The problem
A continuous document can make moving a whole scene feel fiddly. Formatting can interrupt a thought before it reaches the page.
CAPTURE THE SCENE. SHAPE THE STORY.
A studio built around
how stories develop.
Ideas arrive out of order. Characters change. Drafts need readers. SCRIPTGOAT keeps those parts of the process connected.
A screenplay editor, story workshop and development workspace you can use on your computer or phone.
01 / WRITE IN THE ORDER IDEAS ARRIVE
A scene belongs where you decide.
Write the ending, a conversation or a visual moment first. Put it in story order later.
SCENE BOARD / YOUR ORDER
03 The ending ↕
01 A first encounter ↕
02 The turning point ↕
Capture the moment. Find its place later.How it works
Create separate scenes and rearrange them in the navigator or scene board. Choose Scene heading, Action, Character, Dialogue, Parenthetical or Transition from the bottom toolbar. Return adds the next element; the toolbar also shows its keyboard shortcuts.
Your projects stay separate
Each screenplay keeps its own scenes, profiles, plans and workshop answers. The Free account includes one screenplay.
Built for the writing desk
- Independent sidebar controls give the page more space.
- Light and dark modes let you choose the writing environment.
- Character autocomplete and automatic parentheses reduce repetitive typing.
- Select passage copies or cuts text across several elements while keeping their types.
- Undo restores recent changes in the open studio.
The editing interface uses sans-serif text; screenplay exports use the familiar monospaced layout.
02 / FIND YOUR REASON TO WRITE
21 questions to tease out the story.
Sometimes the obstacle is knowing where to begin. The Idea workshop helps you explore intention, audience, character, feeling and subtext before committing to a structure.
START WITH A QUESTION
01
What sparked this story?
07
What does your central character want?
21
What should stay with the audience?
A conversation with your idea
What sparked it? Who is watching? What keeps them there? Who should they trust—and when should their judgement change?
Open the Idea workshop ↗How it works & things to know
Answer one question at a time or jump to any of the 21. Skip what does not help. Your notes save with that screenplay and remain editable as your understanding changes.
There are no scores, compulsory answers or AI-written responses. The writer supplies the meaning.
Then give the ideas a shape
Plan my story offers act structures, a Hero’s Journey framework, Save the Cat! inspired beats and other approaches, with descriptions and illustrative film examples.
How it works & things to know
Adapt a plan, build your own and save a reusable template. Link scenes to beats; the navigator groups them into story parts so you can see what is placed and what still needs a home.
Structures are prompts, not rules. You can change the plan to suit the story.
Explore all 21 questions
03 / KEEP THE STORY KNOWLEDGE TOGETHER
Profiles that become useful documents.
YOUR NOTES, READY FOR THE NEXT CONVERSATION
LoglineSynopsisTreatmentCharacter bible
Choose your sections → Preview → Word or PDF
Production and scene profiles
Keep the logline, synopsis, treatment, format and creative vision with the production. Each scene can hold its summary, purpose, conflict, turning point, location, props and soundtrack influences.
How it works & things to know
Add storyboard frames to a scene, reorder them and write shot notes. The Production profile brings those frames together in screenplay order.
Character profiles
Record details, psychology, backstory, props, relationships and reference photos. Script analysis shows scene and page appearances, shared scenes and percentages, with manual appearance corrections.
Build a development pack
Choose an overview, treatment, character bible or full pack. Select the saved sections you want, check the preview and download Word or PDF.
How it works & things to know
The builder reuses your text. It identifies empty sections instead of inventing material. Contact details, personal notes, workshop answers and reference images are choices you can review before sharing.
An editable title page
Add the writer and production credits, genre, intended medium, source or original inspiration, contact information, draft label, date and copyright notice. Page and character counts fill automatically.
04 / CHANGE THE DRAFT WITH CONFIDENCE
Less searching. A clearer revision record.
A DRAFT CAN HAVE A MEMORY
First draft→Reader feedback→Your next revision
Compare the writing. Keep the discussion. Decide what changes.
Global replacements with approval
A character rename can update dialogue cues and mentions in action. Change word lets you replace a prop or other term throughout the script. Review the instances and approve the ones you want to change.
Draft history and recovery
Cloud saves, periodic snapshots, named drafts, comparisons and restore controls help you revisit development. Download an individual script backup or a development-history record. Local recovery offers another way to find saved work in that browser.
How it works & things to know
Server timestamps and content hashes record development. They do not certify human authorship, ownership or the absence of AI. Deleting a history version removes that snapshot from the accessible record.
Feedback attached to the passage
Open Review and select a passage. A reviewer can leave a note or suggest an edit through a scoped review link after signing in. The writer can approve or dismiss it and follow the discussion.
How it works & things to know
Accepted suggestions retain before-and-after records. Later saved changes to the marked passage are recorded too. A suggestion based on changed text needs review before it can be applied.
Shared review and tracked suggestions are available. Simultaneous real-time co-writing is a separate planned feature.
05 / BRING YOUR EXISTING WORK
Your screenplay can move with you.
Import with an editable review
Open PDF, Word (.docx), Final Draft (.fdx), Fountain, plain text or a SCRIPTGOAT JSON backup. The importer detects scenes, character cues and element types, then shows a live preview.
How it works & things to know
Correct a dropdown and see its formatting change immediately. Remove unwanted headers or branding, restore a removed item, and check the scene and character counts before adding the screenplay.
Read scanned PDFs
English OCR reads scanned page images in the browser. Choose automatic recognition for pages without searchable text, or OCR every page for a damaged text layer. Progress and cancellation are available; the extracted text still needs your review.
Export the selected screenplay
Download PDF, Word, FDX, Fountain or plain text. A JSON script backup contains only the chosen screenplay, and filenames use its title, writer and year.
How it works & things to know
Word and PDF exports include the title page. Free accounts include “Made with scriptgoat.app”; paid-plan labels omit it.
PDF and unstyled text do not encode screenplay meaning reliably, so extraction is inferred. Older .doc files must first be saved as .docx. Images, Word comments and tracked changes are not imported as screenplay elements.
06 / WRITE AWAY FROM THE CONNECTION
An installable app for the next idea.
Prepare the editor while connected, install it from a supported browser, and keep writing on that device offline.
How to prepare
- Sign in and open the SCRIPTGOAT app.
- Choose Prepare offline and wait for the ready message.
- Use Install app or your browser’s installation option.
- Download Offline OCR if you want scanned-PDF recognition without a connection.
What stays local and what syncs
Writing, planning and downloaded document tools can work offline. Drafts save on the device; reconnect with the app open to sync. If the cloud copy changed elsewhere, both drafts are retained for review.
How it works & things to know
Cloud history, review links, contact forms and reference-image uploads need internet. Cloud images are not included in the offline download. Clearing site data removes local copies, so keep a downloaded backup.
This is a browser-installed web app, not an App Store release. Browser installation and storage support vary.
WHY SCRIPTGOAT EXISTS
Built from a writer’s frustrations.
The starting point was straightforward: the tools we wanted did not sit comfortably together.
We wanted to write a scene before knowing where it belonged, then move it without wrestling with a continuous document. A character’s name needed to change wherever it appeared, including the action. Work needed to move between a PC and a phone. And the knowledge collected about a production should help build its supporting documents.
That is why scenes are movable units, replacements ask for approval, planning stays close to the page, and profiles feed the development pack. The workshop helps the writer articulate a direction; it does not take over the storytelling.
Reliability matters as much as features. Local copies, visible cloud status, backups and history address the fear of losing work. Offline preparation makes the limits explicit before a writer loses the connection.
AVAILABLE NOW & WHAT COMES NEXT
A clear view of the product.
The tools described above are implemented in the current studio. Real-time co-writing and the public Scriptorium community are planned. Paid pricing is proposed; automatic subscription billing is not connected yet. Current sign-in uses ChatGPT.
Installation and some browser interactions still need testing across real devices. SCRIPTGOAT is being developed with writer feedback, so please report anything awkward through Contact.