Stop Writing! is for screenwriters, television writers, novelists, playwrights, and anyone building narrative. If you love writing stories, you’re in the right place.

Stop Writing! works for scripts, novels, plays, musicals, podcasts, and games. A good story is a good story — no matter the format. If it has characters, conflict, and a beginning-middle-end, Stop Writing! can help you build it.

The book is the “why” — the theory, the pattern recognition, and the thinking behind the method. The software is the “how” — where you actually build your story, with the coach or without. Each stands on its own, but they’re built to work together.

Neither camp has it right — the question skips a step. Develop your story before you draft: test the premise, design the structure, build the characters, map the plot. Then write how you write. See the full answer →

This methodology existed long before large language models, so I can meet you where you are. Work with dAIvid as much as you want, or not at all. Stay on paper with the book and the workbook. Read the ebook or listen to the audiobook. Use the software free of artificial intelligence — StoryBuilder and IdeaCatcher put plain-language definitions from the book beside every field. Or bring dAIvid in to coach you — StoryTeller and StoryMaster. And remember: this is pre-writing. dAIvid never writes your draft. The pen stays in your hand.

Evolving, and held with humility. But the more important question: what’s yours? At Stop Writing!, the technology is not a default. It’s a choice, and that choice is yours. The book, IdeaCatcher, and StoryBuilder work without it. StoryTeller and StoryMaster employ it — through teaching and coaching, never ghostwriting. And if you choose the coach, he announces himself in the name — dAIvid — and follows the Artistic Constitution, a set of principles governing the relationship between artist and machine, designed to sharpen a writer’s craft and protect their voice, not replace it.

The WGA has taken a strong position on artificial intelligence but has not issued guidelines covering every kind of tool. Stop Writing! is different from the generative writing tools the WGA has flagged. It is a story development platform that helps writers think through their ideas — structure, character, theme, conflict — before a single word of a draft is written. It does not generate scripts, dialogue, or prose — and on IdeaCatcher and StoryBuilder, no coaching runs at all.

I do not train language models on your creative content. Your work stays your work. dAIvid was trained on my book, my methodology, and my coaching framework — built to recreate a private or workshop coaching session with me. Human methodology, thought, and care shaped every step of this product.

dAIvid is the coaching assistant on StoryTeller and StoryMaster — my digital counterpart, trained on the STOP WRITING! methodology, built on Anthropic’s Claude. He does not write your draft. He coaches: asks sharper questions, spots structural problems, and helps you think through decisions. You stay the author. Craft is still craft: excavated from the human soul. Meet dAIvid →

Because used well, artificial intelligence is the widest door to learning ever built, and I’d rather make art beside it than sit the era out. I believe it can make us better writers when we treat it as a coach — a way to sharpen the craft, not skip it. And of the real options, I chose Anthropic with eyes wide open. The full record of why — receipts included — is in Art in the Age of AI →

Only the coaching tiers touch a language model at all — and this is a text-based platform, so it uses very little. A full session with the coach draws about what your desk lamp does while you sit and write it, with about a second of a shower’s worth of water. The math, the sources, and the worst-case numbers are on The Real Cost →

The opposite. The method pushes you toward clearer intent and stronger choices, not a house style. My teachers never tried to make me sound like them. They helped me sound like me.

You own everything you create. Your story, your drafts, your outlines, your exports — yours.

On Stop Writing!, your work remains private. Secure hosting, encrypted connections, password protected accounts. I don’t sell your data or share your writing under any circumstances. Read the details on the security page.

You can export all of your project materials. I won’t trap your story inside the app.

Stop Writing! supports screen, TV, and prose development. Exports focus on clean, readable docs you can plug into your workflow.

Stop Writing! is built for writers at every level. The goal is simple: spark your creativity and help you shape those ideas into confident story decisions — whether it’s your first story or your fiftieth.

Speed and precision. You already have a process that works — Stop Writing! isn’t here to replace it. It’s here to sharpen the parts that slow you down: organizing ideas, stress-testing structure, and catching problems before they cost you a rewrite. It’s a malleable platform that flows with your process, not against it. You get fewer false starts, cleaner pitches, and less rewrite debt.

You reach me. Not a chatbot, not a ticket queue — me. I built this for writers, and I stand behind it. If something’s not working, I want to know.

Nothing bad. If you subscribe, your tier continues. If you don’t, your account becomes IdeaCatcher — free forever — and every project you built stays yours. Upgrade whenever the story calls for it.

Cancel inside your account settings. No calls. No hostage negotiation.

Your projects remain available in read-only access, and exports remain yours. Coaching features pause without an active plan.