As you’ve probably figured out by now, I like data, especially data that shows me I’m making progress on my projects.
Find Your Project History
This is such a simple little thing, but I just love it. Start by clicking on Project -> Writing History. Like this:
What you’ll get is a pop-up window like this one:
Now, I usually don’t share from my WIP (did you recognize the opening chapter of Moby Dick in the first image?), but since I don’t actually work on that mock-up on a day-to-day basis, I had to pull from my own work to show you the rest. And, no, I didn’t actually write 14,156 words on August 15. I was copying some work from an old Word doc into this new project.
Day by Day
Start at the top with writing days. Since I’ve started this new project, I’ve actively worked on it on 13 different days. Funny. It feels like a lot more. And in truth, this count only goes back to the day I resurrected this project and uploaded it from Word, so I actually have spent a lot more than 13 days on it. But 13 since I got serious. Moving on…
Below that, you can see average words (and note that you can switch to characters by using the drop down menu at the top right there – and if you do, will you please tell me in the comments below why you prefer that? I’ve never understood why that’s a thing).
I also like to look at the dates lined up in the first column there. I try to write six days a week when I’m working on a draft. It would appear I didn’t quite hit that goal, but I was working pretty consistently. Yeah me.
The data at the bottom there is a summary of the highlighted day, August 16 in this case. I like that it also gives you the session target. If you’re not familiar with setting daily word count targets, check out my post on that. It’s SUPER handy when you’re working toward a specific goal. Cough*NaNoWriMo*cough.
Lastly, you can toggle from “Months and Days” to “Months Only” (on the right there above the chart), to get a wider perspective on your work.
Month by Month
Since I don’t have enough data on the new project yet, here’s what my last project looked like:
March was a good month. Kind of made up for January. Stupid January.
Anyway, you can see how the data at the bottom shifts. Under “Words written” the first column displays totals. The column on the right you can change with the drop-down menu.
For this example I chose to show averages, but you can also do maximum in a day or minimum in a day.
So that’s it. Just a quick and easy way to review your writing habits and see the progress you’re making. Happy writing!
Hello! These past two weeks I went on holiday, and wrote quite a lot of words on my iPad. However, I couldn’t see my writing history per day on my iPad, and when I opened my scrivener project back on my computer today, it only showed the writing history until the last day I had written here before my holiday. Even though the project I had on my iPad synced. Is there a reason for my computer not to count the words I wrote on my iPad?
Hi, Joana, I’ve never worked with the iPad synching in Scrivener. I would suggest reaching out to Literature & Latte. They have some great customer support there and I’m sure they could answer your question. Cheers!
I’m writing in my manuscript, and for some reason, all of the words I’ve typed this month are being tracked as other instead of draft in my daily writing stats. I’ve unchecked the compile group buttons, and everything is set to be included when I do compile. My manuscript word count is correct. The discrepancy is driving me crazy though. Do you know of any way to fix this?
Hi, Molly,
That’s frustrating. The only thing I can think is that maybe you have your Binder set up in a way that Scrivener isn’t seeing your chapters as part of the manuscript. If shifting folders doesn’t help, I would recommend reaching out to Scrivener. They have really good customer support. It’s one of the reasons I remain such a fan.
Good luck! (and – when you figure it out – let us know how you solved it in case future readers have the same question).
Cheers,
April
Can you please tell me what “other” means? There are days when I’ve got a bunch of words in “other” and many less or none in “draft”. I’m so confused — is it from characters, notes, and research, etc?
Here’s what the Literature and Latte website had to say: “Draft” words are words written in the Draft folder of the Binder. “Other” words are written anywhere else. Similarly, session and project word counts can be limited to only documents contained in the current Compile group.
If “Compile group” doesn’t mean anything to you, check out this post and scroll down to the third image where I talk about compiling: https://aprildavila.com/word-count-tracker-scrivener/
Good luck!
You need to teach a class on this.
I’ve thought about putting together an online course, but there are so many free YouTube videos about Scrivener, I just don’t know why anyone would pay for something like that. And I have too many other projects going to start another that doesn’t bring some income…