A Guide to Novlr Analytics
Novlr has an advanced dashboard of data for you to analyse your writing progress, productivity, and style. The two main ways to quantify progress are with Words Written and Word Counts, which are defined for you here.
In your dashboard, you can select whether to show these stats for a particular novel or across all novels.
Words Written
Words Written is the sum of all words added (regardless of how many might have been taken away) in a selected time period.
This includes words that were:
- typed in directly
- pasted in
It does not include words written in your notes section or words you have imported.
We will also show you Words Deleted , which means the number of words removed in the selected time period.
If you took your Words Written and minus the Words Deleted in the same time period, you would get your change in Word Count.
Word count
Word Count is the number of words in chapter or novel at a particular point in time.
You can track your word counts over time in the charts, which is a great way to see your progress.
The difference in your word count from one day to the next will always be your words written minus words deleted.
words written – words deleted = word count
Example calculations
Example 1
500 words typed in to a chapter, 300 words subsequently edited from the same chapter.
- Written today is 500.
- Deleted today is 300.
- Word count is +200 on previous day
Let’s break this down:
| I start the day with 0 words in my chapter | Words written today: 0 Words deleted today: 0 Word count: 0 |
| I write 500 words over the course of the day | Words written today: 500 Words deleted today: 0 Word count: 500 |
| I delete 300 words from my chapter | Words written today: 500 Words deleted today: 300 Word count: 200 |
Example 2
100 words added to a new chapter today, 400 words edited out of an old chapter.
- Written today is 100
- Deleted today is 400
- Word count is -300 on the previous day
Let’s break this down:
| I start the day with 0 words in my new chapter | Words written today: 0 Words deleted today: 0 Word count: 0 |
| I write 100 words in my new chapter over the course of the day | Words written today: 100 Words deleted today: 0 Word count: 100 |
| I delete 400 words from a chapter I wrote a few days ago | Words written today: 100 Words deleted today: 400 Word count: -300 |
Example 3
100 words written at 4am. Big edit at 10am removing 1000 words from the novel over a few chapters. Big write at 7pm of 500 words. Then mini edit chopping 50 of those words out.
- Written today is 600
- Deleted today is -1050
- Word count is -450 on the previous day
Let’s break this down:
| I write 100 words in a new chapter at 4am | Words written today: 100 Words deleted today: 0 Word count: 100 |
| I begin editing at 10am, deleting 1000 words from various chapters | Words written today: 100 Words deleted today: 1000 Word count: -900 |
| At 7pm I add 500 words to my newest chapter | Words written today: 600 Words deleted today: 1000Word count: -400 |
| I edit my newly written words, deleting a total of 50 words | Words written today: 600 Words deleted today: 1050 Word count: -450 |
Example 4
I start the day with 10,000 words in my project.
I write 2000 words over the course of the day.
I import 1000 words.
I paste 300 words.
I delete a chapter I wrote on a previous day that contains 3000 words.
I also delete 500 of the 2000 words I wrote today.
I write 4000 words in my notes.
- Written today is 2300
- Deleted today is 3500
- Word count is -200 on the previous day
Let’s break this down:
| I start the day with 10,000 words in my project | Words written today: 0 Words deleted today: 0 Word count: 10,000 |
| I write 2,000 words over the course of the day | Words written today: 2,000 Words deleted today: 0 Word count: 12,000 |
| I import 1000 words | Words written today: 2,000 Words deleted today: 0 Word count: 13,000 |
| I paste 300 words | Words written today: 2,300 Words deleted today: 0 Word count: 13,300 |
| I delete a chapter I wrote on a previous day that contains 3000 words | Words written today: 2,300 Words deleted today: 3000 Word count: 10,300 |
| I also delete 500 of the 2000 words I wrote today | Words written today: 2,300 Words deleted today: 3,500 Word count: 9,800 |
| I write 4000 words in my notes. * notes are not included in your words written or word count totals | Words written today: 2,300 Words deleted today: 1,200 Word count: 9,800 |
Time spent
Time spent is calculated by analysing changes that are saved to the server. If there is no activity (saved changes) in a 5-minute period, it will stop counting.
Time spent will always be an estimate, since it is not possible to know when you are “working on your novel” but not necessarily typing directly, and we have to assume some period of inactivity around typed words. Time spent will give you an indication of how much time you have spent in Novlr writing and is a good way to see how time is spent across different projects and from one month to the next.
Known issues
Because our platform has had a lot of improvement since we started, users with older accounts may see discrepancies on their graphs for all projects with chapters created before July 19, 2018. Unfortunately, this will also affect the accuracy of the graph for all novels and is due to a technological change we made to how chapter data was stored.
There are also some edge cases where your data may be counted twice. Examples of this might include moving words in and around your notes and chapters.
For example: if you delete 100 words from one chapter and paste them into a different chapter, this will count twice towards your words written total, but your word count will remain correct.
Another variation of the same would be if you delete 100 words from one chapter and pasted them into your notes, but paste them back into your chapter at a later date, this will also count twice towards your words written total, but your word count will remain correct.
We are also aware of an issue where the words written can become inaccurate when you type and delete words too quickly. We’re working on a fix for that, but you shouldn’t come across it at normal typing speeds.
If you notice any other errors or inaccuracies in your word count, please reach out via our chat, or email us at [email protected]
* Please note that with any new releases there is a period of testing required while we see how the update handles real-world volume and data. For this reason, Analytics should be considered in “Beta” while we work through some of these issues.
