I Built a Screenwriting App for My ADHD Brain

Earlier this year, I was diagnosed with ADHD and OCD. At 46, this came as quite a shock. I went through a few stages of denial and acceptance, and now I'm in the integration phase. The more I learned about how my mind actually works, the more things that used to baffle me started to make sense.

Writing is hard. Full stop. But for me, it was a battle between using every app on the planet, switching apps mid-project, abandoning the computer altogether and vowing to write only longhand on a typewriter, only to migrate everything back to Final Draft in the end. It was madness.

Programs like Microsoft Word and Final Draft are impossible for me to use. It's like trying to hear a cricket at a Metallica concert. The UX was so distracting I'd spend an hour just trying to figure out a way to get the most minimal view of the app, and even that was like nails on a chalkboard.

Screenwriting software is built for people who can ignore things. Toolbars, panels, pop-ups, a dozen buttons you'll never press. My brain can't ignore any of it. Every one of those things is a door out of the scene I'm supposed to be writing.

So earlier this year, I built the tool I needed. It's called Stream. It's quiet, it's simple to look at, and it works the way my brain works. It runs in your browser at stream.upperstate.tv, and you can try it for free. I should mention that I spent the first half of my adult career as an Art Director in the digital ad space, so I've always prided myself on designing elegant UI.

I've been using it exclusively since I built it. I've sent out my scripts to my managers from it.

It works. It really does.

A page, and nothing else

You type. Stream sets the page.

When you start typing, everything else on screen fades away and nothing moves. It's just you and a page of Courier (Courier Prime for those who are paying attention). Scene headings, action, character names and dialogue format themselves as you go, with real page breaks and a page count, so there's nothing to fiddle with and nothing to fix. That matters a lot when fiddling is the thing that eats your day.

There's also a red pen. Write the rough version in red, and come back later to revise it in black. My OCD wants every sentence perfect before I can move to the next one. Red gives me permission to get it down badly and keep going. The line at the bottom tells you how many words you wrote today, quietly, which turns out to be all the motivation I need.

The cards are the script

Every scene is a card. Move a card and the scene moves.

My brain doesn't work in a straight line. I think in pieces: a scene from the end, a line of dialogue, an image I can't place yet. In Stream, you can step back from the page, and every scene becomes a card on a board. Color them by character or storyline, drag one somewhere new, and the script moves with it. There's no separate outline to keep in sync, because the board and the script are the same thing.

Everything in one place

The treatment, the bible and your notes live next to the script. Every draft is kept.

Every project keeps its treatment, series bible, and notes right beside the script, linked to each other, so you're not hunting through folders. Every draft is saved, named and dated, one click away. For someone with OCD, knowing I can always get back to the version that worked is what lets me take risks with the one in front of me.

Write together, live

Co-writers write, producers read, all on the same page.

Invite a co-writer to edit or a producer to read, and you're all on the same page at the same time, each with your own named cursor. No versions to reconcile and no attachments to chase.

Your AI, in its own color

Your AI's edits show up in a color that is clearly not yours, and undo takes them out.

I wanted AI to be a collaborator, not the author. You connect the one you already use, Claude or ChatGPT, and it can read your script, treatment, and notes. Anything it writes shows up in its own color, so you always know which words are yours, and undo removes it like any other edit. It only gets in after you say yes, and connecting it is free.

Your work stays yours

Your scripts are encrypted, never used to train AI, and never sold. You can download everything as ordinary files whenever you like, or back it all up to your own Dropbox or Google Drive.

Got a finished draft? Get it read.

Stream has a sibling called Script Reader. Upload a screenplay, and you get coverage back the way a professional reader writes it: a synopsis, a scorecard, notes, and a revision roadmap. It's free while it's in beta.

Try it, and tell me what you think

Stream is free for up to three scripts, with no card and no time limit. Treatments, bibles, notes, and drafts don't count toward the three. If you want more, Pro is $8 a month or $72 a year, and it lets you invite people to write with you.

I made this for my own brain, and I'd really love to know how it works for yours. Try it at stream.upperstate.tv, then write to me at stream@upperstate.tv. Tell me what's missing, what's broken, and what made you want to keep writing.

Try Stream for free

– Joe.