutorial material, amounting to a writing course in itself, that you might find useful.
One might ask who in the professional world uses such software, but one suspects that many in genre fiction do. Similar programs can be quite expensive, and Hollywood scriptwriters, for one, seem to think in terms of 'story arcs' etc. And if you ever come across a book with a 11 year old female mercenary in it, you'll know where that sort of idea might have come from
