The Best App for Creating a Writing Habit

Writing every day is hard, particularly if you have a day job, run a business or are raising a family at the same time. To consistently reach your writing goals, you need as much support as you can get. Most writers use several different tools and systems to stay accountable and motivated to keep putting words on a page.

Writing Analytics brings many of these tried and tested tools into one app designed to help you create a sustainable writing routine. From scheduling a writing project, drafting individual chapters to doing revision. Thanks to its mobile support and cloud sync, you can work anywhere and have your drafts synchronised seamlessly across all your devices.

In this step-by-step guide, you'll learn how Writing Analytics can help you create a sustainable writing habit and reach your writing goals.

Create a writing habit with Writing Analytics

Writing Analytics is an editor and writing tracker. It has a built-in analytics engine that collects various metrics while you write. It allows you to track your progress across all your writing projects to stay motivated along the way.

Don't have an account yet? Sign up for our 14-day free trial to try the app yourself.

1. Create a project

Projects in Writing Analytics let you track your words on different stories and drafts separately. You can set a goal and a deadline for each one and see your progress on its dashboard.

Maybe you're working on a book and running a blog at the same time. Using projects will help you better understand where the majority of your writing time is going and compare how productive you are across all the types of writing that you do.

To set up a project, go to the Projects section in the app. Click the New Project button in the top right corner and follow the instructions.

After finishing a project, you can archive it. Your data from archived projects will still count towards your overall stats.

2. Set up your writing schedule

Writing Analytics includes a built-in writing planner. You can set up a writing schedule for every project to create some accountability for yourself.

In your project's settings, enable the Schedule section at the bottom. You can now choose which day of the week will you be working on this project. You can also set a deadline or a daily word goal.

If you set an overall goal for your project, Writing Analytics will calculate how many words you have to write every day (in case you set a deadline) or estimate a deadline (in case you set a daily goal) for you. These will show up on your Overview.

3. Start a writing session

To write in Writing Analytics, you have to start a writing session. Go to the Sessions section and click the New Session button in the top right corner.

Thinking about your writing in sessions forces you to be more intentional about how you write. A session has a beginning and end. When you start working, Writing Analytics starts a timer. The editor tracks how many words you write and delete, how fast you work, how focused you are and how much time you spend typing.

These tools work together to keep you concentrated on writing and help you achieve the state of flow.

When you set a goal, a progress bar in the editor will show you how much work you have yet to do. If you prefer writing for a set period instead of hitting a specific word count goal, you can set a time goal instead.

At the end of your session, Writing Analytics will create a detailed report for you. The stats will be aggregated on your dashboard where you can find trends and patterns over time.

4. Track your progress

Are you on track to hit the deadline? How much time do you spend on each of your writing projects? Are you writing more or less than usual? How many words do you write per day, week, month and year?

Writing Analytics has answers to all of these questions and more. The best thing of all — everything happens automatically behind the scenes. You don't have to count your words and measure time to log them on a spreadsheet. The editor collects these metrics while you write.

The more data you'll collect, the more value you'll get. You'll start seeing trends and discover patterns in how you work. Perhaps you're much more productive on certain days of the week. Based on that, you may choose to take it easy for the rest of the week, knowing that you're likely to catch up.

Tracking your progress also gives you a way to keep yourself accountable when working on your drafts. It takes months and years to finish a book. Staying motivated is essential.

5. Build streaks

Many writers choose to write a little bit every day, building their drafts incrementally over time. Jerry Seinfeld is a proponent of the don't break the chain method:

Just keep at it, and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job is to not break the chain.

—Jerry Seinfeld

To make that as easy as possible, Writing Analytics comes with a habit tracker and streak counter. And you don't even have to cross-off days. The app does that for you every time you finish a writing session.

6. Earn Awards

Writing projects can feel like a real slog, particularly during the middle when you've been writing for a few months. The novelty and initial excitement have worn off, but you're still months away from your goal.

That's why we added awards to Writing Analytics — a way to celebrate hitting important milestones on your writing journey. Collect up to 46 different awards while your write to mark successes big and small along the way.

For hitting your goal every day of the week, you'll get the Perfect Week award. After a particularly gruelling day of writing, you'll earn You're a Machine.

The final boss of awards in Writing Analytics is Mastery. You'll earn this one for spending 10,000 hours putting words on a page.

7. Share your progress with friends

Are you a member of a mastermind or writing group? With Writing Analytics, you can share your progress with friends or fellow writers by sending them a private link to your project dashboard. They'll be able to see your goal and your progress. They won't get access to your drafts — these always remain private.

That way, you can keep each other in check and make sure you're hitting the goals you originally set for yourself. Learn more about how Writing Analytics helps you stay accountable.

Take the First Step

Building a sustainable writing routine can be a career-defining step. It isn't easy. But if you succeed, it will change what you can achieve as a writer. Writing Analytics is here to help you with the process.

Sign up for a free 14-day trial and start writing today.