Many novel-writing software programs and apps include word count tracking as a feature, with varying levels of customization, and other writers use good old spreadsheets, but if you want more detailed stats or fancier graphs, or if you’re interested in tracking multiple projects at once, a dedicated word count tracker might be the best choice for you.
Here are a few of the options:
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My current favorite tool for writing is a program called Obsidian.
Obsidian is completely free for personal and commercial use, with a few optional paid add-ons, and it describes itself as a “private and flexible writing app that adapts to the way you think.”
The privacy was one of the things that initially appealed to me. Obsidian is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android, and it’s stored entirely on the device you download it on, not uploaded to the cloud. If you do need it to sync between devices, it offers a Sync feature for a monthly fee, or you can save the files (which are simple Markdown files) to your own cloud storage service of choice.
I value Obsidian’s privacy even more now that some companies are using user-created content to train AI. However, as I’ve gotten more familiar with the app, Obsidian’s flexibility has become another one of my favorite things about it. The core features of the app enable numerous different use-cases, including:
In addition to these core features, Obsidian has a large community of developers who’ve created, to date, more than 2,000 plugins that extend its functionality in ways both simple and complex, including some that I (a writer with limited programming skills) couldn’t even have imagined were possible. Obsidian’s community has also created themes and templates that extend its functionality even more.
As a result, Obsidian can be used by writers on just about any level, from a slightly fancier Notepad or TextEdit to an increasingly full-featured Scrivener alternative.
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Stephen King is one of the most popular and prolific authors of all time, and if you love to write fiction of any genre, whether the most bone-chilling horror, the sweetest and fluffiest romance, or the most artfully written and insightful literary fiction, his book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (Amazon | Bookshop) should be on your bookshelves. The first half is a fascinating memoir; the second, full of tried-and-true advice on the writing life.
King’s “Great Commandment” for would-be writers is this: “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”
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Writing on computers, tablets, and mobile phones offers many advantages over traditional pen-and-paper or typewriters, but they also come with far more distractions in the form of notifications popping up to interrupt your writing, time-wasting games and social media just a click or two away, and of course, the nearly infinite temptations of the internet at large.
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Film and theater scripts use special formatting that’s more complicated than the formatting used for novels and most other forms of prose. If you have your sights set on the lights of Broadway or the Hollywood hills, specialized scriptwriting software will save you a lot of time and even more headaches.
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When thinking of writing a novel, the first kind of software that most people think of is word processing software like Microsoft Word or LibreOffice. Word processors provide all the basic functions a novelist needs to get words down on paper. Many novels are completely planned, written, and edited using them. However, word processors are often intended primarily for business writers, students, and others who write mostly for practical purposes. Features like text formatting and spell check are helpful for things like business letters or student essays, but writing a novel requires more than just putting words down on paper. Novels require careful planning and organization throughout the writing process. This is where specialized novel-writing software can be helpful.
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