Scriptyard is a spatial story-planning tool built for screenwriters and storytellers. Map characters, locations, scenes and structure on an infinite canvas, then export to Markdown, Fountain, or Final Draft.
Hi everyone,
I’m Chris, an Emmy-nominated VFX Supervisor, and I’ve spent more than 20 years working in film and television.
Over that time I’ve seen countless writers and filmmakers develop stories using walls covered in index cards. It’s a wonderfully simple way to think about structure, but it’s not always practical once you’re working remotely or collaborating with other people.
I built Scriptyard because I wanted that same experience in a browser.
It’s a virtual notecard workspace for developing stories visually. You can organise scenes, move ideas around, explore different structures and keep track of the bigger picture without fighting a complicated interface.
I also wanted it to be free.
One thing I’ve noticed over the last couple of years is that many writers are understandably wary of new writing tools because they’re concerned about AI and what happens to their work. Scriptyard isn’t an AI writing assistant, and it doesn’t use your writing to train AI models. It’s simply a place to develop your ideas. All files live locally, no login, no cloud.
This is an independent project that I’ve been building alongside my day job, and I’d really appreciate honest feedback from writers. If something feels awkward, if something is missing, or if there’s a feature you’ve always wished these kinds of tools had, I’d love to hear it.
After more than 20 years working in film production, I finally decided to build the story development tool I always wished existed. I hope some of you find it useful. Thanks!
Report
The infinite canvas idea sounds great for visualizing structure. One thing that would really help my workflow is a beat board view that auto-syncs with the canvas, so I can drag scenes around spatially but also see them in a linear outline that stays current. Right now I'd worry about losing the script's logical flow when everything lives on a canvas. A toggle between spatial and outline modes, with the outline updating in real time, would make this feel complete for actual drafting days.
@perihanxt4s that functionally is already there, the outline feature is creating the outline based on narrative hierarchy and physical position on the canvas (things that are higher or more left are first). You can’t view them simultaneously but it does update them instantly. Try making a couple Act Backdrops and move them around and then check the outline. Let me know if you’d expect it to work differently. Thanks for the feedback!
Report
The infinite-canvas-to-Fountain/Final Draft export is what would actually pull me in — most story-planning tools trap the structure in their own format and re-typing it into a script kills the whole point. When you export to Fountain, does the scene and character layout on the canvas carry through as scene headings and structure, or does it flatten into a plain ordered list? And if I keep moving things around on the canvas after exporting, is there any re-sync or is export strictly one-directional?
@leo404 since it’s going from a spatial format to a linear one It’s a little tricky going back and forth especially since the fountain (and FDX) format don’t support any kind of way to save the spatial layout.
The logic I chose to create the outline/fountain/FDX files was to follow the spirit of spatial organization rather than the user needing to explicitly defining which act goes in which order, Scriptyard interprets the graph.
The order of operations is narrative first (Act>Sequence>Scene>Beat>Shot) Going from upper left to bottom right spatially. So if you make three Act Backdrops, fill them with sequences and beats, characters whatever, it will put all items in Act A first then Act B contents then Act C contents. If you reorder the Acts spatially you would have Act B, Act C, Act A and their contents would come with them.
Easiest way to see it in action is to open any of the templates and then view the outline from the same menu, that’s the preview of what will be exported. Then spatially reorder the template and reopen the outline and it’s updated to the new order.
Report
That narrative-first interpretation (Act>Sequence>Scene>Beat>Shot) actually answers my re-sync worry — if the graph is the source of truth and export is just a projection of it, then rearranging cards and re-exporting re-projects cleanly, which is what I want. So the day-one thing I would test: if I drag a scene into a different act on the canvas after exporting, does a re-export fully reflect the new placement, or do orphaned beats/shots from the old position linger in the Fountain output? Basically, is export idempotent from the current graph state?
Report
Really respect the "no login, no cloud, doesn't train on your writing" stance — that's clearly a direct response to what writers are actually worried about right now, not just a feature checkbox. The index-card-wall analogy makes total sense as the thing to digitize. Does it support any kind of collaborative/multiplayer editing yet, or is it intentionally solo-first for now?
@av777a it’s intentionally solo at the moment, but you’re not the first to ask so this is moving up the prio list :)
Report
@minimal_human Good to hear it's on the roadmap! No rush — solo-first makes sense for now, especially with the local-only approach. Curious whether collaboration would still keep the "no cloud" promise, or if that'll need some kind of opt-in sync layer?
@av777a I’ve been thinking of making a simple integration with Google Drive or other services that people already use. My strong goal would be to avoid collecting any data from users at all.
Cheers!
the index card wall replacement is such an obvious need once you say it out loud. does the export to Fountain/Final Draft preserve the spatial layout at all, or is it just a linear scene order once it leaves the canvas?
@galdayan the JSON file preserves everything, it’s the “native” file format and I recommend saving that out even if you are exporting FDX additionally. I wouldn’t be able to save the positioning in the FDX file without abusing the metadata. It’s kind of designed to be one way, but what usage are you looking for?
Report
Congratulations on the launch! I read through the site but couldn't tell - when you rearrange cards on the canvas, does that order carry into the Fountain/Final Draft export, or does export just pull the text and leave sequencing to you?
@alieksia yes the physical order does determine the order of the outline also for FDX and Fountain, narrative hierarchy then upper left first. I should make a demo video for this as a couple people have asked the same thing.
Report
This used to be our Design Whiteboarding assignment - A platform for writers to draft stories. I dig the no login vibe but generally writing is collaboration, feedback and approvals. Have a strong encryption and have optional login.
@roopesh_donde Since this isn’t a project that’s monetized at all (nor ever will be) I wanted to wait and see how much of an issue this was for people. I think I might make something like a Google Drive integration so people can share access through their own space and still not need to share anything with my server. Thanks for taking the time try it and write to me!
Report
@minimal_human Yes, that will work too. I managed design for writing apps for 3+ years, and one of our repetitive requests was a structured, collaborative writer for academic projects with reference to other projects. Like movie/show scripts are sequels or continuations of shows, ideas like callbacks or referencing other events regularly came up in the session. BTW, kudos on the launch.
Scriptyard
The infinite canvas idea sounds great for visualizing structure. One thing that would really help my workflow is a beat board view that auto-syncs with the canvas, so I can drag scenes around spatially but also see them in a linear outline that stays current. Right now I'd worry about losing the script's logical flow when everything lives on a canvas. A toggle between spatial and outline modes, with the outline updating in real time, would make this feel complete for actual drafting days.
Scriptyard
The infinite-canvas-to-Fountain/Final Draft export is what would actually pull me in — most story-planning tools trap the structure in their own format and re-typing it into a script kills the whole point. When you export to Fountain, does the scene and character layout on the canvas carry through as scene headings and structure, or does it flatten into a plain ordered list? And if I keep moving things around on the canvas after exporting, is there any re-sync or is export strictly one-directional?
Scriptyard
That narrative-first interpretation (Act>Sequence>Scene>Beat>Shot) actually answers my re-sync worry — if the graph is the source of truth and export is just a projection of it, then rearranging cards and re-exporting re-projects cleanly, which is what I want. So the day-one thing I would test: if I drag a scene into a different act on the canvas after exporting, does a re-export fully reflect the new placement, or do orphaned beats/shots from the old position linger in the Fountain output? Basically, is export idempotent from the current graph state?
Really respect the "no login, no cloud, doesn't train on your writing" stance — that's clearly a direct response to what writers are actually worried about right now, not just a feature checkbox. The index-card-wall analogy makes total sense as the thing to digitize. Does it support any kind of collaborative/multiplayer editing yet, or is it intentionally solo-first for now?
Scriptyard
@minimal_human Good to hear it's on the roadmap! No rush — solo-first makes sense for now, especially with the local-only approach. Curious whether collaboration would still keep the "no cloud" promise, or if that'll need some kind of opt-in sync layer?
Scriptyard
@minimal_human Very nice ) Thanks
the index card wall replacement is such an obvious need once you say it out loud. does the export to Fountain/Final Draft preserve the spatial layout at all, or is it just a linear scene order once it leaves the canvas?
Scriptyard
Congratulations on the launch! I read through the site but couldn't tell - when you rearrange cards on the canvas, does that order carry into the Fountain/Final Draft export, or does export just pull the text and leave sequencing to you?
Scriptyard
Scriptyard
@minimal_human Yes, that will work too. I managed design for writing apps for 3+ years, and one of our repetitive requests was a structured, collaborative writer for academic projects with reference to other projects. Like movie/show scripts are sequels or continuations of shows, ideas like callbacks or referencing other events regularly came up in the session. BTW, kudos on the launch.