About Writing Ninja®

Writing Ninja® is an online story development platform that makes it really easy for writers to create professional-quality stories for screenplays and novels.

The Writing Ninja Mission

We created our software because we love underdogs.

David and Goliath. Rocky. Rudy. (“Rudy. Rudy. Rudy!”) For every dreamer writing away in bookstores, coffeehouses, or kitchen tables… this is for you. We started Writing Ninja so every screenwriter, novelist, film student, indie film producer, and fiction writer can have fun tools to create stories as professional and polished as the Pros.

We believe great stories can come from anyone, anywhere.

 

 

WHAT WE STAND FOR

Our Core Values

These six principles drive everything we do.

Empower Every Writer

Everything we do goes through the lens of a screenwriter. If a new writer might struggle with something, we iterate until it’s fun and easy. We want to help everyone write better stories, regardless of experience. As underdogs, we have to stick together!

Have Serious Fun at Work

We believe everything’s better when served with a smile. No matter how hard the grind can get, we strive to make writing as easy, productive, and, dare we say, as fun as possible. We may make software, but we’re also people who really enjoy what we do. And we’re here for you!

Help Do More In Less Time

Shortcuts. Hacks. Time savers. We’re all about streamlining and simplifying your writing workflow. Around the office, we call it the Smoove Test: “Is it smoove yet?” No? Then keep iterating until it is. Smoother, better, faster tools make better, faster, stronger stories!

We’re Our Own Customer

We practice what we preach; we use Writing Ninja to develop our own stories, not only when we test the platform, but for our pleasure writing as well. It’s why we made Ninja — so we could use it ourselves. 🙂

Equity, Equality & Diversity

The time of being underused and overlooked is over. As a minority, female-founded company, we’re passionate about going out of our way to provide equal opportunities to all genders, ages, and ethnicities.

Be Bold, Brave & Bootstrapped

As a self-funded company, we strive to delight our creative customers – but on our own terms, not chasing some VC’s idea of a profitable feature set. We’d rather be badass than big… daring instead of boring… different, not ordinary.

Emulate Billy Wilder

As the late, great screenwriter famously said, “Know where you’re going. The more subtle and elegant you are in hiding your plot points, the better you are as a writer.” We try to bake that into everything we make.

"Know where you're going. The more subtle and elegant you are in hiding your plot points, the better you are as a writer."

–Billy Wilder

Noi Sabalk in Office

Founding Ninja

Noi Sabal is a veteran of film & tv biz with 25+ years experience and the founder of Writing Ninja. She’s been writing scripts for a long time (since she talked her high school history teacher into accepting a screenplay instead of a term paper!). After attending Emerson College for writing and UCF Film School, she worked as an editor on dozens of broadcast tv shows and independent films, with her work being broadcast nationally and internationally on ABC, Fox, Disney, Nickelodeon, Sundance, and many more.

On one of her shows, Noi met her mentor, Al Burton (Norman Leer’s Director of Development), who taught her about comedy, storytelling, and life in the biz. He encouraged her to embrace her (offbeat and sarcastic!) comedic voice, take a leap of faith, and follow her passion for writing. So, after having worked as a professional in the film and television industry as a motion graphic designer and video editor, Noi returned to her first love of screenwriting. She’s been writing screenplays, teaching storytelling at the university level, and consulting on scripts for over two decades. Her screenwriting work has garnered attention on the festival circuit and placed in many well-known contests.

Now she’s using her production and writing experience to create Writing Ninja®, a suite of online tools that empowers screenwriters to build better stories, one Brainstorm Board® at a time.

Fox Logo

Ninja Backstory

Turning two passions into one new business: Writing Ninja

Screenwriting

As a screenwriter for many years, Noi created a brainstorming system to help her efficiently produce content. She developed and fine-tuned a series of checklists, calendars, and spreadsheets until she’d honed a fun, creative, and efficient workflow that helped her students and friends write fiction. In 2017, she decided to turn these popular, helpful documents into an online platform for fiction writers to develop novels and screenplays.

Blogging

As a new mom, Noi looked for a way to make money from home and between gigs. She started her first blog in 2004 and never looked back. Creating one side-hustle site after another,  she never bought ads or professional SEO. Over the years, she figured out how to generate organic traffic (before social media was around to help!) with what she calls “honest optimization.” Soon, she was coaching others to do the same. And now…

Writing Ninja and Bloggin' Ninja logos

One Ninja, Two Ninja, Orange Ninja, Blue Ninja

We combined decades of branding, writing, and blogging experience to create Brand Storytelling in Bloggin’ Ninja and Fiction Storytelling in Screenwriting Ninja.

Both branches of Writing Ninja help writers save time and consistently write stronger content, regardless of experience level. Here’s how it all came about:

February 2017: Writing Ninja development begins with Screenwriting Ninja.

November 2018: Responding to market demand, we shift focus to marketing and pivot to Bloggin’ Ninja.

March 2019: Beta Testing begins with a few brave small business owners, then opens to accept a small, diverse team of entrepreneurs from all kinds of businesses.

Fall of 2020: After over a year of working hand-in-hand with all of our amazing entrepreneurs, we publicly launch Bloggin’ Ninja.

Nov 2021: With Bloggin’ Ninja now happily helping small businesses, development shifts back to the fiction side of the biz: Screenwriting Ninja.

Summer 2023: Beta Testing Program begins as brave screenwriters and novelists start using Screenwriting Ninja.

Fall 2023: Users request AI features (but optional — coz not everyone wants it!). Start adding transparent, opt-in AI into several key Brainstorm Boards.

Spring 2024: Based on feedback, we develop a streamlined new workflow to help writers quickly discover the core of any story: The Ninja Nine.

Spring 2025: We return to (slowly!) introducing new cohorts of writers to this unique, fun, and fast way to get your story out of your head and into the world.

Now: Our tiny lil’ team continues to let new Ninjas into Early Access while we develop Writing Ninja, squashing bugs and making improvements based on feedback.

Early Access: Wanna get in on the fun and sneak a peek? Get free Early Access

Ready to have some serious fun?

Come on in and play with Writing Ninja, 100% free. Grab a free-forever account

"Don't be intimidated by what you don't know. That can be your greatest strength and ensure that you do things differently from everyone else."

–Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx


Writing Ninja is a story development platform that makes it really easy for writers to create professional-quality stories for their screenplays and novels.

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