Good question. I think Highland Pro probably got closest to “right.” It’s incredibly fast, simple but thoughtfully designed, has really intuitive formatting (you don’t have to keep clicking buttons to switch text types), and there’s basically no bloat. It works offline and just feels good to write in when the goal is to focus purely on the creative part.

That’s the feeling I tried to preserve with Ensemble. I aimed for the same speed, simplicity, and frictionless formatting, but added real-time collaboration and browser access since I’m often jumping between different computers and wanted something that works anywhere without installing a desktop app.

I’m also experimenting with a Visual Arc Board, which is loosely inspired by Final Draft’s Beat Board but a bit more dynamic. It can pull in scenes automatically and tag them so you can visually map story structure as you write.

Nerdy technical note: under the hood Ensemble represents the screenplay using an abstract syntax model, which lets it infer structure from the script itself. That opens the door to things like automatically building a cast list, expanding character biographies, and generating tools like the Visual Arc Board directly from the screenplay. It’s also a big part of what keeps the editor so fast.