Word Count

Track your writing progress with detailed word count stats.

Word Count Dashboard

Access the Word Count Dashboard from the toolbar or menu. It gives you a bird's-eye view of your progress:

  • Total words — the combined word count across all drafted scenes.
  • Per-character breakdown — how many words each POV character has. A bar chart shows the relative balance between characters.
  • Per-section stats — word counts grouped by plot point section for each character.

Word count goals

Set a word count goal for your project to track your progress toward a target manuscript length.

  • Project goal — set a total target (e.g., 90,000 words). A progress bar shows how close you are.
  • Character goals — optionally set per-character targets if you want to balance POV word counts (e.g., “Frodo should have ~30,000 words”).

Goals are shown as progress bars in the Word Count Dashboard and as a subtle indicator in the toolbar.

💡 Tip

For a standard fantasy novel, 80,000–120,000 words is typical. For a multi-POV novel, try dividing your target roughly by the number of POV characters, then adjust for major vs. minor characters.

Per-scene word count

Every scene in the Editor shows a live word count and estimated reading time in the bottom status bar. This updates as you type.

In the Braided View's Table mode, you can add a word count column to see counts for every scene at a glance and sort by length.

Reading time

Braidr estimates reading time based on an average reading speed of 250 words per minute. This is shown:

  • Per-scene in the Editor status bar.
  • Per-chapter in the Word Count Dashboard.
  • For the total project on the Dashboard.

ℹ️ Info

Word counts include only drafted text from the Editor, not outlines, synopses, or notes. If a scene is in “Outline” status with no draft, it contributes 0 words.