It only takes a minute to join Write-Track. On the homepage click ‘JOIN’. Fill in the form by creating a unique username – add your email, full name and a password, and select your privacy setting. You can also join using your Facebook or Twitter accounts if you’d prefer. Click 'JOIN' and you’re in.
Once you have joined you will be taken to your profile page where you can add a profile picture and personalised background, write a biography, add your location, website, and confirm your privacy settings. You can edit your profile at any time by clicking on the three dots on your profile page.
Go to your goals screen by clicking on the pencil icon. You already have one goal set under ‘My Goals’ – it is called ‘Track my writing’ and is explained below. Go to ‘Add new goal’ and you’ll see two ways to set goals: ‘I’d like to set my own goal’ and ‘Give me some options’. Click on either of these boxes to start setting goals.
‘Track my writing’ is the simplest way into goal setting. This feature lets you ‘track’ each time you write so you can build up a history of how often you write. Click on the box ‘Track my writing’ and it brings up a tracking screen. All you have to do is click on the yellow star to log that you have written today. If you’d like to make notes, you can add them to the box ‘How did it go?’ You can also record what you wrote and how long for by using the drop down options.
You can set whatever goal you like. In the goal screen, go to ‘Add new goal’ and click on ‘I’d like to set my own goal’. Type your goal into the text box. It sometimes helps to use a goal someone has already set – there is a list of similar and suggested goals underneath the search box.
In the goal screen, go to ‘Add new goal’ and click on ‘Give me some options’. There are three different ways to set goals, you can: • Choose the amount you’d like to write. • Choose the length of time you’d like to write. • Choose how often you’d like to write. Just select which option by you’d like ticking the box and pick from the drop down lists. You can use a combination of all three options if that helps. Click ‘SET GOAL’ when you’re done.
Once a goal is set all you have to do to change the name is select the goal from the goals page or your profile. On the top right hand of the black goal box are three dots – click on them to bring up your edit options. Click ‘Edit goal’ to change the goal name. You can also give your goal a nickname and include a long description.
It’s important to keep your goals realistic so from time to time you’ll have to edit them. In fact we encourage editing! Select the goal you want to edit from the goals page or your profile. At the top right hand of the black goal box are three dots – click on them to bring up your edit options. Here you can edit your goal, set it as dream, say when you’ve achieved it, archive it and if it really isn’t working for you delete it. You can also change the privacy setting for the goal.
If you don’t want anyone to know what you’re working on you can make your goals hidden. Whether you want to get an agent, land a primetime TV slot or win the Nobel Prize for literature then no one need know the level of your ambition. Just create your goal and edit it to alter the privacy. 'Public' means your goal can be seen by others, 'Private' goals can only be seen by people you approve to follow you, and 'Hidden' means no one can see them.
Sometimes goals just don’t work – if that’s the case, bin it. Just select your goal, bring up the edit menu by clicking on the three dots, and select delete this goal. A message box will appear asking: 'Are you sure you want to delete this goal? If you click "OK" this cannot be undone! To retain your goal history, click "Cancel" then archive your goal.' If you want to delete, click ‘OK’ and your goal will be deleted and no record will exist.
Archiving a goal means you can retain all your history – even goals you didn't achieve can teach you something. We suggest that if you’ve tracked against a goal that you archive rather than delete it. Remember archived goals can be private or hidden so no-one need ever know you set that goal.
All writers are dreamers - we create worlds for ourselves and others. We also have ambitions for our writing which at times seem fanciful – perhaps because they are a long way in the future or because they’re a secret desire. If one of your goals is very ambitious, is long term, or has a distant deadline, you can set it as a dream. Set the goal as usual, then select edit, to bring up the options. Select ‘Is this goal a dream’. It will be displayed separately from your goals. Even if your dream is open ended and might not feel concrete and achievable you can still post notes and track against it. You might find it useful to set a smaller goal to measure your progress towards your dream. For example your dream might be to get a novel published, but the goal might be to complete a first draft.
When you join Write-Track a goal has already been set for you called ‘Track my writing’. It’s description tells you ‘Start tracking how often you write by clicking the star below’. The star is grey, when you click or swipe it will turn yellow. That’s all there is to tracking! A note will appear in your timeline to say you have tracked and it will be recorded in your calendar. You can also make notes and record what you wrote and for how long.
If you didn’t do any writing you can undo a track. Just select the goal and you will be taken to the goal page. Scroll down your timeline to find the date you want to undo, click on the three dots to edit, and select ‘Delete this track’. A pop up will confirm you’re sure you want to delete. If you haven’t be able to track but want to make a note about your goal, for example because you’re editing rather than writing, just use the status update box at the top of the timeline.
Notes are a really useful part of tracking your progress. Select the goal and there are two ways to make notes against that particular goal. First, you can make a general note about the goal. There’s no need to track - just type into the status update box directly underneath goal name and tracking star. Second, you can make notes about your track, for example about what you wrote, how much and perhaps where, when and how you felt. Track your goal by clicking on the star. Click on ‘How did it go?’ and write in the text box. You can also use the drop down menus to record how much you wrote or how long for.
The timeline shows a history of your activity. On a goal page it will list all your tracks and the notes you made, also if people have ‘liked’ or commented on what you have done. On your profile it will show all the activity for all your goals. You can review your writing journey by reading your notes to see if any patterns emerge, this will help you gain an understanding of your writing practice to set new goals or edit your current ones.
You can track your writing once a day. You will have set your timezone when you first joined so the days are accurately set and match your calendar.
Some writers work best late at night where a writing session crosses midnight and into the next day. It you’re a night writer, you can select ‘night owl’ in your profile and you’ll get another four hours on your day.
There are lots of ways you can view your tracking history. In both the profile and goals screens there’s a list of ‘My goals’ on the right hand side. Each goal displays the total number of tracks. By clicking on a goal and going to the tracking screen you can see a summary of your activity against that goal. In your profile there is a timeline of your activity for all your goals. Finally, there is a calendar that shows which days you’ve tracked.
We don’t want to interrupt your writing, so if you weren’t able to track or didn’t want to you can do it afterwards, even if several days or weeks have passed. There are two ways to retrospectively track. 1. Go to your goals page and change the date – track against your goal as normal. 2. Go to the calendar and click on the date you want to track – track against your goal as normal.
The calendar shows a summary of what days you tracked. If you want to find out what goals you tracked just hover over a day and it will show a summary, or click on a day to see the goal stack activity for that day. We’re going to do further development of the calendar so let us know what you might find helpful.
It can be lonely sitting at your desk writing, so if you’d like to be sociable you can find out what’s going on in the ‘Community’ section of the website. Here you can find out about other writers, follow them, see what their goals are, ‘like’ and comment on their progress, and also see a summary of what other users have been up to. We’re going to do more work on this over the coming weeks so let us know what you think might be useful.
In ‘Profile’ and ‘Community’ there’s a search to ‘Find fellow writers’. Just click on it and add your search terms to the box, you can search on user name, full name, email and even location.
Write-Track is a responsive website that works on desktop, mobile and tablet computer. You can use it through your browser or download the app to your smart phone or tablet – it has been designed to work on both IPhone and Android. To access the mobile app go to https://m.write-track.co.uk/ on your smart phone or tablet internet browser. You can download the start icon to make it easy to track each day – just follow the download instructions. It will also be available on the App Store and Android Marketplace soon.
Write-Track is a website and as such you have to be connected to the internet to track your writing. However, the mobile web app works with slow GPRS connections. If you don’t have access to the internet you can track your writing retrospectively so you have an accurate record.
You can set the privacy of your profile and also your goals. The options are: • Public – your profile and goals can be seen by others. • Private – your profile and/or goals can only be seen by people you approve to follow you. • Hidden – no one need ever know you are on Write-Track. Please note the default privacy setting is public. If you edit your profile you will always be asked to confirm privacy so please check it is set correctly. Remember you can set your profile but your goals to private or hidden. To read more about privacy please read our privacy policy.
Write-Track is a secure website –the web address starts with ‘https’ to show it has an SSL certificate and the highest levels of security. All the data is stored on a secure server and your data will not be shared. Find out more about security by reading the terms and conditions. We do not ask for any personal information – all you need to join is an email address, Twitter or Facebook account. You can even create a nom de plume to follow the grand tradition of anonymous writers!
You can stop using Write-Track at any time and unsubscribe to all the emails and notifications. You can change your profile to hidden and delete your goals. If you want to permanently leave email us and we will delete all your data. Email us on [email protected].
The weekly email provides a summary of your activity including what goals you tracked and your achievements, as well as notifications like writers you followed and comments from them. It also provides useful hints and tips about improving your writing habits and setting goals, as well as links to the latest blog posts.
You can stop getting the weekly email and instead get your notifications though the website. Just click the unsubscribe button on the email and update your preferences.
It is easy to change your password. Go to the ‘Settings’ icon at the top right hand of the screen and select ‘Change password’ from the drop down menu. Put your email into the box and you’ll be sent a link to reset your password. If you have any problems, just email us on [email protected].
We all forget passwords so we’ve made it easy to set a new one. When you go to the sign in page select the link ‘Forgotten your password?’ Put your email into the box and you’ll be sent a link to reset your password. If you have any problems, just email us on [email protected].
The settings menu is at the top right hand of the screen – it looks like a little cog. Click on it to see the drop down menu. The menu includes: My profile, Notifications, Reminders, Edit profile, Change password, and Sign out.
You can view notifications by clicking on the envelope icon or through the settings cog. You get notifications about following you and any comments on your goals.
Reminders are an incredibly useful to keep you on track, by reminding you to write or to track your writing so you have an accurate record of what you’ve done. Go to the settings menu and select reminders, just tick a goal you’d like to set a reminder for, the frequency of your reminder and whether you’d like it by email or as a notification on the website.
