#writetrack

[author-a-holmes]

I have tried Pacemaker.Press, Mywriteclub, and 4thewords. All of them are good, depending on what you're looking for in terms of functionality.

Personally, 4thewords is my goto, and I'll be purchasing their lifetime membership next year, when my currently accrued membership time expires, but I still maintain free accounts on Pacemaker and Mywriteclub.

Since the above list are screenshots from Twitter, have some handy, dandy, direct links to each of these platforms;

Trackbear

MyWriteClub

WriteTrack.Cloud

Pacemaker.Press

4theWords

I'd also like to mention that WritingMonth.Org is in the process of being built, specifically for people looking for somewhere other than Nanowrimo as well. The developer hopes to have the website coded and functioning by the end of September 2024, so it's another one worth keeping an eye on.

WritingMonth.org

Re-sharing this post I found on Twitter for people looking for alternatives to NaNo. I haven't tried any of these sites but they might be worth looking into.

[lil-m-hoffman]

Nearly two weeks into Novel November and only NOW do I discover that you can set WriteTrack to display in total word count as well as daily word count...

[florencebirdsong]

Guys I've posted 24,000 words in fic form in 1.5 months. What the actual fuck.

[captainbisexuelle]

writing hard. but hitting word count goals is becoming a new addiction.

[fixyourwritinghabits]

NaNo Alternatives

Okay, real post time (but keep those boops booping) - You want to do NaNoWriMo tomorrow, but you don't want to go anywhere near the main organization and their website. Here's a list of alternatives you can try:

Rogue Writers - International group launched to provide an alternative for writers. Their website has challenges, free tools, and more.

myWriteClub - Word tracking tool.

Novlr - A writing app designed to help you meet your writing goals.

WriteTrack - Word tracking tool.

Shut Up and Write - Find in-person or online groups to write together with!

NoQuWriCo - A November writing challenge with tools, tips, and encouragement to make it through the month! (Thanks to someone letting me know - this is a Christian alternative. Try another if that does not appeal to you!)

Writing Month - Write. A Month. Do It.

Your local library - If you did NaNo events through your library, chances are they're still doing it this year. Make sure you check in with all the resources you've used in the past, as they're likely still around.

Whatever you decide to do tomorrow, good luck! And remember, if you want to still use the NaNo website but don't like their AI policies and the rest of it, just don't give them money! Laugh to yourself, evilly, as you update your word count. It's very validating.

(Now back to booping.)

[theaawalker]

Steps to Write 1K Words a Day (with a tight schedule)

follow for more tips 💋 || request writing tips 💌

1. Establish the Foundation

Know Your Why: Clarify your reason for writing daily by finishing a novel, building discipline, therapeutic expression, etc. Purpose keeps you going when time is tight.

Pick a Project & Stick With It: Avoid hopping between too many ideas. Commit to one main project to prevent decision fatigue.

Set a Realistic Timeframe: Determine how much daily time you actually have. Even 30 minutes can be enough with focus.

2. Shape the Writing Routine

Set a Daily Writing Slot: Choose the same 20-60-minute window each day, e.g., early morning, lunch break, and right before bed. Consistency beats chaos.

Break It into Sprints: Divide writing time into 2-3 focused sprints (10–20 minutes each) with mini-goals (e.g., 300 words per sprint).

Use Micro-Moments Wisely: Jot down scenes, lines, or dialogue in short bursts during downtime, e.g., commutes and between classes.

3. Build a Writing Habit

Create a Ritual: Start with a cue (tea, playlist, app launch), write, and end with a reward. Conditioning helps it stick.

Track Your Progress: Use a word count tracker, habit app, or physical calendar to visualize your momentum.

Aim for “Done,” Not “Perfect”: Don’t revise mid-draft. Keep the focus on finishing today’s 1,000 words, not editing yesterday’s.

4. Define Your Writing Environment

Eliminate Distractions: Silence notifications, close tabs, and let others know you’re “off the grid” during your writing window.

Use Tools That Work for You: Whether it's Google Docs, Scrivener, Word, or a distraction-free app (like FocusWriter), pick what helps you stay in flow.

Keep Materials Nearby: Outlines, scene notes, character sheets. Have them within reach to avoid losing time to memory gaps.

5. Develop Content Efficiently

Outline Briefly Before Writing: Know the scene’s goal, characters involved, and 1–2 key beats. This cuts down time spent thinking mid-writing.

Use Prompts or Templates: If stuck, use writing prompts or scene formulas (e.g., conflict ↣ tension ↣ resolution) to keep moving forward.

Lower the Stakes for First Drafts: Treat your draft as clay, not marble. Write fast, revise later.

6. Reward Yourself Consistently

Use Immediate Micro-Rewards: After each sprint, give yourself a small treat: a stretch, snack, meme scroll, or a favorite song.

Build End-of-Day Rituals: After hitting 1K, reward yourself with a guilt-free indulgence:

- A hot drink

- 30 minutes of gaming

- A mini-episode of your comfort show

- Reading time

Track for Bigger Rewards: Hit a streak (5 days? 2 weeks?) and treat yourself to something bigger: new notebook, movie night, favorite meal.

Celebrate Wins, Big or Small: Even if you only wrote 300 words, that’s progress. Celebrate effort, not just perfection.

7. Develop a Sustainable Arc

Adjust as Needed: If 1,000 words becomes overwhelming, drop to 500 and scale up again. It's better to be consistent than burned out.

Build in Break Days: Choose 1-2 buffer days per week for rest or catch-up. Remember, your brain needs recharge time.

Reflect Monthly: Look back on what worked, what didn’t, and what to change. Writing daily is a living habit, not a static rule.

Tools That Can Help

Timers: Pomodoro apps (e.g., Focus Keeper, Forest)

Trackers: Pacemaker Planner, WriteTrack

Writing Tools: 4theWords (gamified), Google Docs offline, Scrivener

Voice-to-Text Options: Google Voice Typing, Otter.ai

Examples of People with Tight Schedules Who Write Daily

Octavia Butler: Wrote early each morning before work. Do what she said, “Persist.”

Brandon Sanderson: Wrote in sprints between teaching and family time.

Toni Morrison: Wrote after her children went to sleep, hence treating every moment as sacred.

You (Eventually): With the right systems, even the busiest writer can find their rhythm.

Follow || Like || Comment || Repost || My Novel ⇚⇚⇚

thank you, i am farkle :)

[nerdyartisandrittin]

This is to all of the writers and people who just generally like organizing their ideas in one place:

What is your ideal way to do this?

As in, if there could be an app that could do everything you could want it to, what would those things be (and what would you use them for)?

I thought about this really hard and I want to know other people's opinions on this matter, because I haven't been able to find a single app or program or solution that does everything I want it to in terms of idea management.

Reblog with your opinions/ideas please!

Some of my ideas below:

I like Google Docs but I want a way to easily organize and categorize all the ideas I keep on those docs (I write more than one thing at once and a lot of times those ideas overlap) so I can keep track of all the connections between all the things I'm writing. I like seeing that.

Also I like to see my progress over time overall so I'd definitely want a lot of graphs and pie charts and word counts for everything as well

A tagging system would probably bring together the idea management part and the graphs could use the total word counts of said tags and paint a bigger picture (like what my favorite things to write about are, or when I was really crazy about that one idea was)

I also like customization. Dark theme and light theme for everything, also custom themes

The website WriteTrack has a really REALLY GOOD way of goal tracking and I want something like that integrated with everything else so I don't keep forgetting to put things in when I'm supposed to (and also it makes it easier for general goals like progress on an idea that spans several docs or total goals like inching closer to a certain total word count)

Seeing everything in one place is really really great but I also want to see SOURCES in one place too! Like an integrated thesaurus or a forum or rhyme finder or that one website where you can search words by their definition!!

There's so much more I've got organized onto a doc but It's really early in the morning and I'm about to fall asleep so I'm ending it here for now

And before you say this will never happen, I AM MAKING IT HAPPEN THAT'S WHY IM ASKING FOR OPINIONS AND IDEAS :DDDDD (programming is something I'm very interested in and this would be something I'd spend my whole life making real and enjoy every second of) (I have experience in it but not the kind you're thinking of)

[akaluan]

I feel like I've written basically nothing this year, except when I look at writetrack, it's showing that I've so far written 85k words in the year. And sure, some of that is the editing rewrites that I do, but ???? I'm very confused where all of those words ended up. Wild.

I'm still struggling to write the number of nights per week that I want to, but I'm fairly consistently at about 3 nights a week now. Given that this time last year I was at essentially ZERO, I will take what I can get and keep going. Rebuilding that consistency from before is going to take a lot more time, I think, but.. it's better.

And I guess more importantly, I'm having fun with it again. I lost that for a while there, so it's nice to have it back.

...

So I think, for anyone following me who's struggling with burnout and getting any of your projects done, it does get better. It can take time, and it can feel like an eternity, but.. you can get back to where u want to be. Just take a step back, focus on finding things to enjoy to recharge ur batteries, and be kind to urself.

[miggylol]

hi! do you have a routine or anything when it comes to writing? what do you do to reach your word count goals (besides just like... write, the obvious answer lol)? i've been setting goals using writetrack but failing miserably at each one, oops.

I thought about this for a minute, and realized that my actual answer feels like it's to a different question.

For a starting point, something that helps me a lot is that I use Scrivener and make use of TONS of individual documents. Like, here's my current in-progress project:

I organize them into chapter folders, so there's some formal structure. But then I actually use the document names themselves to put together an outline of how the plot will flow in a very basic, loose, non-constricting manner. I find that allows me room to innovate and have fun later on, while still forcing me to identify in advance which plot beats must happen.

Like... in this piece, it's important that a certain piece of clothing is discussed before Some Asshole starts causing trouble. So I just titled a document with "pants fixing scene" and dropped it into the right spot in the line-up. Bam. Since the document is there with its title staring back at me, there's no way to overlook this plot-vital element.

I didn't write the scene, plot out where exactly it'd be set, or specify any other details that might make sense during early, sweeping plotting work (but would only be a source of frustration by the time I got to actually writing it). I just created a document, called it "pants fixing scene," and tossed in a handful of explanatory words into the document itself so I'd later remember what I meant by that, lol

I actually just wrote that scene two days ago, after knowing for months that it was important. And... in terms of setting, it ended up being nothing like I expected it to be! I got inspired to do something else with it that ended up making more sense. But it still happened in the right rhythm for the overall plot.

SO, my two major recommendations would be:

Know where you're going, but don't overplan. It's hard to write if you have no idea what's coming next. It's also hard to write if you're trying your best to stick to a blueprint with teeny tiny details that are 50k words out of date.

If you basically know where you're going, then that also means that there are tons of different sights to see and anticipate along the way! I generally try to work in order, but sometimes I am just STUCK with the dialogue, etc. that needs to happen to achieve thing happening right now, but get inspiration for thing happening in a couple days' time. So I just jump ahead and write the latter. The plot beats you've identified have gotta happen at some point, so why not when you're feeling inspired to do so?

(This is way way easier with Scrivener, but it's certainly not necessary. You could take the same basic approach with Notepad. Just drop some barebone plot bullets into plaintext and start writing under the appropriate one.)

The times when I just can't get writing done, it's almost always not because I haven't set enough reminders, blocked out enough time, or other out-of-story things like that. It's because the words just don't want to flow, because I haven't structurally set myself up to let them flow.

I hope at least part of that helps!

[words-of-a-fanboy]

Links Masterpost

Featured Fics

Revenge - chapters 48/48 Rating: Explicit Category: M/M Fandom: Dark Matter Relationships: Derrick/Marcus (One/Three) Main Tags: Prequel, Secret Identity, Enemies to Lovers, Angst, Smut, Emotional Slowburn

Frozen - chapters 1/1 Rating: Teen Category: M/M Fandom: Dark Matter Relationships: One/Three Main Tags: Ice Planet, Fluff, Trapped Together, Huddling for Warmth, Literal Sleeping Together

Privacy - chapters 5/? Rating: Explicit Category: M/M Fandom: The Maze Runner - James Dashner Relationships: Newt/Thomas Main Tags: Horny Teenagers, Public Sex, Masturbation, Voyeurism, Embarrassment

The Scent of You - one shot Rating: Teen Category: M/M Fandom: Harry Potter Relationships: Draco/Harry Main Tags: Amortentia, Attraction, Embarrassment, Mocking, Kissing

A Job Well Done - one shot Rating: General Audiences Category: Gen, M/M Fandom: Jujutsu Kaisen Relationships: Yuuji & Megumi & Nobara, Yuuji/Megumi Main Tags: Fluff, Cute, Sleepiness, Best Friends, Cuddling, Hair-stroking

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My Writing (though the only one I really use is AO3): AO3 - CaiFox FanFiction.net - Cai-in-code FictionPress - Cai-in-code Honeyfeed - CaiFox deviantART - LotusLiterature (really old/crap stuff - read at your own risk xD)

Art and Photography: Instagram - matt.lloyd.photos, matt.lloyd.art, mattyboy540 (trans/selfies) deviantART - LotusPhotos (photography), LotusDrawn (art) Redbubble - uncarysmatic

Social Media: Bluesky - words-of-a-fanboy.bsky.social Threads - matt.lloyd.photos, mattyboy540 Reddit - uncarysmatic Twitter... - mattyboy540

Tracking Accounts: Goodreads - mattlloydreads NaNoWriMo/TrackBear/WriteTrack - mattlloydwrites TV Time - uncarysmatic Letterboxd - mattyboy540

[theriveroflight]

wip updates and such:

uchikoshi big bang

I officially know exactly how I plan to write this and have a final wordcount in mind. my writetrack goal has been set up to run until the next check-in and I am making good progress

femslash big bang

going well so far. idfk how long it's going to be but I'm definitely ahead of where I need to be considering how early it is

raffle

I am about 1/5 through the final fic, I think.

if dreams are just for dreamers

about 400 words in on the next chapter; planning to post on valentine's!

SAVE a Way Out!

about 800 words in on the next chapter. we're making good headway.

other stuff?

I'm working on a little cocoapowder fluff. Also something Professor Layton. Also hopefully something else for this month.

[pinbones]

Goal: 50k

Total on the 29th: 23,113

Expected by the end of today: 50k

Writetrack believes in me

[zariahthechocolatecookie]

Big writing accomplishment for me today!!

✨I finished the rough draft of the next chapter in my fanfiction!! ✨

Super excited about this - this is actually the most I've ever written in chronological order for a project, and probably the longest I've consistently stuck with it! I also finished the draft before the deadline I set for myself, which I'm also very proud of.

The fanfiction in question is called Discovery, and you can find it here on Ao3. It's an HTTYD fanfic that addresses the question of "what if Hiccup had a sister?" Discovery follows the events of the first movie, and how Hiccup's sister's story unfolds alongside his. Please please please check it out, it would mean a lot to me!

Little advertisement aside, I think the main reason I've been able to make so much progress in such a quick time (by my standards, at least), is because I've finally found a way to set manageable goals for myself!! I discovered a program called WriteTrack a few weeks ago and it is ✨ amazing ✨

It breaks up what you're working on into projects, that you can set a timeframe and estimated final word count for. Then it breaks it down so you have a specific daily word goal! You can also adjust how much you plan to do each day if you know you're going to be super-busy one day. It's really a spectacular program! Figured I'd share about it in case it's helpful for anyone else out there. :)

As for Discovery... with the draft of the second chapter now finished, I'm moving onto editing! That should hopefully only take me a week or so, meaning that the next chapter should be up on Ao3 sometime next week! Definitely before Halloween. Again, Discovery is here on Ao3, please go check it out and maybe leave a comment or something!

[classicsandfantasy]

Because of NaNoWriMo's recent statments about AI, and their recent sexual harassement scandal, there has been a (rightfully) large movement to boycott NaNoWriMo. So, I'm taking the oppertunity to talk about the Pathfinders Writing Collective, and my favorite website, WriteTrack! The Pathfinders Writing Collective is an online community that aims to replace NaNoWriMo's forums, and can be tailored to your needs, and Writetrack is an amazing word count website"

[varian-ross-horror-author]

Is WriteTrack not letting anyone else log in?

[fictional-ghost]

does anyone use WriteTrack to track their daily word counts??