5 great storytelling apps for iPad

Whenever one chooses an expansive topic to write about, one is asking for it. We all have our opinions about what makes something “good” or “not good enough.”

But it takes another level of hubris to throw out your lists of what’s the best of this or that. You’d have to be tough as nails. Ready for a barrage of guffaws and knee-clubbings.

It’s a good thing we’re totally into that stuff. Which is why we’ve chosen to break into the business of posting miscellaneous lists.

So, to start, here are 5 great storytelling apps for iPad.

Toontastic

Toontastic is a favorite around this household. For kids and adults alike! It’s an easy to use animation program that lets you choose an environment, music and characters to craft a cartoon. You can record your voice as you move stuff around the screen with your finger, record it, and laugh until tea comes out your nose.

The app is constantly updated with new assets. Some for free, many for a small fee.

Storehouse

Storehouse is the most refined of the picture book apps out there. The user interface makes it a pleasure to use, as opposed to a chore. You can easily upload your stories to Dropbox, Flickr, and Instagram.

The community of Storehouse has some fantastic stories to tell, making it a vibrant community where you can be entertained, moved and inspired.

Strip Designer

Out of all the comic strip making apps in the iOS world, Strip Designer is just the easiest one we’ve run into. It’s not perfect, but a kid can pick it up and start using it within 10 minutes. An adult? 15.

Wattpad

The next service isn’t just a storytelling app for iPad. It’s also on the iPhone and Andorid.

Wattpad is a hot potato right now. The company offers writers and readers a wonderful community where connecting around stories is commonplace. Wattpad has a lot of competition, like Storybird and Figment, but it’s the current breakaway success that’s getting a lot of attention from writers. Look for book launches to explode on Wattpad.

And keep your eyes open for their future mobile plans. We suspect they will be innovative and aggressive.

Narr8

Stick with us on this one. Narr8 is more a publisher of original content than a storytelling app. Putting it on this list is kind of like including Comixology. BUT Narr8 offers tools to make your own “moving comic”. While the tools are rough, and not easy to just pick up and use, they are there, and they can make some great looking stories.

The storytelling tool can be found here. It’s not available on the iPad yet.

Check out the library of content. They offer some “episodes” for free. They’re fantastic. Seriously. And if you’re inspired, then make your own!

Note: Amazon purchased Comixology so we fully expect that service to leverage Amazon’s Comic Creator one day. When it does it will likely be a wonderful, inclusive marketplace for us comic book-minded life forms.

By Ben Zackheim